Meet Josh Spencer of The Last Bookstore in DTLA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Spencer.

Josh, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started selling books online in the late 90s just to pay the bills when I couldn’t get hired as a disabled person. I did that until 2009 when a friend convinced me to open up a brick and mortar bookstore as well. I started out with a small location first and then a year and a half later in 2011 opened the gigantic space we’re still in.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has been a mix. I’ve been fortunate to have really creative and hardworking people come on board since the beginning, to do all the many things I can’t because of my disability or because I’m just not wired to do what they do! So that part was smooth. The right people seemed to appear at the right time, more often than not. The rough flip side of that has been managing people, difficult for me because I’m more of an introvert and I don’t enjoy drama or conflict. Thankfully I’ve been married to two women during my ownership who were great with people and who helped me get through relationship challenges in the course of business that I would have fumbled for sure. Other than that, the other big challenge has just been competing with Amazon as a bookstore! I’m sure everyone understands what that’s like.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We sell books and records! Used, New, Collectible, Rare…all of the above! We add thousands of new books and records to our shelves every week, sometimes tens of thousands. But we’re mostly known for the experience of coming to our store. We worked hard to make it a place that stirs the imagination. It’s in a 100+ years old bank building and we went for a steampunk aesthetic and made all sorts of visually interesting eye candy made of books. I’m proud that we created a visually and mentally stimulating environment that people from all over the world seem to really enjoy exploring.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Los Angeles is a melting pot. It has a bad rap for being ugly or shallow or without a defining personality, but I don’t think that’s true across the board. There is a ton of creativity in nearly every person you meet. Anything you can imagine, you can find here. I don’t think it’s easy to start or run a business here, but it’s a good place to try because there is enough variety of people here that there’s a clientele for anything done well or differently. The mass of people makes it a lot easier than doing business in a small town (which I also do, owning a little bookstore in Bend, Oregon).

Contact Info:

• Address: 453 S Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90013
• Website: lastbookstoreLA.com
• Phone: 213-488-0599
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @lastbookstoreLA
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lastbookstore/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lastbookstorela
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-last-bookstore-los-angeles

Image Credit:
Jenna Spencer, James Martinez, Jordan Nakamura, Lex Voight

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