Berkeley’s iconic head shop Annapurna closes for good after 53 years

After announcing its imminent closure in August 2023, and a year after receiving an eviction notice, Annapurna, the legendary head shop on Telegraph Avenue has finally closed for good. 

The last day of operations was Feb. 2, according to shop owner, Al Geyer, who announced the closing on Facebook.

The five-story building that Annapurna called home for more than 50 years, at 2416 Telegraph Ave. (at Channing), was sold to The Berkeley Group in December 2023 for $15 million. Geyer did not have a lease when the sale went through.

Geyer received an eviction notice in January 2024 but said at the time, “I think I’m going to make sure that this doesn’t go as smoothly as they would normally find.”

That was the kind of rebel spirit that defined Annapurna from the outset. 

Geyer founded his first head shop, Kathmandu, on April 20, 1969 (yes, 420), the same day that People’s Park was founded. He opened Annapurna in 1972 and ran both shops until Kathmandu closed in 1976. That same year, Geyer was interviewed by Geraldo Rivera for Good Morning America after California passed the Moscone Act, which changed the penalty for possessing a small amount of marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor in the state.

I think I’m going to make sure that this doesn’t go as smoothly as they would normally find.

Geyer was also heavily involved in community affairs and founded the New Telegraph Merchants Association with Amoeba Records co-founder Marc Weinstein in the early 2000s. He was, he said, “trying to keep Telegraph real.”

“Annapurna was central to the alternative culture world on Telegraph,” Weinstein told Berkeleyside in 2023. “There are still a lot of smoke shops around, but they don’t have that association. You could smell it and feel it the minute you walked in there. It was like a living historical marker in Berkeley that will no longer be there, and that’s too bad.”