Well-Loved Avalon, NJ, Bookstore to Close, Marking the End of an Era

Shut out by potential customers who would sooner take a photo of the cover of a book with a plan to download it later and a dwindling customer base of print newspaper readers—the Paper Peddler will close its doors at the end of the month after 46 years.

Despite a wall-long wooden rack of magazines—220 titles—and newspapers from all over the region and world, the heart and soul of the store had always been the book department. That's where owner Craig Cunningham's girlfriend of more than 20 years, Deborah Martinelli, a former middle-school English teacher, presided over the heavily curated selection.