Updated as of 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 18 to include map

Persnickety Books is leaving downtown Burlington and moving into a new location due to an increase in rent cost, according to co-owner of Persnickety Books Ian Baltutis. 

Persnickety Books will be temporarily closing at the end of this week and plans to reopen by the beginning of March. Baltutis said an increase in rent has forced them to find a new home. Baltutis purchased Persnickety Books in 2019 from its former owners. 

“We were not going to be able to pay what our landlord wanted to charge us for the lease going forward, and so we’re at a make or break point where we had to decide either do we close the store or do we move it to a new location,” Baltutis said. 



The new store, located at 703 E Davis St., is “comparable” in size to the space they’re in now but has a much different layout. In its current space there are three floors, with the third floor featuring an art gallery, and a coffee bar on the main floor. The new building’s main floor is about 5,000 sq. ft., about twice the size of the main floor they have now. Baltutis said he’s excited to see how Persnickety will change with the new space. 

“I think it's really an opportunity for Persnickety books to redefine itself as more of this third space that we’ve become as a business,” Baltutis said. “While people look at us as a retail business filled with books, we’re really more of a community resource, a place where people come together, gather to share ideas, to learn to inspire each other.”

As Persnickety prepares for the move, Baltutis said the community’s support has made the moving process much easier.

“Thanks to the community support and the number of volunteers we’ve got signed up, we’re really optimistic that the whole move process may just be about a week and a half,” Baltutis said. “We’ll wrap things up here on the 22nd and 23rd, and then we’re hoping to be at least soft opening the new location on March 1st.”



Persnickety Books first opened in the downtown district in 2017, but it moved around the corner to expand the store’s offerings in 2019. Baltutis was a part of the move into its current building. After six years in that space, Baltutis said he is sad to leave the space he and others have worked hard to create. 

“There’s a warmth and a lot of energy we’ve put into curating this space,” Baltutis said. “It’s been an evolution over six years. We're just finding the right spot for this genre, or this piece of art or this gathering space, and we’re going to have to relearn all of that in the new space.” 

Baltutis stressed the importance of having spaces like Persnickety Books for the community to gather and connect.

“In these tumultuous times, being able to walk into a comforting, familiar, and warm bookstore and be among community is all that much more important,” Baltutis said.