The Brief<\/p>\n
“A Great Good Place for Books” in Oakland\u2019s Montclair Village will close after more than 20 years due to financial challenges and shifting customer habits.<\/p>\n
Owner Kathleen Caldwell said business declined after the pandemic as more customers turned to online shopping and foot traffic never fully recovered.<\/p>\n
The closure marks the loss of a longtime community gathering place, with customers and local authors calling it a significant blow to the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
OAKLAND, Calif. – A longtime independent bookstore in the Oakland <\/a>hills will close in the coming weeks due to financial challenges and changing customer habits.<\/a><\/p>\n “A Great Good Place for Books,” nestled in the heart of Montclair Village, is set to shut its doors after more than two decades in business, owner Kathleen Caldwell said.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s heartbreaking. This has been my entire life for over 20 years,” Caldwell said, her voice breaking with emotion.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t consider this giving up,” she added. “I consider this going out gracefully. I\u2019m going out with love and telling this amazing village how much they mean to me.”<\/p>\n End of a community fixture<\/p>\n What they’re saying<\/p>\n Longtime customers and employees are in shock.<\/p>\n “Our kids have been here, our grandkids have been here, it\u2019s been a family tradition,” said Lisa Cadwalader of Rossmoor. “After I retired, I got bored, and I worked here gift-wrapping for Kathleen over a couple of Christmases.”<\/p>\n Author Cara Meredith, who has held book launch events at the store, said the closure is devastating.<\/p>\n “As someone who\u2019s found a home here, I think it\u2019s a loss for all of us,” Meredith said. “What I would love is for the community to come in and rally.”<\/p>\n Financial struggles and changing habits<\/p>\n Dig deeper<\/p>\n Caldwell said the store has struggled in recent years as more customers turned to online retailers.<\/p>\n During the COVID-19 pandemic, she quickly pivoted from in-store sales to online orders, personally delivering books throughout the neighborhood.<\/p>\n “I spent two days a week driving all over Montclair delivering books,” she said.<\/p>\n But she said customer traffic never fully recovered.<\/p>\n “The crowd never came back after COVID,” Caldwell said. “Montclair just didn\u2019t come back.”<\/p>\n Bookseller Molly Talamantes said shopping habits changed during the pandemic.<\/p>\n “People, I think, got really accustomed to buying everything online,” she said.<\/p>\n Difficult decision<\/p>\n Big picture view<\/p>\n Despite ongoing challenges, including Caldwell\u2019s own health battles with cancer, sepsis and kidney failure, she kept the store running.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m pretty tenacious,” she said with a laugh.<\/p>\n But after a slow holiday season and a weak start to the year, Caldwell said the business was no longer sustainable.<\/p>\n “You\u2019re putting more money into the store than you\u2019re taking out; it\u2019s not viable,” she said.<\/p>\n As she prepares to close the bookstore, Caldwell said she is beginning to think about what comes next.<\/p>\n “I\u2019m just trying to figure out what the next chapter is,” she said. “There\u2019s always going to be a next chapter.”<\/p>\n Henry Lee is a KTVU reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on X @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com\/henrykleefan<\/p>\n The Source<\/p>\n KTVU reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief “A Great Good Place for Books” in Oakland\u2019s Montclair Village will close after more than 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[126481,126482,126479,126480,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-298622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-a-great-good-place-for-books","tag-changing-habits","tag-kathleen-caldwell","tag-montclair-village","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}