San Francisco loses a treasured asset...to the
new, higher, minimum wage;
In 18 years of business, Borderlands has faced a number of challenges.
The first and clearest was in 2000, when our landlord increased our
rent by 100% and we had to move to our current location on Valencia
Street. All of the subsequent ones have been less clear-cut but more
difficult. The steady movement towards online shopping, mostly with
Amazon, has taken a steady toll on bookstores throughout the world and
Borderlands was no exception. After that and related to it, has been
the shift towards ebooks and electronic reading devices. And finally
the Great Recession of 2009 hit us very hard, especially since we had
just opened a new aspect to the business in the form of our cafe.
But, through all those challenges, we've managed to find a way forward and 2014 was the best year we've ever had.
But every camel has one straw too many;
In November, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly passed a measure that
will increase the minimum wage within the city to $15 per hour by 2018.
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.
Consequently we will be closing our doors no later than March 31st.
They did the math;
The change in minimum wage will mean our payroll will increase roughly
39%. That increase will in turn bring up our total operating expenses
by 18%. To make up for that expense, we would need to increase our
sales by a minimum of 20%. We do not believe that is a realistic
possibility for a bookstore in San Francisco at this time.
The problems of a few little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy San Francisco.
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