The United Methodist Publishing House will close all 57 of its Cokesbury retail shops — 38 standalone bookstores and 19 operating in seminaries — between January and April 2013, the Tennessean reports. 185 full-time and 100 part-time employees will lose their jobs as a result. “This is just part of the evolution that bookstores are all experiencing,” a company spokesperson told the paper. “The stores have been declining as a percentage of sales for Cokesbury and the cost to operate them have been increasing. They’re no longer financially viable.” They are changing their focus to sell books online and through […]
