After over 20 years of serving the city of Fullerton and Cal State Fullerton students, the family-owned Little Professor Book Center will be closing its doors this month. The last day to purchase books was Sept. 18.

The store not only sold books to CSUF students, but employed them as well.

“The majority of people on the floor were Cal State Fullerton students,” said Andrea Cervantes, a CSUF alumna who worked at the store.

Owner Susie Gorrie said the store was originally located on Kramer and Bradford Avenues. Co-owner Michael O’Connor confirmed they have been at their current location on Placentia Avenue for 20 years.

Gorrie said her parents began the store by selling standard books and magazines, until a music teacher requested that her father carry his books.

The music teacher was just the beginning. Ten more professors came to drop off their books soon after.

“We had some English teachers come over, and then we had some history teachers come over, and then we decided that we were too far from the campus. Once we moved over here, we got the liberal studies department, then we got American studies, then we got child adolescence,” Gorrie said.

Gorrie said things “really took off” because some professors stopped telling the Titan Shops what books they were using. The Little Professor Book Center was able to carry books that the campus store did not have.

“You would go over to the campus bookstore, and you would walk down to history and English and there would be no books,” Gorrie said. “They were so fed up with their prices and the customer service, so then we just really took off.”

Gorrie said they used to occupy more space, but had to make adjustments.

“We gave back that portion to the landlord to reduce our rent so that we can stay afloat for awhile, because it was just too expensive to have both spaces,” she said.

O’Connor said they had a monthly rent fee of $15,000, and that closing the store was not a recent thought.

“We were thinking about it for the last two years, probably because you could feel the impact of Amazon and Chegg, and the space was so large,” O’Connor said.

Gorrie said no one has agreed to take over the space the store occupies, and that a wholesaler will come to package the boxes while she and O’Connor take care of the rest. Students can come purchase course packets, which she said is materials made by professors, until the last day of this month.

“No one’s gonna continue what we were doing,” O’Connor said.

Despite the store closing, Gorrie said they had a good semester.

“We put everything at rental prices, so when you bought a book, it was at a rental price, but then you got to keep it, so it’s a win-win situation. (Students) don’t have to bring it back. They can sell it back to the campus, get money for it and have or keep the book,” Gorrie said.

Gorrie said the reaction she has received made the store’s termination difficult.

“I’ve gotten students hug me goodbye, and wishing me the best of luck, and ‘Oh my god, you can’t leave.’ It was really tough to hear that from a lot of students,” Gorrie said.

Jazmin Jauche, a first-year public health major, said she wishes she could have made purchases at the store.

“It’s kind of upsetting, because now we have to get them somewhere else, and they could be pricier than it was there,” Jauche said.

Gorrie said students and faculty alike have appreciated the store.

“You didn’t hear that until like two weeks ago, when they found out we were closing. That’s when I heard it all day long,” she said.

O’Connor said the total number of books was in the “tens of thousands.”

“We probably served over a million customers, because we’re averaging at least 50,000 customers a year. In over 20 years, I think that’s a million kids,” O’Connor said.