Bookstore’s exit is a loss for Nobscot

While book stores and cafes are commonplace, Annie’s has played a crucial role to residents of this neighborhood in northern Framingham, they say. Far from the bustle of the town’s commercial strips along Route 9 and the even more distant downtown, Nobscot encompasses swaths of residential areas and pastoral farmland that offer sparse retail options.

Annie’s sits near the intersection of Edgell Road and Water Street in the Nobscot Shopping Center. The center, with its art deco sign, may be the most recognizable symbol of the area. But over the past decade, stores in the plaza have been closing, leaving residents to wonder how they can spark more economic development in the area.

Annie’s was one of the stores hanging on, and residents were beneficiaries. From the time Nobscot Neighbors was formed to advocate for the neighborhood’s interests, Ashton let the group meet in his shop for free.

In fact, he offered the space to anyone who asked: political candidates seeking votes, literary and writing clubs, a knitting group.

“I lived here for seven years, and I didn’t even know my next-door neighbors,’’ he said of life before Annie’s. “This was a sea change. All of a sudden, it was building something that was local.’’

Ashton, 65, bought the shop with his wife, Jackie Kuhl-Ashton, in 2000. At the time, Annie’s trafficked mainly in used romance novels. Ashton and his wife built up the mystery section and other genres, added seating, and got a permit to serve coffee and snacks.

When his wife died in 2004, Ashton took over as sole proprietor, a job that requires a seven-day work week.

For the first few years the Ashtons owned the store, sales were rising. But the past three years saw declining revenues.

Ashton doesn’t know exactly what caused this year’s book sales to plummet 30 percent from last year’s sales. He said it could be the seemingly never-ending sewer and water main repair that makes getting to his store from routes 30 and 9 a slow obstacle course of trenches, police, and heavy equipment. It could be the closure of the plaza’s anchor store. It could be the instant gratification of buying books online, he said, or it could be any combination of the above.