Free Republic

When San Francisco voters approved a minimum wage increase in the November election, Mayor Ed Lee sent what he called a loud and clear message to the nation: “We can give a well-deserved raise to our lowest-wage workers, and we can do it in a way that protects jobs and small business.” Yet a month after the initial phase of the increase took effect, Borderlands Books became the first business Sunday to cite The City’s higher minimum wage as the catalyst for its closure.The Valencia Street bookstore expects to clear its shelves and lay off employees by the end of...

An independent San Francisco bookstore says it will be closing its doors by March 31, despite having its best year ever in 2014. And it’s pointing at San Francisco’s newly enacted minimum wage law as the reason.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Independent bookstores have faced tough times for quite a while. In San Francisco, neighborhood businesses have been passionately protected, so it's hard to believe that an initiative passed by voters to raise the minimum wage is driving a Mission District bookstore out of business. San Francisco's minimum wage is currently $11.05 an hour. By July of 2018, the minimum wage in San Francisco will be $15 an hour. That increase is forcing Borderlands Bookstore to write its last chapter now. When actor Scott Cox took a job at Borderlands Books he didn't do it for the...

Borderlands Books, based in San Francisco, put a notice up on its website the other day that caught the attention of economist and IBD Brain Trust member Mark Perry. "Borderlands is Closing," the notice said.[snip] But as Perry points out, the reason Borderlands is closing isn't just because of Amazon.