Borderlands Books will stay open

[drjenkins]

Borderlands Books will stay open, thanks to cash from supporters
http://boingboing.net/2015/02/21/bor...l-stay-op.html

Borderlands Books was going to shut down after San Francisco's new minimum wage made it unprofitable. Thanks to user support, and $1000 memberships, they expect to stay open until at least spring 2016.

[Ravensknight]

*shakes head*

[jgaiser]

So the public is *paying* the owner to keep it open? I agree with Ravensknight *shakes head*

[eschwartz]

Well, if they truly feel that that bookstore provides an irreplaceable service, who are we to argue...

[theducks]

Think of it as a "cover charge" to enter

Pre marked prices is a bad idea when the costs (rent and wages) are so varying across the land. Retail rents in the city are over $10 a foot. Some places, they are under a dollar

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by theducks

Pre marked prices is a bad idea when the costs (rent and wages) are so varying across the land. Retail rents in the city are over $10 a foot. Some places, they are under a dollar

Ditto with other costs: the cost of living in SF is about double that of Nashville (for one) and Manhattan is almost triple. A lot of the resurgent Indie bookstores are surviving based on cost control; choosing affordable sites, better inventory and floorspace management, and even part-time employees.

I hope they survive, though those memberships sound a wee bit pricey.
I fear they face a grim challenge, though: about half of SF book sales these days are ebook. That brings a double whammy in that, as we all know, ebook buyers tend to shift their purchases from pbook to ebook very strongly--reducing the effective pool of potential buyers--and, worse, a lot of the newer SF releases are ebook first or ebook only, which reduces the appeal of the specialty shops.

Back in the day, my favorite bookstore was an SF&F specialty store packed floor to ceiling with "everything" in print in the genre, including a large assortment of foreign editions of titles not readily available in local editions. That amounted to a few thousand titles. Today, Amazon stocks over 100K titles in Kindle SF alone. That is a tough act to follow...

[theducks]

I just looked at Nashville housing rents

10 to 1 difference, easy
The SF area is in the top 11 US rental$

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by theducks

I just looked at Nashville housing rents

10 to 1 difference, easy
The SF area is in the top 11 US rental$

Easily.
Possibly top 3, depending on the specifics.

Basically, $15 in San Fran goes about as far as $8 in Nashville and maybe $7 in Texas.

Here:
http://www.infoplease.com/business/e...us-cities.html

[tompe]

$100 memberships.

[drjenkins]

Originally Posted by tompe

$100 memberships.

For that $100 you "get priority seating at the store's many events".

If the special events are that special, maybe they should have sold tickets. Then the membership would be like a season pass.

[fjtorres]

Think of it as a social club with a coffee bar and book racks.
A place where the gentry can gather, free from the rabble.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Think of it as a social club with a coffee bar and book racks.
A place where the gentry can gather, free from the rabble.

Patrons of the arts. Good for them. Money where their mouth is and all that.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ApK

Patrons of the arts. Good for them. Money where their mouth is and all that.

For a while.
Let's see how long it lasts.

(And shouldn't it be "patrons of b&m"? )

[theducks]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

For a while.
Let's see how long it lasts.

(And shouldn't it be "patrons of b&m"? )

(un-reinforced) B&M is not a good idea in The City

Glass and Steel (my how Market street has changed )

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by theducks

(un-reinforced) B&M is not a good idea in The City

Glass and Steel (my how Market street has changed )

I'd be a bit less skeptical if they were based in SiliValley rather than SanFran.