Another sign of the changing landscape of San Francisco, Borderlands Books on Valencia Street announced today that it will close.

Already faced with challenges, the recent voter-approved increase of San Francisco’s minimum wage in San Francisco make the book store no longer financially viable, however the affiliated café will remain open, according to a message posted online today:

In November, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly passed a measure that will increase the minimum wage within the city to $15 per hour by 2018.  Although all of us at Borderlands support the concept of a living wage in principal 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.  Consequently we will be closing our doors no later than March 31st.

The message also cites competition from online retailer Amazon and the digitization of books as a difficult challenge for Borderlands and all bookstores to overcome.

Borderlands has been a fixture in San Francisco for 18 years with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, mystery had horror.

Read the complete message about the scheduled closing of the store and cafe HERE.