Gentrification at work. They'll probably be replaced by a ritzy restaurant that we can't afford.

I bought books for my grand-daughter here. The store has great books. I was hoping to go back to buy more books for her here, but if the store closes, I won't be able to do that again!!! I feel sad!!!!

A sad goodbye to another beloved Mountain View small business.

Rose Market, the bagel place next to RiteAid on Grant, Mintons, and many more than I can't remember. They may have closed for different reasons, but they all took a little bit of MV charm with them.

Another one bites the dust!

Thank you BookBuyers for all you have given to the community over the years! It is a very sad day to see you go. Not sure where else our family will go to fill the void you will leave. You will be missed!!

Why don't the new people get out of Mountain View? This is so disturbing and sad. I'm a Mountain View native and it's just really horrible what the new people have done. Disgusting. Take your google and go google yourself 200 miles from here, in Central California, Nevada or Arizona. Why ruin this town?

Link to BookBuyers GoFundMe campaign:
Web Link

@ MBtHi, I suppose I should apologize for being born in the 80s, for seeking employment, for exercising my rights in the Land of the Free to move to the wonderful city of Mountain View and make it my home as well, and for trying to start a family here.

By the way, I shopped at Book Buyers, you know. I couldn't have done that from the states of Nevada or Arizona that you'd like to banish me to!

I'm sorry to see BookBuyers close, but have you ever tried to find a specific book in that place? They can't tell you whether they have it or not. Somebody on the staff *might* know, if you get the right person, or you might get directed to one or several locations to try to find it, but I don't believe they have ever had a modern inventory system. Not everyone who wants to buy a book just wants to browse and buy some book they run across. My humble opinion is that the place could have been profitable and been saved a long time ago if they just could direct customers to what they were looking for or quickly determine that they did not have a copy.

I don't blame the new residents. I blame the greedy landlords that are taking advantage of the situation. Contrast what is happening in Mountain View to Los Altos where landlords seem to be keeping the family-oriented businesses.

middle class, it is clear you have not followed the story. The landlord has been supportave of the business and worked with owner. This came from people buying books (even used online) you wanna get made at someone, blame it on Amazon.com they changed the landscape of buying books. Not the landlords, nor Gentrification. You have come to enjoy the services (Police & Fire make up over 50% of the budget) and those services are paid for by taxes. No businesses, no residents, no services.

Oh Book Buyers, I'll be sad to see you go as I found so many treasures in your store over the years! You were always on my list to visit when it came time to buy gifts at the holidays ~ your calendar selection just cannot be beat! I hope you can stay somewhere near here because I will definitely go out of my way to come shop at your new location.

@MBtHi - "Keep the migrants out." "My culture is superior." You are like the right wing Nazis in Germany now.

Ajaya, the fates may be pushing you down a path you didn't set yourself this time, but please don't thisnk this is THE end. It's just an end. If you don't want to retire, don't. New doors will open if you look for them...

As for people here blaming what's happening on Gentrification, you are wrong. Books have moved digital. Just like music and movies. Most people like myself enjoy having hundreds of books on my e-reader, not cluttering up my home. This is how things are. It is what it is.

One of two reasons we ever bothered returning to Mounting-Rent View after we were forced to move by greedy landlords was BookBuyers. Printers Inc. is a nice bookstore, and it might be enough to bring us to GoogleTown, but if they close, we'll probably never set foot in the place again.

Please consider moving to Brisbane. We are a quirky and diverse community that values local businesses. And there's a great storefront available across the street from our huge post office.

My son and I have found the best books here over the years. He loves to watch the clock spin. I bought him many books here and it was a regular stop on our weekend outing to Mtn View to watch the trains. I still prefer holding a book to an ereader and many of the titles here aren't available digitally. No sweetness at this parting, just sorrow.

Sad to see the store close after so long ! Thanks for keeping it going so long. Let us know where you move to.

It is not clear that the Ajayas have the funds to open another store. They are hugely in debt, have no financial backers, have no business plan, but have a lot of pipe dreams. The odds are that if they opened a store it would not be financially solvent and they would simply run up more debt. The owners are good people, but have little business acumen...it is time for them to shut things down and gracefully retire...

I am one of those who is disappointed by the closure of Book Buyers, not least because I still have some store credit which will vanish if they do not relocate. I must disagree with the characterization of the owners as people with "little business acumen" since they have managed to keep the business going for 25 years. What actually happened is:

1. The tech boom has made rents on Castro unaffordable.
2. In the past few years, all bookstores have suffered with the rise of ebooks and a general decline in reading. (see Borders)
3. Governments are artificially pushing up wage costs making it more difficult for low-margin business to compete. Those who feel that this helps the poor might have second thoughts in a few years as we get higher prices, more automation and higher unemployment.

Combined with some bad luck like the San Jose disaster, and it is not hard to understand the tough times at Book Buyers.