People, Etc. - Publishers Lunch

Annette Pollert-Morgan joins Bloomsbury Children’s as editorial director. She was editorial director at Sourcebooks Fire.

Distribution
Hopkins Fulfillment Services, a distributor for university presses and non-profit institutions, will begin distributing Wesleyan University Press in January 2019.

Ingram Publisher Services will distribute science fiction and fantasy publisher Grim Oak Press.

Bookselling
Tara Goldberg-DeLeo and Kristy Bodnar have purchased the Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, PA near Pittsburgh. They plan to expand the children’s section and increase the store’s online presence.

Run for Cover Books & Cafe is set to open in San Diego, CA later this year.

Bronx River Books will open in the village of Scarsdale, NY “in late summer or early fall.”

As for larger-scale mall retail, Taubman Centers cfo Billy Taubman spoke to the WSJ about their investments in “experiential retail,” including the mall in Short Hill, NJ. He touts “Indigo, we’re bringing it in from Canada—it’s a 30,000-square-foot bookstore. The cooking department has a chef every evening and on the weekends, cooking, demonstrating.” (Additionally a Canada Goose outlet will have a 12-degree cold room to test coats.) His larger points is that signature malls remain a growth business: “Destination retail centers continue to improve and gain market share. They are not in a recession. Our efforts to reinvigorate the [Beverly] center [in LA] are already paying off…. Even with the project not yet completed, its sales per square foot has grown by double digits. If this trend continues, sales will reach historic levels this year.