Green Apple Books & Music
Bookstore in San Francisco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Green Apple Books is an independent bookstore in the Richmond District of San Francisco, California.[1]
| Green Apple Books | |
|---|---|
 Main store entrance. | |
  Location within San Francisco County | |
General information | |
| Type | Commercial |
| Location | 506 Clement St. San Francisco, California |
| Coordinates | 37.7831°N 122.4647°W |
History
Green Apple Books was founded by Richard Savoy in 1967 in a pre-1906 building at the corner of Clement Street and Sixth Avenue.[2] In 1996, Green Apple Books acquired its long-time neighbor, Revolver Records.[3] By 2005, the store housed over 250,000 titles, as well as 60,000 available online.[4]
After 30 years, Richard Savoy proposed a ten-year buy-out plan in 1997 for Green Apple Books & Music with three long-time employees, with the sale completing in 2008.[2][5]
In 2014, Green Apple partnered with Le Video store on 9th Ave. The store was renamed Green Apple Books on the Park. The downstairs was turned into a Green Apple bookstore while the upstairs remained a video rental store (100,000 titles).[6] This location hosts almost all of the author talks and events for Green Apple.[5]
In 2019, Green Apple bought the bookstore Browser Books on Fillmore Street, keeping the Browser name.[7] The expansions helped the bookstores to stay afloat amid the death-by-digital struggle of book retailers by scaling up.[5]
In 2021, Green Apple downsized the Clement Street store back to its original pre-1996 size, cutting back its inventory of DVDs, magazines, records and gifts.[8][9]
In 2024, A Green Apple location opened inside San Francisco International Airport in Terminal 1.[10][9][11]
In 2026, the Green Apple Books on the Park location opened its upstairs to a coworking and social space for writers.[12][13]
Reception
In 2001, San Francisco Chronicle described it as a "wonderfully creaky maze of a store."[14]
Green Apple Books was voted "Best Used Books Store" by the SF Weekly editorial staff in 2005[15] and the readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian in 2006.[16]
Green Apple Books was named Publishers Weekly's best bookstore of 2014.[17][5]
Nicole Clark described Green Apple in The Bold Italic as the opposite of a big-box store, that was enjoyable to spend time in and discover new books.[18]
The Frisc credited its 'disheveled charm' as a factor in its longevity.[5]