Lower East Side bookstore is raising money to buy books

Bluestockings Cooperative, the radical bookstore on the Lower East Side, is running out of books.

The worker-owned collective faced eviction in 2023 after neighbors complained that its mutual aid practices – like providing bathrooms for homeless people, Narcan kits, and other supplies – attracted criminality and unsanitary conditions.

Now the bookstore has launched a GoFundMe campaign to pay off its debts, citing financial pressures that have left it unable to restock.

“We haven’t been able to buy books since late September,” said Jay Gandhi, one of four worker-owners who runs the store. “At one point, we had a book-buying budget of $35,000 a month.”

The problems started in October 2023, when the store received legal warning from its landlord for “unauthorized use of the premises as a medical facility” and that opening up the bathroom to homeless people created hazardous conditions, according to a report in New York magazine.

Penn South Capital, which appears on the building’s property records, did not respond to a request for comment.

The ensuing legal costs, as well as extra staff and security that Bluestockings hired to help manage the neighborhood's concerns, left the cooperative financially strained, according to Gandhi.

The campaign has raised nearly $50,000 from close to 800 supporters so far, marks a critical juncture for the cooperative, which began as a feminist bookstore in 1999.

Supporters see Bluestockings as a vital mutual aid site and third space. But the store’s mounting bills and dwindling book inventory raise questions about whether Bluestockings can sustainably balance its activist mission of providing “mutual aid, harm reduction… that is radically inclusive,” with the demands of surviving as a brick-and-mortar retail store on the Lower East Side.

By January, Bluestockings was nearly $100,000 in debt to publishers and book distributors, which stopped filling their orders, Gandhi said. The GoFundMe's $150,000 goal is meant not only to clear that debt but to begin purchasing inventory again and restart the store’s revenue cycle.

For now, donated books are filling the gap. Activist and author Mariame Kaba organized a book drive that aims to crowdsource 2,500 books for the store by September.

A visit to the shop on Thursday afternoon showed plenty of books on the shelves, but worker-owner Stella Becerril said the strong showing was a merchandising sleight-of-hand: Almost every shelf had books displayed with their covers facing out, giving the illusion of fullness.

“This is nothing like what it was before,” Becerril said.

But Bluestockings has maintained a loyal customer base despite the challenges, she said.

“Foot traffic is slow, but it’s rebuilding,” said Becerril. “Rumors were circulating that we were closing, but we’re here.”

Bluestockings’ repeated need for crowdfunding isn’t new, or unique. The store has had several crowdfunding campaigns over the years. Revolution Books, a radical bookstore in Harlem, is currently running its own fundraiser. In Crown Heights, the Nonbinarian Bookstore has embraced a cooperative model that also relies heavily on volunteer labor and community donations.

Gandhi said Bluestockings isn’t looking to make fundraising a permanent fixture of its business model.

“We do this when we need to, and that’s something we need to reevaluate,” Gandhi said. “As a cooperative, we make financial decisions collectively. And one of the things we’re learning is that we need to be more cognizant of the fact that not everybody who joins is well-versed in financial decision-making.”