EDITORIAL: Some hope for Kepler's after all EDITORIAL: Some hope for Kepler's after all (September 07, 2005)

It may be a slender thread, but last Friday Clark Kepler told the Almanac that his family's landmark bookstore could possibly reopen if he and a group of "angel" investors can agree to terms of a deal.

If it can be worked out, he said, the additional financing would keep the doors open at Kepler's, the store founded by his father, peace activist Roy Kepler, more than 50 years ago. Clark Kepler would not identify his prospective investors at Almanac press time Friday, but judging by the outpouring of grief and disbelief from the Menlo Park community (see Letters, next page) when the store did not open last Wednesday, the financiers would be hailed as heroes who saved a precious icon.

Besides the additional financing, the Almanac has learned that the Tan Group, which owns Menlo Center, is talking to Mr. Kepler about ways to stay in business. In a press release, the group said they had helped the store navigate other financial challenges, and "very much want to retain" Kepler's at the center.

With that commitment from his landlord, it seems that Mr. Kepler may be able to continue his long struggle as an independent bookseller doing battle with Barnes and Noble, Borders and the online giant Amazon.

Since he took over management of the store in 1983, he has worked hard with other independents around the country to make sure publishers give their stores the same prices as the large chains and Web sites. But even though business appeared to be booming, especially with the flourishing Cafe Borrone next door, we suspect that high rent from a lease signed in the flush times of 1999 and shrinking revenue created red ink on the bottom line and forced the closure.

"Where will we go?" moaned one bereaved Kepler's regular, who can't imagine Menlo Park without the rock of a first-class bookstore at its heart, providing sustenance for browsers, buyers, kids and celebrated authors in its beckoning niches and corners. The store's staff was well-read and their recommendations at strategic spots on the tables and shelves often helped customers find their way among the 100,000 titles on display.

Kepler's provided the kind of service that many residents give as a reason for living here. Locally owned businesses are what sets the community apart from the national retailers who dominate shopping centers. Menlo Park residents often cite the presence of firms like Draeger's market, Flegel's furniture and Kepler's when explaining why they live here and patronize downtown merchants. Nowhere was that attraction better illustrated than at Menlo Center, where the synergy of Kepler's, Cafe Borrone and the British Banker's Club attracted huge evening and weekend crowds who came to browse the bookstore, drink lattes or order lunch or dinner.

Now, unless additional financial backing can be found for Kepler's, that attraction is threatened during a week that also confirmed the closing of another car dealer on El Camino Real, the third to have disappeared in the last five months. It is unlikely that the two remaining dealers will go it alone, as the trend in auto sales now requires group exposure along a major freeway. The city is trying hard to provide that space to stem the loss of sales-tax revenue but it will be several years at best before any dealers could move to a site near the Bayshore Freeway at Marsh Road.

If Kepler's and the car dealers are out of the picture, the big question is what is next for El Camino. It will be a challenge for downtown property owners and the city's business development and planning departments to essentially remake the El Camino corridor in downtown Menlo Park. We hope that Kepler's is not one of the vacancies they will have to fill.

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