Come on folks, go buy books there! It's good for your brain, and it might keep an awesome bookstore from being replaced with pho and bubble tea places.

This is a great store and I go there often.

However why do they have so many computer books published in the twentieth century? Tip: If the "Mastering Windows 95" book hasn't sold already, it is NEVER going to sell.

Convert to a used-books / gelato store.

Wondering how an increase in the min wage might help here....

All the minimum wage workers in MV will now have hundreds more a month to spend. Some of that will be spent in this store. That will help.

> All the minimum wage workers in MV will now have hundreds more a month to spend. Some of that will be spent in this store. That will help.

Or... more to spend at Amazon.

The minimum wage bump might be the straw that broke the camel's back. If they can't cover increasing wage costs through more or higher priced book sales, they're toast. Too bad, I like the store.

These higher wage mandates will have lots of unintended consequences.

I buy calendars at Book Buyers every year and they always have a nice selection. I've only purchased a few used books there over the years and usually buy most of my books from Books Inc next door.

I'll certainly give them another look to check out their updates and hope they can stay afloat in a challenging market.

@Truer

That's cute.

Retailers will be forced to raise prices to cover the additional labor costs. At best, the additional income that low wage earners receive will be offset by the increased costs of the stuff they buy, if they are among the lucky ones to keep their jobs.

Borderlands books, a bookstore in San Francisco, made national news when they announced it was closing in response to higher minimum wage laws. Only a hastily cobbled together sponsorship program saved the store:
Web Link

The owner of Book Buyers says, "We're not going to ask for handouts," he said. "If we're going to survive, we need people to make the effort to come here and buy here."

It sounds like that they're not going the sponsorship route, so better get in there and buy.

Terrible news. Book Buyers is one of the absolute gems of Castro Street. If it departs it will be a big blow to the intellectual life of Mountain View.

Hotranatha,

If you're reading this, please add a cafe to your store. I think this will help, especially since you are open long after the other cafes are closed.

I have used this bookstore for both buying and selling books, they also recycle old college text books for which there is no market. They also have one of the best selections of calendars if you need an unusual budget gift.

It would be a great shame to see this place go as we do need to have some eclectic perusal establishments in the area.

Trading old books for other old books is not a valid business plan.

at least charge a membership fee or something. Or do they do that already? Seems most of the traffic there is just people trading bags and bags of books for store credit for other bags of books

Sparty, they wouldn't have been in business for 25 years if they traded books on a one-to-one basis. If you've ever dealt with them, you'll know that their store credit means you will give them 10 of your books for one of theirs, a little more or less depending on specifics. No matter, they would stay in business otherwise.

Should be clear that I've dealt with them, since I know about their credit system...

But obviously they just cant keep up with the times same as a lot of other book sellers. Look at the palo alto FOL book giveaways... They can never sell all the books, nor can they get rid of the thousands of books after the monthly sale, even for free. You can find Gardner's Art etc at the free PAFOL pretty much every month... yet some places still sell it.... hard to compete with free. Phaidon etc art books etc, free at the giveaway, or... $5-10 at a used store... not a valid business plan in 2015

I think that the biggest threat to Book Buyers is the internet, which has all manner of bookstores with inventory that a brick and mortar store could never have, and access to a far larger customer base. If we want this local business to survive, we have to spend money there. Book Buyers also needs to find a way to reach more people, maybe set up a store front on Amazon's marketplace, and find other ways to pull in the increasingly affluent locals and get them to spend money. If I knew how to do that, I'd be doing it myself, though.

Maybe Google, PayPal, or others could kick-in some money to cover the high rent on Castro in exchange for a discount for their employees or some other special consideration. Everyone wins.

@Computer Guy

"However why do they have so many computer books published in the twentieth century?"

Guess you didn't notice that it's a *used* book store.

Contact the California Writers Club (CWC) about open miss there.

How about selling new books (top titles/best sellers, or order them for customers) to provide another product line.

