Half-century old Berkeley shop Annapurna will close permanently.
Screenshot via Google
Berkeley shop Annapurna will close permanently after over half a century in business by the end of the year.
Owner Al Geyer isn’t sure of the exact closing date, as he’s still figuring out what will become of his store. For now, everything is priced at 50% off. The impending closure was first reported by Berkeleyside.
Geyer, 78, said he has been looking to retire and sell his store for the past year and found a number of interested buyers. He finally secured an agreement with one, but then says he found out that his landlord — the same landlord he’s had for all 51 years — was selling the building and the new owner wouldn’t allow a shop that sold cannabis paraphernalia to continue operating. The deal fell apart, Geyer said, and now he’s in a sort of limbo as he figures out when he’ll have to vacate the property.
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Requests for comment from the building owners weren’t returned to SFGATE as of publication time.
“There’s a big movement against cannabis and head shops and against, honestly, anything counterculture,” Geyer said. “It has to do with a diminishing attitude towards anything alternative, anything that isn’t oriented particularly towards students because they live in this area.”
Half-century old Berkeley shop Annapurna will close permanently.
Jenny F. via Yelp.
The iconic store on Telegraph Avenue is more than just a head shop; it was a pioneer of the counterculture movement stretching back to the 1960s. Geyer opened his first store, Kathmandu, in Berkeley in 1969, selling cannabis paraphernalia, Nepalese lost-wax bronzes, incense and books. He ran both stores for years, while also operating an online wholesale business that sold cannabis paraphernalia throughout the U.S.
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