For 20 years, it's been an off-campus destination for students, a California Avenue bookstore and sidewalk cafe with neighborhood charm and a lazy atmosphere. But a surge in rent and competition from Internet booksellers and a University Avenue Borders megastore proved fatal to Printer's Inc. Bookstore, which plans to close its Palo Alto shop on March 31. "We continued to see a trend in our sales that indicated we couldn't afford much in the way of an increase in rent," says co-owner Gerry Masteller, '66, who still hopes to find an investor to save the store.
The news was unwelcome in many quarters. In an e-mail to the store's website, Ivan Linscott, a senior research associate at Stanford, wrote, "I am deeply disturbed about your decision to close the store. I find the reasons hardly sufficient to justify the loss of the soul of the community."
No word yet on who the new tenant will be. The Rite-Aid pharmacy chain made a bid last spring to rent the location for nearly twice what Printer's Inc. was paying, but later withdrew its offer. Meantime, Printer's Inc. will continue to operate its Mountain View store. And Printer's Inc. Café, the thriving California Avenue restaurant under separate ownership, may expand into the bookstore space.
