In Other Words, a feminist bookstore in Portland, OR has run into financial trouble. The organization that runs In Other Words, the Women’s Community Education Project, ran $18,743 in the red last year. Last month, the store laid off its only two employees. Sales at the bookstore are down 73% compared to four years ago. A plan to redefine the bookstore as a “resource center” has not stemmed the tide of financial losses.
The financial trouble In Other Words is having can be traced to one source, a law that took effect last summer that made it illegal to force college students to buy their textbooks from a single source. Before that law took effect, In Other Words had an exclusive contract to sell textbooks for women’s studies classes at Portland State University. All students at PSU taking a women’s studies class had to buy their textbooks from In Other Words until last summer. Given that PSU is a state university, In Other Words effectively survived on a government subsidy. Given that the law in question was passed in 2008 and didn’t take effect until 2010, the management of In Other Words had a long time to come up with a plan to deal with the lost income from not having a captive market. However, management of In Other Words has been unable to stop the financial losses. Because of this, it is likely that In Other Words will be closing in the near future.
