and another local bookstore goes down in flames

[Guest guest]

gettin harder and harder to find local bookstores

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, June 8, 2009

 

 

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" With nary a goodbye to the Gourmet Ghetto community that supported it for

years, " reports Bob Zagone, Black Oak Books in Berkeley closed May 31. (Zagone's

interest in reporting this news: His movie, " Read You Like a Book, " was shot in

the bookstore. The store may be closed, he says, but the DVD of the film allows

it eternal life.)

 

 

 

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Gary Cornell, one of a group of investors that bought it a year ago, paid off

the IRS and attempted to keep it open in hard times, said attempts to

renegotiate a lower rent failed. " We couldn't afford the rent, and the landlord

wasn't going to raise it, but wasn't going lower. " The investors " didn't care

about making a profit, but we couldn't keep losing money. "

 

" Bookstores can't afford to pay prime retail rent anymore. Amazon is just too

strong. When the state of California passed a bill - about a month ago - not to

charge tax on Amazon purchases, that was the final straw. " For a bookstore to

survive in this era, said Cornell, it's pretty much necessary for it to own its

real estate.

 

He said the investors are hoping " to buy a building on San Pablo and reopen in a

few months. ... There are no villains in this story except for the state

Legislature, who didn't want to tax Amazon sales. " Three staff members (of about

seven full-time) will keep their jobs, maintaining " a small retail presence out

of our warehouse. ... We're going to try to buy a building, we love books. We

have other businesses, too, we don't need this to make money. We just don't want

to lose any money. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For in a Republic, who is “the country� Is it the Government which is for

the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant—merely a

temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and

what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to

obey orders, not originate them.

Mark Twain

[Guest guest]

I do my part by " selling " my overflow to used bookstores. I probably

get a quarter each, maybe 50 cents for books they really want. In

credit. Another used bookstore gives me 10 cents each, if that. I

think of it as supporting the used book stores and helping me make

space for more books.

 

Did you notice the part at the end? " Three staff members (of about

seven full-time) will keep their jobs, maintaining 'a small retail

presence out of our warehouse. ... We're going to try to buy a

building, we love books.' " Seems the bookstores that remain are owned

by investors, maintain an online bookstore, and own their buildings.

One on this side of the bay, in addition to all that, also sells

memberships -- it closed and then some investors came forth to reopen

it.

 

At 7:26 AM -0700 6/8/09, fraggle wrote:

>gettin harder and harder to find local bookstores

>