‘A gut punch’: Two decades-old San Francisco bookshops to close

SF Gate ^ | March 21, 2023 | By Ariana Bindman

[cp124]

Embrace the suck. Own nothing, be happy.

[llevrok]

It’s where vagrants, junkies and gang members go to retire

[Grampa Dave]

How to do, “Free shopping in California!”

[Rummyfan]

Earlier this month, The Magazine, a 50-year-old gay bookstore in the Tenderloin specializing in "ephemera and erotica," announced that it plans to shut down in 2023.

Maybe they should expand their target demographic.

[dakine]

A used books store two blocks from my childhood home closed recently.

Had been there under the same family since 1948.

Times and demographics change.

King’s books on Lafayette is still going strong:

https://www.johnkingbooksdetroit.com/

[CIB-173RDABN]

Bonnie Stuppin, one of the owners of Alexander Book Company, said the SoMa bookstore will likely shutter toward the end of April after 32 years of service. The reason, she says, is because downtown San Francisco offices aren’t nearly as packed as they used to be.

---

There was a time I would visit a bookstore at least once a week, but I don’t think I have been inside a book store in over ten years. Not that I stopped reading, but because I can get almost any book on line and most free! All of the classic books are on line (you may have to search but they are there).

Getting up there in years I have been slowly “de cluttering” my home (so someone else won’t have to do it). I gave away over 99% of my extensive library and now only have a few hardbound books left on the shelve.

I think the reason for closure is true to a degree but it is only a small part, the real change is why get a book to carry around when with a kindle or smart phone you can carry your library?

[Myrddin]

When I lived in San Diego, I took advantage of the bookstores at UCSD and SDSU to find interesting text books specified for the current term courses. I moved to Pocatello, ID in 2000 and continued that practice at the ISU bookstore and a 3rd party college bookstore across the street. Post-COVID, the 3rd party store closed and the text books can no longer be browsed by walk-in customers. You have to be a student signed up for courses. The store staff fetches the titles for your course. A disappointing morph in college bookstore practice. There are shelves with contemporary offerings that are not course specific and not sequestered from walk-in customers. Frankly, I can peruse those titles and buy much cheaper via Amazon.

[dfwgator]

Reading is for fags, anyway.

[Myrddin]

I buy a lot of technical titles for domain knowledge in software engineering. On a given contract, I might need 10 or more books to cover unusual requirements. For a while, I purchased paper books and had a full shelf and home and a select set at my employer provided office. Along the way, some of my books in my employer provided office sprouted legs. Gone forever. I stopped bringing paper books to work. Instead, I purchased e-books in PDF format and made DVD or Bluray disks with my titles. Less weight to carry. Searchable. Easier to protect from theft.

I'm turning 67 this year. Like you, I need to begin the process of shedding unnecessary contents of my 3900 sq ft house. There is way too much stuff here.

[CIB-173RDABN]

For a while, I purchased paper books and had a full shelf and home and a select set at my employer provided office.

---

Been there done that. I was a service technician for over 30 years and collected every manual I could. At one point I had book shelves in my garage along one wall full of technical manuals.

Like you as soon as they became available in a digital format I got a copy, and then there came a day I no longer needed the hard copies (I was fortunate that there was a museum that came and took all the hard copies for their collection).

[moovova]

I hope it's not my "special" store...

[buwaya]

Alexander’s, just off Market St, was my recourse after the great Staceys closed in 2009.

A tragedy.

[minnesota_bound]

Project Gutenberg is a library of over 70,000 free eBooks
https://www.gutenberg.org/

[lodi90]

University oriented bookstores use to have a discount table with scholarly books for a couple bucks. That’s all gone now, too.

[fwdude]

Honestly, 32 years is not THAT long to be in business.