Clean Well-Lighted Closing

by Bridget Kinsella, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 6/19/2006

It’s official. After 30 years in business A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books will close. Last Friday the staff posted signs in the store located in San Francisco’s Opera Plaza that announced the closing and a 25% sale on the inventory. CWLP owner Neal Sofman said he hopes to sell as much inventory as possible and that he expects the store will close within a month.

After years of declining sales, Sofman and his business partners put the store up for sale in May, but no buyer emerged. Between its full- and part-time staff, CWLP employed approximately 30 people; more than a third of the staff were long-term employees with service ranging from eight to 27 years.

Sofman called the closing heartbreaking. “The hardest part is not working with these people anymore,” he said. “Their cumulative book knowledge is astounding.”

In a totally separate business venture, with completely different investors, Sofman is in the middle of opening Bookstore West Portal, a neighborhood store that has no connection to CWLP. The deal has been in the works since last summer. “It’s been confusing for some people,” said Sofman. “But it is completely separate.”