Earlier this summer Modern Times Bookstore sent out a plea for help. Facing a financial crisis, the staff posted a letter on their website asking for community support.
According to the letter, initially sent only to the store’s membership base, Modern Times needs help staying afloat until it reaches the more lucrative fall and winter months.
“Getting there is the goal,” said Kermit Playfoot, Modern Times’ operations coordinator. “Then we can begin a dialogue with the community to make any changes so that this does not happen again.”
The amount of money that Modern Times needs has not been disclosed to the public.
However, the bad economy has simply added to the uphill battle faced by independent booksellers since the online mega site Amazon came on the scene in the mid-1990s.
According to Hut Landon, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, besides the economy “Amazon remains the evil empire with their policy of sales tax avoidance that gives them a huge competitive advantage and costs the state over $100 million in revenue annually.”
Ruth Mahaney, who started working at Modern Times in 1973, said that although the struggling economy has affected independent bookstores as a whole, there are specific factors contributing to Modern Times’ financial troubles, including higher rent costs on Valencia Street and low book sales.
“We have no intention of closing, but we are in a position where we need to ask our community for help,” Playfoot said.
Modern Times is looking for new ways to save money and to stabilize its financial security, Mahaney said. Current options include holding fundraisers, reexamining expenses, offering more in-store programming and getting ideas from the community.
According to Mahaney, their lease is up in March, and they have not ruled out the option of moving to a new location to reduce the cost of rent.
“We have always been able to figure out something to keep our doors open in the past,” Mahaney said.
The community has responded to the plea for help by purchasing books, attending bookstore programs and donating money and used books.
“The response has been overwhelming and very positive,” Playfoot said. “People are giving, and that’s great, but the kind words and support have been really great.”
For the past 39 years, Modern Times Bookstore has catered to the progressive, Spanish-speaking and LGBT communities in the Mission. The worker-run collective identifies it as a community resource, not just a bookstore.
Playfoot said, “That has been more important than being the most efficient at profits.”
“Part of what we were and have always been — and part of the original vision — is that we would help to make voices that are not always heard, heard,” said Mahaney. “One of the things that I worry about if we close is that I know it is a very hard time in the world these days, and there is so much wrong, and it is easy to get depressed. Modern Times is like this thing that is holding on. It is a symbol of a community and a movement that is really fighting for justice.”