"Last stand for newsstand" by Peter Rowe, San Diego Union-Tribune 12/5/2019
Paras, a North Park institution for 70 years, will close Dec 29, a victim of Internet, its owner says
Todd Viter didn’t notice the large signs when he walked into Paras Newsstand to buy Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times.
Then someone told him what they said: “Store Closing/ Everything Must Be Sold!”
“I’m shocked,” said Viter, 51, learning that owners Ken and Ann Gabbara plan to close Paras by year’s end. “I love the history stuff he has — the World War II magazines and stuff about after World War II. I’m disappointed.”
For 70 years, this shop near the corner of University Avenue and 30th Street has sold cigars, gum, newspapers and magazines. Magazines by the ton. There are now about 2,500 unique titles on Paras’ racks, the county’s largest stockpile of current periodicals. For readers like David Harrell, a fan of railroad monthlies, and Edgar Hall, a Soap Opera Digest devotee, there’s no place like Paras.
To wander the crowded aisles is to immerse yourself in hobbies, vocations, passions. Turn a corner and there’s every conceivable publication for anglers: Ice Fishing, Sportfishing, Pacific Coast Sportfishing, Fly Fisherman, Bassin’. A nearby shelf holds some of Harrell’s favorites: Trains, Railway, Locomotive, Great Train Stations, Passenger Train Journal, Railfan & Railroad, Tramways & Urban Transit: The International Light Rail Magazine.
“Some of the bestsellers are magazines about cars, planes, boats, guns and the literary stuff,” said Kent Snyder, a Paras employee. “Then there are the weeklies — you know, the tabloids.”
After Snyder’s hiring in July 1986, some mornings he’d find impatient fans of The Globe and The National Enquirer lined up outside the door.
“The little old ladies would be standing out on the corner,” Snyder. “The owner would say, ‘Just a minute, ladies.’”
At Paras, these mob scenes are history though the store still carries History, National Geographic History, All About History, Current History. There are still regulars who come in for newspapers and magazines they can’t find elsewhere, but nearly as many consumers buy candy or coffee. There’s also a steady flock of browsers who use their cell phones to snap photos of intriguing covers, then seek those publications online.
“We tried hard, we put up a good fight,” said Ken Gabbara, who bought this shop with his wife in 2007. “But Mr. Internet is winning the war and there’s nothing I can do about that.”
‘Another family’
On this site in 1949, Frank Hill opened a cigar and notions shop. Four years later, he sold the place to Chris Paras, who began stocking reading material. By the 1970s, Paras boasted an impressive selection of out-of-town newspapers. Visitors from Miami popped in to buy the Herald, New Yorkers to peruse the Post and the Times, Chicagoans the Tribune, Seattleites the Post-Intelligencer.
Most of those newspapers are no longer delivered to Paras, as publishers encourage far-flung readers to subscribe to digital editions. The magazine inventory, though, continued to swell, prompting Paras to expand in 1995 and again in 1996.
“Even with the Internet, the business has been pretty steady,” Snyder said. “It’s only in the last couple of years that it’s gone down.”
Besides North Park, there were Paras newsstands in Ocean Beach and La Mesa. In 1987, the Paras family sold the North Park shop to two brothers, Michael and Rocky Attallah. Twenty years later, they sold to the Gabbaras.
The couple added snacks, souvenirs, candles, jewelry and other items to the store. But the backbone of Paras — pronounced like the French capital, Paris — remains the many, many magazines.
This is the place if you want the latest issue of Sea Classics, Classic Boat, Wooden Boat, Good Old Boat or just plain Boat. Where enthusiasts scope out Guns & Ammo, Gun Digest, and Precision Rifle Shooter. Where do-it-themselfers pick up Old House Journal, New Old House, Home & Design, House & Garden, Homes & Gardens, Southern Home and San Diego Home/Garden.
And it’s where Edgar Hall has been buying Soap Opera Digest for the last 15 years.
“I’m not going to be happy about this,” Hall said of the impending closure. “I’ve gotten to know the staff here. It’s almost like having another family.”
One final Sunday
Like video rental stores, newspapers, shopping malls and other institutions upended by online competition, Paras Newsstand’s inefficiencies are part of its charm. A No. 6 bus stops right outside the shop’s open door, and the driver yells a good-natured gibe at Ken Gabbara. Street people wander in, buying the occasional coffee, chocolate bar or sticks of incense. David Harrell, 83, knows he could buy the Los Angeles Times at newsboxes close to his downtown residence, but he’d rather take the bus to Paras.
“I don’t like the street machines at all,” he said. “Sometimes, you lose your money.”
“We’ve formed a lot of good relationships,” said Ken Gabbara, 66. “We’re very lucky.”
Gabbara said he’s still making ends meet at Paras, but the store’s profits are shrinking while he and his wife’s health issues are expanding. He’d like to find a buyer for this store, but now plans to stay open only through Dec 29, the Sunday after Christmas.
“I want everyone to be able to pick up their Sunday papers,” he said.
On the walls of Paras, above shelves holding the John Wayne Ultimate Puzzle Book, Hawaii Weddings and Dapper Dan, some of the many stories written about this institution are framed. The headline on one: “We’ll Always Have Paras.”
Not sure. Nor, it seems, will we always have a place to buy the latest Paris Review, Cuba Plus, New Eastern Europe, Sactown, Tahoe, Salt Lake, Los Angeles or San Diego Magazine.
No comments:
Post a Comment