Mountain View will be at a loss if this store has to close.

At one time in our not too distant past Mountain View had an icehouse, a farriers shop and milkmen brought dairy products right to your door.

Sometimes certain businesses are just doomed to the reality of modern conveniences.

Please become our neighborhood writer's nook. We need a Peninsula hot spot for writers that is NOT South Bay or Belmont. Host some writers critique groups. Take a page out of Book Passages in Marin's cookbook of writers' conferences. Offer prep classes for kids who want to publish and guide them to places like the San Mateo County Fair publishing submissions. Ask for crowd funding from gofundme.com. Support classes attached to using a "mentor text" to write your own materials. Blend used books with creative craft efforts. The good news is that we teachers are REQUIRED to push our kids to write for CCSS. Make that an opportunity for you. All of the public schools are required to do it for the Smarter Balance tests. Key into that to help parent with support writing classes for their kids using used mentor texts. We love you. I have stocked my classroom library with may purchases from your store, and I teach in the South Bay.

>Maybe Google, PayPal, or others could kick-in some money to cover the high rent on Castro in exchange for a discount for their employees or some other special consideration. Everyone wins.


Google employees already get a 25% discount...

They have been remodeling for a while. First the little endcap reading stations, and they have the "living room" now

Heading down to Book Buyers this afternoon to spend some $$$. They add to the character of downtown. It would be a shame to see this space replaced by yet another restaurant or worse yet, a corporate chain. I am guilty of using Amazon Prime way to often, putting my money where my mouth is.

We have been buying books and calenders here for a while now. We also have been attending their new Gaming night and it has been a lot of fun.

BayCon 2015 will also be making sure that at least a Business card ad goes into our program book as the standard exchange for them putting out our flyers.

Hopes that we in the community can help to keep them going!

Books are Magic! The smell and feel of a good book in your hands is something online books can never replace! I wish Book Buyers every success!

Unfortunately books are not in large demand, Music CD are not in demand and old Calendars are not needed but people like to look at them. I see the library giving books away so the competition is tough. For a store to profit, there must be a demand. Yes Win 95 is a computer book but not paying the rent and you cannot give it away for free. Good luck BB.

From Ron Massie
As an ex-employee-I would suggest to Bookbuyers to open up to Author Events at the Bookstore. And to also use the on-line resource-Open up a Web Page for On-Line purchases. I would hate to see Bookbuyers close...

Great place to browse and maybe pick up an impulse buy or make a discovery. Mostly though, I don't have time for that. Probably the one thing that finally put me off going in was that they could never tell you if they had a certain title in stock. You had to go look, in several sections at times, mostly to find out the book wasn't there. Contrast this with Amazon, Bookfinder, or ABE Books (all online). Enter the title, select the book from many available, pay the price and predetermined postage and that's that. Of course you have to wait for the book to be delivered, and a worthy local business doesn't get the revenue, but most of the time BookBuyers didn't have the title anyway, and you could never tell beforehand.

It would be a shame to lose BB, because I think, as others do, that it is a great asset on Castro. There have been some good suggestions in the comments, and I hope the owner is reading these. However, raising the minimum wage on an already struggling business is NOT a winning strategy. It will only accelerate the downward spiral.

This is truly an asset, please support them...I would also suggest why not let the employees & the local community buy in and make it a cooperative book store-It would be worth a try to save Bookbuyers. I know Keplers in Menlo Park did something like that..(The point being let the employee's and the community get involved)

I've bought and sold at Book Buyers. However, I am frugal, and look for the cheapest price. So these days, I mostly buy online. If they would price match the online price, for a book of comparable condition, then I would be more compelled to shop there. In my opinion, the price on most of their books is too high.

Before going to Books Inc. for a new book, you should check out BookBuyers. They frequently have new release books that someone bought, read and took it in for trade to BookBuyers. I have purchased several new release books there.