Steve Rhodes sends these photos from the last days of Stacey's Bookstore in San Francisco. The store closed yesterday after 85 years in business and 50 years in the same location. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the closure earlier this month:
Stacey's was always crowded at lunch hour. It was a place to sit, to ask the clerks for advice, or just to look at books. "You know, people don't think of the Financial District as a neighborhood, but it is," said Ingrid Nystrom, the marketing manager at Stacey's, who has run 50 to 100 author events a year there over the past 11 years. "It will be a real loss to the neighborhood. We've had some people crying."
Stacey's had a lot of books on financial topics, and the numbers for the store were grim, Nystrom said. "We sold $4.5 million worth of books last year," she said. "But the place (three stories and a basement) is too big for the number of people."
At the same time, the economy got weaker and Internet competition got stronger. "Our biggest competitor is online booksellers," she said.
categories: Economic Scene
Comments
Please note that all comments must adhere to the NPR.org discussion rules and terms of use. See also the Community FAQ.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Login | Register
More information needed to participate in the NPR online community.. Add this information