By Laia Gordi, Mission Local
With a debt collective members estimate to be $100,000, members of the Modern Times Bookstore Collective told supporters at a meeting last week that the 41-year-old bookstore may have to close its doors in September.
As a result, the Mission landmark that specializes in politically progressive volumes, is rethinking its operating plan in order to survive economic shocks of the internet age along with competition and gentrification, managers of the collective said.
“We all know that we can’t just sell books,” Lex Non Scripta, the collective’s event planner, said of Modern Times and other independent bookstores struggling to stay afloat. “We have to look at other ways to sustain the stores, like programing events or having cafes. We are all looking to a long-time sustainability plan.” Borderlands Books on Valencia Street told Mission Local in 2010 that they opened a cafe in order to help sustain their book sales.
Read the complete story at Mission Local.