Adobe Books expected to close forever at the end of August

Mission Local reports, regarding a farewell concert held at the space last night:

Adobe Bookshop has been a neighborhood institution for 24 years, says Aaron Novak, who organized [last night's] event and flew out from the East Coast specifically for it. ”We’re doing this for the community, the people that come here every day.”

Due to rising rent and fewer customers, the store is expected to close August 31. [link]

Bummer!

27 Responses to “Adobe Books expected to close forever at the end of August”

  1. scum says:

    I will be sad to see them go. Glad to see wren go.

  2. moderniste says:

    Darn. I drop into this place about every month and can reliable expect to find something awesome and used for less than $5. But I suspect that me and my sporadic $5 is no way to make it big.

  3. D. Jon Moutarde says:

    Unhappy about seeing ANY bookstore close, but this one deserved to close long ago. Endlessly frustrating to go there and see boxes and boxes of unpacked books, and nothing new on the shelves. And also to smell Swan.

  4. Jam says:

    Better than Ever!

  5. leaveareply says:

    im sure another “sustainable” restaurant will open there soon

    • Olu says:

      You’re not far off. So apparently there is a group meeting on Tuesdays (I think – use the interwebz) to figure out a plan to save the ‘community’ that has been built up there over the years. So that’s nice.

      I have a lot of friends with names on that wall, and it was always a good place to discover new writers/ poets/ artists, so I hope somehow they salvage it, even if they do have to give half the space to a coffee shop, which I believe is the current plan.

      (insert diatribe about gentrification/ tech companies / illiterate masses staring at their iDevices…. /end rant.)

      • D. Jon Moutarde says:

        So far, you’re not talking about spending enough money there to pay the fucking rent increase. I tried, but it was hopelessly mismanaged.

        • MrEricSir says:

          No, mismanaged businesses don’t stick around for 24 years. So that’s definitely not the issue here.

          The issue is the absurd rents in the Mission are forcing out small businesses.

          • D. Jon Moutarde says:

            Yes they do, in the land of pity business models.

          • D. Jon Moutarde says:

            But the bigger issue is that you don’t care enough about this place to keep it in business by buying books from it, yet you complain about it going away.

          • MrEricSir says:

            You’re right, I do not make enough money to keep Adobe in business. When I purchase books from them, it only makes a tiny dent in their expenses.

            This is why business typically rely on having multiple customers.

        • Olu says:

          I for one bought books- and art from there. I imagine they made way more money on the % they received from each one of their sold out art shows.

          But whatever, we’re just two chumps on the internet- neither of us knows what their situation was w/r/t rent increase, poor biz decision, owner fatigue, whatever…

          I’m just going to be sad to see it go.

  6. abjectera says:

    i am going to comment. adobe books is/was one of my favorite places, great to go there and read on the couches, and whenever they had art shows those were rad too. the people there are cool, please dont say anything bad about adobe or i will feel angry, thats my best bookstore in the city

  7. circle of shrinkage says:

    I’ve ‘sold’ thousands of books to them and received credit slips I never used. R.I.P. Adobe.

    • D. Jon Moutarde says:

      I donate them to Community Thrift — same benefit to me (0), but a whole lot of good to the community.

  8. Jewel says:

    This is a huge fucking bummer.

  9. Dick Jams says:

    Shit happens. There are plenty worse things to be pitied, you concerned citizens, you.

    Any shop that can’t adapt to the culturally relevant needs of a community are bound to fail… not to mention book stores what the fuck are those anyway?