Vanishing bookstores reshape Berkeley

I used to go to Half Price Books with my mom when I was a kid. We spent hours roaming the aisles—me flipping through beat-up Goosebumps paperbacks or digging through the CD bins, her browsing for cookbooks or a novel to unwind after work. Now, as an adult and still very much a bookworm, I find myself at the Berkeley location at least once a month, drawn by the scent of old paper and the quiet thrill of stumbling into stories I didn’t know I needed. So, when I heard this location will close on Nov. 30, I was devastated.

Bookstores in Berkeley are vanishing at an unsettling pace. Earlier this year, the city lost its Books Inc. location. In 2023, the Asian American–focused Eastwind Books shuttered. Now, Half Price Books joins the growing list of casualties as rising rents, shifting consumer habits and pandemic-era disruptions continue to reshape the city’s commercial landscape. The closure underscores the fact that even national chains struggle to stay rooted in local communities.

“We have been unable to come to a lease agreement with our landlord,” said Emily Bruce, public relations manager for Half Price Books.

The store first opened in 2005 after relocating from Solano Avenue, eventually settling into the 8,000-square-foot ground floor of the historic Kress Building, built in 1933, according to SFGATE. With a massive inventory—roughly 100,000 titles—spanning books, vinyl, VHS tapes, comics and collectibles, the shop became a haven for students, collectors and families, offering both new and used media, along with buy-back services.

Thirteen employees at the Berkeley location were notified of the closure, according to local reporter Nathan Dalton, and have been encouraged to apply for roles at the chain’s remaining Bay Area stores in Concord, Dublin and Fremont. Some will receive severance if they stay through the final day.

For those of us who grew up visiting independent bookstores, their disappearance feels like more than just another retail shift. It signals the erosion of places where people slow down, explore ideas and connect across generations. Half Price Books wasn’t flashy, but it offered something increasingly hard to find: a shared, low-pressure space to be curious, to wander and to think. In a city like Berkeley, long defined by its intellectual and cultural life—those places matter.

In an era where much of life feels flattened into screens and algorithms, places like Half Price Books offered a kind of analog magic. One could strike up a conversation with a stranger over a shared author, stumble across a childhood favorite they hadn’t seen in decades or walk out with a stack of books for under $20. It was imperfect, a little dusty and absolutely irreplaceable.

And the community is feeling the loss. As a Half Price Books regular myself, I know that bookstores aren’t just retail, they’re sensory spaces. Unlike the sterile click of an online cart, physical stores offer the tactile joy of discovery: the weight of a book in one’s hands, the rustle of turning pages, the smell of print and dust and time.

“That bookstore was my lifeline,” said UC Berkeley student Gabriel Husain.

Another Berkeley resident, Aashna Bhatia, voiced concern about the larger trend. “So sad,” she said. “I don’t get what’s happening in our town.”

I’ve walked out of Half Price Books empty-handed plenty of times, and yet I never felt like I’d wasted a trip. The browsing itself was the point: The joy of finding a book I wasn’t looking for, the grounding quiet of a space built for lingering. It was one of the few places in downtown Berkeley that didn’t ask browsers to rush, spend or perform. Just to be curious. That kind of place is rare, and getting rarer.

For now, there’s still time to visit. Half Price Books plans to remain open until Nov. 30. The store will maintain regular hours and continue to offer sales, trade-ins and buy-back deals. Sadly, no reopening is planned.

Half Price Books, 2036 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. Mon-Thu 11am to 8pm, Fri-Sun 10am to 10pm. 510.526.6080. hpb.com.