Despite difficulties with moving, Sacramento cornerstone business is still kicking

By Jacob Peterson

Running an independent bookstore is far from an easy job, but Beers Books is plowing through recent difficulties and eyeing a brighter future ahead.

Originally opened in 1936, the Sacramento staple moved to its current 712 R Street location in 2023 after being a presence in Southside Park for years. The store held its grand re-opening in September and now, a year later, manager Andrew Naify says the change has been a net positive.

“As a whole we’ve grown the business,” Naify observers. “There are some adjustments being made but as a whole the feedback has been almost universally positive.”

Naify, whose parents own Beers, added that one of the big factors in the move was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the previous business district they were in. Having owned their last building on S Street, Naify explains that a freeze was put on new leases and many state offices moved out.

“That whole area just became sort of depressed with COVID and a lot of the issues that are still kind of plaguing us to this day,” Naify acknowledges. “The whole area kind of took a nosedive.

While there was still decent foot traffic and business with state workers, keeping the building was proving an issue. Around that time, the new space on R Street opened up.

“There’s a huge adjustment period as far as fine tuning the layout, the inventory that we’re carrying,” Naify recalls. “We represent almost every genre under the sun, just being the size that we are, but a lot of that ends up being stale inventory that we have to make the tough decisions to move on from.”

The largest obstacle the bookstore has had to overcome is a financial investment in the new space.

“Without getting into exact numbers, it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars that we’ve taken in as debt, basically in the form of loans that we’re going to be paying off for years,” Naify reflects. “The biggest hurdle that we’ve had to overcome was to fund this crazy enterprise of moving a 6000 square foot used bookstore.”

Beers didn’t make the trip to R Street alone however: It’s currently sharing the space with Kicksville Vinyl & Vintage. Tim and Laura Matranga, owners of Kickville, said they had needed more space and Naify had brought up the idea of sharing the location.

“We had really good business, but we have nowhere to put anything,” notes Laura Matranga. “We jumped on it because it seemed like a really good location and a good pairing with the bookstore.”

Tim agress the decision turned out to be a good one, with business at the new location having noticeably improved.

“We’re getting better collections and better inventory than we’ve ever had,” he points out. “We’ve had the advantage now of people finding us just by being book people and they’re like ‘oh, I didn’t know this even existed.’”

He added that while many of their regular customers have managed to find them at their new spot, he’s also noticed a decent amount of people who shop at both Kicksville and Beers.

Customers shopping at Beers also have positive things to say about their experience at the new location.

Suanne Falmer, 77, and Jeff Hayes, 71, told SN&R that they travel from Amador County to shop at Beers.

“There’s not really a ton of local book shops out where we are,” Falmer says. “We found out about this store about two years ago, and now we always look forward to coming here.”

Another customer to discover the store recently is 23-year-old Hector Medina, who goes to both the bookstore and record store.

“It’s always a very positive atmosphere here,” Medina says. “I love the environment at both stores.”

Inn Tysoe, 54, has been going to Beers for the last 20 years. She said she likes the current location, but still has some nostalgia for the previous spot.

“The old location was a little more intimate,” Tysoe remembers. “I do get why they moved though, needing more space and such.”

Naify said he credits the support of the community for helping not only his store, but others, survive the pandemic. He said people have been more passionate about supporting their local small businesses.

“We saw both sides of the coin,” Naify admits. “It was at once terrifying, but also really rejuvenating to see people you know showing up and making a concerted effort to shop local and support their local businesses.”