The specialist store was due to close, but an innovative sponsorship scheme will keep it open another year. Is this something independents could learn from?
Independent bookshops are having it tough, as everyone knows, in the face of rent increases, big supermarket discounts, Amazon and the remaining high street chains. But one San Francisco bookshop has pulled itself back from the brink of closure with an interesting rescue package that could provide a model for other indies: selling memberships.
Borderlands Books, a science fiction specialist, was facing specific challenges on top of the more competitive ones, particularly a rise in the minimum wage in San Francisco which Borderlands said made its business financially unviable.
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Starting immediately we will be offering paid sponsorships of the store. Each sponsorship will cost $100 for the year and will need to be renewed every year. If we get 300 sponsors before March 31st, we will stay open for the remainder of 2015.
Our goal is to gather enough paid sponsors to cover the projected shortfall in income that will be the result of the minimum wage increase in San Francisco. At the beginning of next year we will again solicit sponsors. If next year we again reach our goal by March 31st, we will remain open through 2016. This process will continue each year until we close, either because of a lack of sponsorship or for other reasons.
Related: Five reasons to support your local indie bookshop
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