I applaud the owner for thinking outside the box for ways to raise additional revenue, with his 'Graphic Novel of the Month Club'. Hilarious that people would think that the new laws would not apply to their favorite store.
And just imagine if Mr. Hibbs did the Book of the Month club
without having to pay artificially higher labor costs.
I originally found that story by reference from in an article on Forbes (
here). The Forbes author explains what's happening in abstract economic terms. Mr. Hibbs is trying to reduce his labor costs through increased productivity. This manifests as fewer workers (or fewer hours for the same workers) vs what he would have needed to do the same amount of business before the wage hike.
So the higher minimum wage has an opportunity cost of reduced employment. And, interestingly, that loss of employment will never register in the unemployment rates.
Mr Hibbs' business will probably survive, but nobody will ever know of the workers he could/would have hired but didn't due to the wage hike.