Alison Reid and John Evans, owners of Diesel bookstores, are putting their San Diego, Calif., location up for sale. They also have a store in Brentwood, in Los Angeles, which is not for sale.
Since 1989, Reid and Evans have opened five bookstores, all in California. (In 2017, they sold the Oakland store to longtime manager Brad Johnson; it's now called East Bay Booksellers.) In a letter to customers yesterday, Evans and Reid wrote, in part, "We've been through fires (too many fires), epidemics, a pandemic, recessions, the rise and fall of large chain bookstores, Amazon, wars (too many wars), and all the things we humans have to face in our lives. We've decided it is time to scale back a bit and pass along our recent bookstore in San Diego to a new, excited, bookseller to keep the spirit alive, and the tradition going. We've thought about it for a very long time, and have decided to live in one place, be in one place, and have one bookstore, our store in L.A. We are excited to pass on our beautiful bookstore in Carmel Valley and put it in the hands of someone who will carry the store, and whose energy and vision will take it beyond what we have created."
The pair opened the San Diego store in 2019, in the Del Mar Highlands Town Center, which used to have a Barnes & Noble, whose closing led to protests by local readers against the landlord. "Some wanted any bookstore, while most wanted an excellent independent community bookstore," they wrote. "The landlord searched for the best one and asked us. Always loving north San Diego and North County, we discussed it and decided to open a bookstore there. The landlord was extremely supportive, finally answering the community's requests. We are glad and proud to have opened such a beautiful store, and to have readers throughout the area come and appreciate it, support it, sustain it. We have done a lot to build up the store's offerings, events, and inventory. There is much more that can be done. But that is up to someone else to do, now. We are fortunate to have a knowledgeable, dedicated staff that have diverse reading interests, specialties, sensibilities, and histories."
They added that with their first store, they wanted it "to be fun, smart, helpful, engaging, accessible to everyone, discerning, and delightful. At the time, we were different than many other stores in the area--we were a bit more playful; our selection was a bit deeper than other general bookstores our size; and we were intensely reader-focused, providing excellent customer service, because we cared. We still do--about books, about people, about culture, and about our society. We brought our distinct, and distinctive, styles, knowledge, and sensibilities to it all. And people liked it. We still do all of that, and still have wonderful booksellers who believe in that."
Reid and Evans hope to close the sale by January 2023. Interested parties should check the buyers guide and/or write to sale@dieselbookstore.com.