Industry | Specialty retail |
---|---|
Founded | 2005 |
Founder | Josh Spencer |
Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | 1 store |
Area served | Los Angeles metropolitan area |
Products | New, used and rare books |
Owner | Josh Spencer |
Number of employees | 50+ |
Website | lastbookstorela |
The Last Bookstore is an independent bookstore located at 453 S Spring Street, Downtown Los Angeles. Conde Nast Traveler called it California’s largest new and used bookstore.[1]
The store was founded in 2005 by Josh Spencer. The first incarnation was a downtown Los Angeles loft. They sold books and other things online only, then focused on books and opened a small bookstore in December 2009 on 4th and Main streets. They moved to the current incarnation in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring Streets on June 3, 2011.[2][3][4] The store is 22,000 square feet.[5] The current store is in a former bank with books on two levels, including the former vault.[further explanation needed]
Vox reported that the store creates visual merchandising through creative displays and book sculptures, which attracts Instagram users, "in the hope of trying to convert Instagram visitors into book purchasers."[5]
In 2021, the bookstore installed a plant wall to the famous book tunnel. There is a restaurant called Yuko Kitchen.[6]
Filmmaker Chad Howitt chronicled The Last Bookstore and its owner, Spencer, in a short documentary titled Welcome to the Last Bookstore, released in 2016. It tells the story of how Spencer was injured as a young man and lost the use of his legs, forcing him to re-examine his life.[7] Los Angeles Film Review called the effort an "ode to resilience."[8]
The bookstore appeared in the 2014 David Fincher movie Gone Girl, and also in the 2018 movie Under the Silver Lake, directed by David Robert Mitchell.[9][10]
The bookstore featured in the 2021 Netflix series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.[11]