Slender, bespectacled (it seems cheap to call him “bookish”) Sam Burton had his eye on the Elm City for the better part of a decade. But life got in the way — in the form of the birth of a child, and the opening of his first bookstore in 2009 in Hadley, Mass.
He called his store “Grey Matter Books” in recognition of the part of human physiology most impacted by books (which Burton called “the second-best form of information-transfer the world has ever devised”).
And as of this month, Burton is now an interstate entrepreneur, having opened his second Grey Matter Books at 264 York Street. His landlord, the Shops at Yale, hosted a ribbon-cutting Wednesday at the former Wawa Market. Mayor Toni N. Harp called Burton’s new shop “the destination for hard-to-find books and the readers who are looking for them.”
Grey Matter sells both new and used books, and the inviting space will soon be filled with some 15,000 titles selling for as little as a buck. Burton said his store, which is open daily, will also host readings and performances.
“I am excited to expand my business into New Haven,” Burton said. “I love being surrounded by so much art, culture and learning, and hope Grey Matter Books can become an integral component of it.”
“We are delighted to support entrepreneurs in opening up stores in New Haven,” said Lauren Zucker, Yale’s associate vice president for New Haven Affairs and University Properties, the university’s real-estate arm. Zucker has said University Properties works to strike a balance between locally owned retail and national chain retailers attractive to both students and suburban shoppers.
Earlier this week it was announced that women’s athletic apparel retailer Lululemon would open a 5,000-square-foot store on Broadway some time this summer, a space also owned and managed by University Properties.
Contact Michael C. Bingham at mbingham@newhavenbiz.com
