Blaming a minimum wage proposition approved by city voters in November, Borderlands Books, the San Francisco science fiction, fantasy and horror new and used bookstore, is closing "no later than March 31," the store announced in a post. The Borderlands café will stay open at least until the end of the year.
Under the city measure, the minimum wage rose to $11.05 on January 1 and will rise steadily in several increments to $15 by July 1, 2018. 
"Although all of us at Borderlands support the concept of a living wage in principle and we believe that it's possible that the new law will be good for San Francisco--Borderlands Books as it exists is not a financially viable business if subject to that minimum wage," the store said.
"Many businesses can make adjustments to allow for increased wages," the store continued. "The cafe side of Borderlands, for example, should have no difficulty at all.... But books are a special case because the price is set by the publisher and printed on the book. Furthermore, for years part of the challenge for brick-and-mortar bookstores is that companies like Amazon.com have made it difficult to get people to pay retail prices. So it is inconceivable to adjust our prices upwards to cover increased wages.
"The change in minimum wage will mean our payroll will increase roughly 39%. That increase will in turn bring up our total operating expenses by 18%. To make up for that expense, we would need to increase our sales by a minimum of 20%. We do not believe that is a realistic possibility for a bookstore in San Francisco at this time."
Likewise, the store said that if it tried to decrease expenses enough to meet its need, it would have to reduce the staff to the current management of two people--Alan Beatts and Jude Feldman--"and one other part-time employee."
The store said that although the full effect of the increasing minimum wage "won't be felt for a while," the decision to close now was made because even this year's jumps (from $10.74 an hour to $11.05 on January 1, and to $12.25 on May 1) will "expend the store's cash assets," leading the store to have less inventory in six months. Closing soon "makes better business sense" and "more importantly, keeping up our morale and continuing to serve our customers while knowing that we are going to close has been very painful for all of us over the past three months. Continuing to do so for even longer would be horrible. Far better to close at a time of our choosing, keep everyone's sorrow to a minimum, and then get on with our lives."
Although Borderlands said it doesn't believe there's "any viable alternative" to closing, it is holding a public meeting on February 12 to moderate a discussion about "alternatives to closing the store."
Founded in 1997, Borderlands has weathered several major challenges, including a 100% rent hike in 2000 that forced it to move, competition from online booksellers, the growth of e-books and the recession of 2009, which hit the store hard because it had just opened its café. Last year was Borderlands' best year.
Borderlands has more than 14,000 titles in stock and 2,000 square feet of space. The cafe accounts for an additional 1,500 square feet of space.