Posted on 02/04/2015 4:14:05 PM PST by grundle
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 March after struggling to compete with online book sales and a national shift to electronic readers, owner Alan Beatts said.
But San Francisco’s minimum wage increase to $15 by 2018 was the final straw for Borderlands.
“Really this was just one thing, which is the increase in minimum wage,” Beatts said of the closure. “There were folks in here crying yesterday, both customers and staff.”
As of Jan. 1, The City’s minimum wage is $11.05 an hour. It will increase to $12.25 in May before gradually reaching $15 by July 1, 2018.
The business would have to increase sales by at least 20 percent in order to stay afloat, which he said is unrealistic for a bookstore in San Francisco. Another implausible option for its survival would be for Beatts to reduce the staff to himself and another manager, who would each have to work five to six days per week.
“If there were any reasonable way I thought I could stay open in the face of this minimum wage increase, I’d do it,” said Beatts. “I can’t change my prices, they’re written on the backs of the books.”
Last year was Borderlands best year for business, with sales “even allowing a small profit.” Beatts was able to pay himself $28,000 and employ six people.
“In the business of words, nobody does it for the money,” he said.
The bookstore moved to the Valencia Street corridor in 2000 to escape increasing rent prices at its previous location in Hayes Valley.
“I have no problem with the lease,” said Beatts, adding that he has a positive relationship with his landlords. “I have seven years remaining on the lease here and ten years remaining on the lease for the cafe.”
Beatts plans to keep that cafe, which is next to the bookstore, open. Unlike with the books he sells, he said he can change and inflate the prices of his coffee and other offerings.
Over the years, nearby Valhalla Books has printed fliers to advertise all of the bookstores in the Mission district. Lately, however, owner Joe Marchione has limited the number of fliers he prints to 20 copies because stores keep closing.
Just over a week ago, Marchione announced the closure of his own bookstore, the single-person operation he has run since the 1990s.
“It’s almost impossible to compete with the folks online when you have the overhead of a brick-and-mortar store,” he said. “It’s the equivalent of opening a horse-and-buggy store at the time that automobiles were invented.”
The bookstore is expected to host a public meeting in its cafe at 866 Valencia St. at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 to answer questions and discuss alternatives to its closure.
“Overall I think [the minimum wage increase] may be very good for San Francisco,” said Beatts. “We’re a subset of a subset that are having negative effects from this.”
Remember about a year back obama told companies they could lay people off, but they weren’t allowed to say that it was because of obamacare...?
The robots at Amazon have a minimum wage of zero and operate 24 hours a day. Good job San Francisco.
So WHY didn't this cretinous woman raise her worker's wages herself if it's such a fantastic idea?
What a clueless butthole.
BTW, Cupcakes Royale is a fancy, upscale bakery that makes fine products. I've enjoyed them upon occasion.
They certainly aren't going to open a shop in places where you know, lower class "little people" go.
The "little people" go to Donutland, not Cupcakes Royale.
From their about page:
“We love books. They’re our friends. Good books and bad books, 1st editions and beat up paperbacks. We love how they smell, how they feel, and the way they sound when you open them (A customer once said that he liked how they tasted. . . we watch him very carefully when he’s in the store).
We read voraciously. We read over dinner and we read in the bath. We lend books and half the time we don’t get them back. We understand that the only people who steal your books are your friends. That’s OK, after all, we’ve stolen some of their books.
We like people who read. They’re interesting and we share the same friends. We understand what we owe to people who read. We owe them our time and our attention. We owe them fair prices and an honest attempt to find the book they’re looking for (regardless of whether it is on our shelves or someone else’s).
We run a book store. We keep it clean and organized because we like it that way and because both the books and the customers deserve it. We have lots of seating because you should be comfortable while you browse. We stay open late and wish we could stay open later. If you come in five minutes before closing time we won’t close until you’re ready to leave.
We only sell Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery and Horror. We would love to sell all kinds of books but we only have so much room. If we sold all kinds of books we could only be a good bookstore. By limiting ourselves we can be a great bookstore. And, if we do our job right, perhaps we can be your bookstore.
Come visit us. We’d like to meet you.”
If they had only sold books by econ Milton Freedman, they might have had a clue beforehand.
You can NOT use Karl Marx’s ideas to help the middle class.
You can NOT do it.
Marx HATED the middle class. He wanted their blood FLOWING in the streets.
He didn’t have a single idea geared to helping the middle class.
And yet, moron middle class Marxists keep voting for it.
The President called for a “middle class economy”. What was his idea? Marxism.
A lot of middle classers applauded him.
All of those self acclaimed brilliant minds and not a single one understands the most basic and unchanging law: the law of unintended consequences!
They’re either cynical enough to not care except to win political points or nearsighted enough to not consider the law will also apply to them.
How soon will it be before SF issues Directive 10-289?
SCREW’EM ALL; they voted for it now let them live with it.
Hmmm,,,
Is McDonald's a "big business"?
The only reason I can see which would justify your comment is that big businesses became big by making sure that their employees were productive enough to justify higher pay.
Manufacturing jobs, for example, could pay more per employee in wages because they typically made investments in machinery and automation.
The manager of the book store paying himself $28,000 per year indicates to me that he was running his business as a hobby. Who could live in or commute to San Francisco on an annual wage of $28k? This business has been unprofitable for a long time and is closing down only because it has finally become too unprofitable to continue.
A Micky D’s franchisee is a small business.
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