Watermark Books & Cafe in Wichita, Kansas, has been sold to new owners after 30 years. Erin and Ryan Potter bought the store from longtime owner Sarah Bagby. The new owners said their goals are “to ensure a smooth transition,” “listening and learning to see how we can best support the staff,” and continuing the store’s legacy. The store was listed for $247,000, not including inventory of approximately $250,000. Erin Potter told the Wichita Eagle, “We’re going to lean on the staff a lot to continue to support the store in the day-to-day, but one of our goals is to […]
Bookstores
McNally Jackson Will Host Biannual Book Festival
McNally Jackson announced that it is launching a book festival based at its Seaport location, with events held twice a year in spring and fall. The first festival will take place this spring from May 7 through June with the theme “archives, historiography, and legacies.” Vulture writes that it will include a “series of talks, a print zine, and a phone-free closing party (involving “a secret lineup” and a musical guest).” McNally Jackson founder and owner Sarah McNally says she hopes the festival will provide “more access to high-level intellectual conversations in the city” and extend publicity for books beyond […]
Former Tattered Cover CEO Will Try Again As A Denver Bookseller
Kwame Spearman, who failed to turn around the Tattered Cover bookstores as ceo and left to pursue a career in politics, will try again as a bookseller. Spearman purchased 9,000-square-foot building at 1700 Humboldt St. in Denver’s City Park West with partner Rich Garvin, a San Francisco philanthropist, for $2.9 million. His redevelopment plans include a 3,500-square-foot bookstore, called Denver Book Society, which he hopes to have open by spring 2026. Spearmen tells Business Den, “Books that you can easily find on Amazon, you can find on Amazon. You come into our store and have a best-in-class staff opportunity that […]
B&N Workers in NYC Ratify Union Contracts
Workers at three Barnes & Noble locations in New York ratified their union contracts with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), the first such contracts for the nation’s largest bookstore chain. The contracts cover more than 200 workers at the Union Square flagship store, West 82nd Street, and Park Slope. The contracts include wage increases (bringing the starting wage from $18 to $19), union healthcare, safety equipment and language, layoff protections, job and pay security, and more. The contracts have slight variations for each store, RWDSU said in a release. “The ratification of this contract represents three years […]
Shakespeare & Co. Closes Two NYC Stores
Shakespeare & Co. closed two of its three remaining locations, on West 105 Street and Broadway, and at 939 Lexington Avenue, in New York City. Its 105th St. location has only been there a year, while the Lexington Avenue store has been in place for over 20 years, and serves as the official bookstore and merchandiser for Hunter College. Shakespeare & Co. co-owner Dane Neller told West Side Rag, “It was a really great landlord, a wonderful community. Love the neighborhood, love the customers. But, he added, “we just weren’t able to get to the sales level we needed to […]
ABA’s Hill On the “Values-Focused” Work, As “Amazon Owns the Playing Field”
ABA ceo Allison Hill reflects on her five years leading the organization, ahead of a commemoration of the ABA’s 125th anniversary at Winter Institute next week. Her focus has been to “transform ABA into a values-focused organization over the past 5 years. It’s always been a mission-driven organization, but we’ve worked really hard to define our values and focus our work, using those values as a North Star.” More broadly, she says: “The challenges booksellers have faced during my time in the industry have been a roller coaster. “It was, ‘oh no, e-books are coming,’ but now we’re in a […]