Trying to Save Stores Downtown Washington bookstore Chapters celebrated its twentieth birthday yesterday, but the Washington Post notes the store is struggling to make it to the next birthday. Co-owners Terri Merz and Steve Moyer are pursuing an unusual strategy that could hold lessons for other independent stores: They want to sell the store to the nonprofit foundation Wordfest that they established in 2001 to sponsor the D.C. International Poetry Festival. The sums involved are quite modest. They need to raise approximately $80,000 to fund the purchase, and are hoping to elicit $50 contributions from 1,600 people. In order to […]