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    At 78, this longtime bookseller can't afford to keep her store open — or live in California

    ARCADIA, California — "Welcome to the Book Rack," Karen Kropp says, her eyes panning the increasingly sparse shelves inside her bookstore. "It used to be a lot fuller." After 40 years — the last half under Kropp's ownership — the beloved used-book store tucked between a hot pot restaurant and a chiropractor's office in Arcadia, a suburb 13 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, is closing ...
    by Marisa Gerber, Los Angeles Times Feb 28, 2024 5 minutes
    Karen Kropp locates books for a customer at The Book Rack, a bookstore she has owned for nearly two decades, on Feb. 14, 2024, in Arcadia, California.

    ARCADIA, California — "Welcome to the Book Rack," Karen Kropp says, her eyes panning the increasingly sparse shelves inside her bookstore.

    "It used to be a lot fuller."

    After 40 years — the last half under Kropp's ownership — the beloved used-book store tucked between a hot pot restaurant and a chiropractor's office in Arcadia, a suburb 13 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, is closing this week.

    Slowed down by the consumer shift to online shopping and further decimated by cratering sales during the pandemic, the shop held on by a thread in the months since Kropp cashed out her life insurance policy to keep it afloat.

    "The miracle is coming," Kropp often assured herself. "When you're in a bookstore, you have to be a dreamer."

    But the miracle never

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