Black Oak Books May Be Closing
If Black Oak Books can’t find a buyer for its two stores (one in North Berkeley and one in San Francisco), it may soon be closing its doors. Read more about it in the 01.18.07 Daily Californian.
* This post doesn’t directly relate to West Berkeley per se, but it does reflect a disturbing city (and nation-wide) trend faced by independent bookstores. With online and larger retail outfits gaining the upperhand in the market, smaller local outfits have a hard time keeping up. Of course this is the case with almost any smaller locally owned business these days, but having a variety of good bookstores in a college town is an especially important asset. I’ve already felt the burn from the loss of Cody’s Books on Telegraph…I’d hate to lose another on Shattuck. Don’t know what the solution here is…..
Recent Letter to the Editor on the topic:
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/news/print.asp?id=19370
I walk past old Cody’s at Telegraph and it’s quite depressing, as is the news of the Iceland closing and now, possibly, Black Oak. One of the things I like about Berkeley is the variety of indie book stores. Is there a funding mechanism for keeping local shops open?
[…] Black Oak Books May Be Closing […]