39 year old book store appeals to customers for 'influx of cash'

[Liberal_in_LA]

Modern Times Books in Crisis

By Rigoberto Hernandez

The 39-year-old Modern Times Bookstore on Valencia Street urgently needs an "influx of cash" to pay its bills, the store's owners told customers in a recent letter.

"Modern Times is facing a financial crisis and urgently needs an influx of cash if we are going to be able to pay our bills through the summer," the letter reads. "The cold, hard economic facts are these: We need to sell a certain amount everyday in order to break even on costs - taxes, rent, payroll, utilities, insurance, and new books - and right now we are not doing this."

Over the last decade, the Mission's independent bookstores, many of which have been here for decades, have struggled against one new competitor after another, including mega-bookstores, online sales and now e-books.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inthemission/detail?entry_id=70369&tsp=1#ixzz0wzDExosY

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Barnes and Noble is up for sale..

...Borders is re-floor planning it stores to carry ~40% less inventory in books....

The industry's problems are going right up the food chain to the giants.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. Ironic because Barns & Noble, Borders and other large chains drove out the independents

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. Happens in retail all the time....

...going back to A&P in food, and in dry goods the rise in late 19th c. of department stores.

It's one circle of life Disney hasn't got a song about, yet.

[NeedleCast]

4. Portable Readers will probably be the death knell for print in general

I don't think it'll happen soon, or even in the next 20 years, but it'll happen.