Borderlands Bookstore (via their website)

Now I’ve heard everything! Earlier this week, San Francisco’s Borderlands Books announced that they will be closing their doors no later than March 31^st, due to an increase in the city’s minimum wage requirements—from $10.74 an hour to $15.00 by 2018. The change is being implemented gradually—minimum wage is currently $11.05; it will jump to $12.25 in May.

The struggle to compete with online retailers, the growing popularity of e-readers, and the fallout from the recession were all (familiar) factors in the beloved bookstore’s decision to close, but owner Alan Beatts suggests this was the last straw: “Really this was just one thing, which is the increase in minimum wage.”

Their website states:

Although all of us at Borderlands support the concept of a living wage in principal and we believe that it’s possible that the new law will be good for San Francisco—Borderlands Books as it exists is not a financially viable business if subject to that minimum wage.

Beatts reports that while last year was the store’s best year for business (“We were not in debt, sales were meeting expenses and even allowing a small profit”), they would still have to increase sales by a walloping 20% in order to accommodate the 39% bump in payroll.

The management feels pretty sure their hands are tied, but on Thursday, February 12^th, they’re inviting patrons into the Borderlands cafe to discuss other options: “Although we do not believe that any viable alternative exists, we also think that we have a very smart and imaginative group of customers. It is not impossible that we’ve missed a potential solution.”

Meanwhile, they ask their supporters to drop by the store, say “Hi,” and help them get rid of some books—they’ve got “an awful lot of damn good ones.”

This is a sad state of affairs indeed. Can’t we go back to blaming it on Amazon?