Help Save Malibu Village Books
Since the 2024 Franklin Fire & the 2025 Palisades fire, it has been very hard for small businesses in the Malibu area to survive. We’ve had to shut our doors twice, for weeks. We lost out on Holiday Business and now, with Pacific Coast Highway closed, we are unsure of when our community will be back. Without traffic, we are teetering on closure and we need your help!
Our Goal
Our Goal is $110,000
This goal will support your local booksellers, help with rent, wipe out the deficit from these wildfires, and allow us to continue “serving the community”. We planned for contingencies and created savings accounts for rainy days but these Wildfires could not have been planned for. Every penny in the bookstore industry matters. If you know us, you know we do this for the love of books and the impact that reading has on life!
Budget Breakdown
The Budget includes:
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Four Months of Rent ($33,992.68) - we’ve been paying what we can for the moment and the landlords have given a 3-month no late fee, but is expecting repayment starting in April of the full amounts. This number allows us to back pay Jan-March’s rent and gives us an extra month in case PCH remains Closed till July (losing out on the tourism season)
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Four Months of Payroll ($30,031.62) - we have drained our business savings & our tax savings accounts to keep up with payroll & have limited the hours of operations and have had to cut back on employee's hours (since there is no traffic). This will help keep the amazing booksellers we have from leaving and allow them to continue having a job to pay their bills & living costs.
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Reimbursements of Q4 taxes ($12,406) - we used our tax savings to pay rent & employee wages but the April 30th Q4 extension is coming due. In January, we never could have imagined that the road would still be closed in March and no traffic would be coming through to Malibu, cutting us off from our community. If it is not paid by April 30th, the state of CA starts charging interest every day until paid.
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Reimbursement for High-Interest Loan taken out till the grants came through ($34,000) - because we didn’t know what was happening, landlords were not giving us a break, and employees still needed payroll to make ends meet and we had run through our limited savings accounts, a fast turn around loan was taken out to pay the moment. At the end of January, we thought we would qualify for some of the economic grants that were being offered. So far, we have not received any grants and have been told we do not qualify.