One of Sacramento’s oldest bookstores is reopening in a new location. Here’s where

If the release of the fall Starbucks drink menu and the occasional hint of below-90-degree weather has got you itching for a cozy throw blanket to curl up in while you read a good novel, the reopening of a classic Sacramento bookstore is here to help you achieve your vision.

Beers Books, which has been selling new and used books in Sacramento “through four different owners and several locations” since 1936, according to its website, is soft opening Saturday morning at 11 a.m. in a new Southside Park location.

The bookstore is now located at 712 R St., in a building slightly bigger than its previous location, according to building owner and previous manager Jim Naify, who called the move “serendipitous.”

Beers vacated its previous location on S Street in early April, and operations were paused during the move.

Its old building, which Beers moved into in 2004, is set to be demolished and replaced with a seven-story mixed-use apartment complex constructed by Anthem Properties of Vancouver, British Columbia. As of now, it is still standing.

Volunteers milled around the building on Friday afternoon preparing for the opening, shelving books and adding labels as they sorted the inventory carried over from Beers’ old location. Despite concrete floors and harsh overhead lighting that hinted at the room’s previous life as a warehouse, books were already beginning to fill the wall-to-wall shelves, and memorabilia from previous locations were tucked into corners and on top of shelves as a hint of the store’s history.

Employees said Friday that despite not yet being open, there had already been an increase in foot traffic and people discovering their store, as compared to the S Street location, despite only being a block away.

Naify also promised that Beers Books is in talks to get permission to hang the store’s iconic block-letter sign outside the new building.

There will be a bigger “grand opening” in September, staff members say, but in the meantime, the store will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day of the week.

“Not everything will be perfect right away,” reads a statement on the store’s website and social media pages announcing the opening. “But Beers has always been a work-in-progress sort of place/vibe. So please come see us, tag a friend, and keep the mind-rot at bay with a good book (or ten).”

This story was originally published August 26, 2023 at 5:00 AM.