And the owner is rightfully pissed.
San Francisco’s Borderlands Books will be forced to close as the city increases its minimum wage, and its owner Alan Beatts is tired of being criticized for talking about it.
“Most critics say ‘how dare you blame the minimum wage increase for you closing,’” he told the Washington Free Beacon. “It’s bullshit.”
“They’re either calling me a liar of chastising me for telling the truth.”
Borderlands is a specialty bookstore that has been able to carve out a niche in San Francisco for the past 18 years. It has been able to support a staff of five, most of whom have been working together for more than a decade.
Beatts said he made a mere $28,000 in gross salary last year.
With the added labor costs the city’s new minimum wage will eventually impose on the business, and the fact that books come pre-priced leaving no room for price increases, Mr. Beatts sees no way it can survive.