Bcrnes & Noble announced plans to open a new concept store in Plano, TX’s Legacy West development, the Dallas Morning News reports (based on the developer’s press release). Notably the store, set to open in March and including a restaurant and bar like BN’s other new concept stores, will be measure just 9,000 square feet in size. BN vp, development David Deason explained in a statement: “We are excited to be opening a smaller format store, as part of a number of different concept stores that we’re testing nationwide.” Belmont, MA will see a new independent bookstore, Belmont Books, open next March as well, […]
Bookstores
Another Amazon Books Store Planned, for Chicago In 2017
The latest confirmed future location of an Amazon Books store is 3443 N. Southport Avenue in Chicago (in the Lakeview area, not far from Wrigley Field). It was first reported speculatively on the Southport Corridor blog, and then confirmed by Amazon. It’s a 7,200-square-foot retail space — similar to, but larger than, the current Amazon Books store in Seattle, which is 5,500 square feet. Their La Jolla store (in University Towne Center Mall) is still due to open this summer. A third store in the Portland, OR area (in the Washington Square Mall) has been hiring staff since earlier this summer, with […]
Bookselling: Penguin Shop Opens in Toronto; Milkweed Bookstore Opens in September; and More
The lobby of Penguin Random House Canada’s offices in Toronto now includes a 158-square foot bookshop, Penguin Shop. PRH Canada ceo Brad Martin said in the announcement: “We are continually in search of innovative ways to bring the books we are so proud to publish to readers. As such, we see Penguin Shop as a research and development lab–a place where we can interact directly with consumers.” Penguin Shop has one employee, Justin Sorbara-Hosker, who is helped by volunteers from the PRH Canada offices upstairs. Milkweed Editions’ expansion into bookselling, Milkweed Books, is set to soft-launch in early September and […]
Results Steady At WH Smith, But…
On Wednesday WH Smith issued a short trading notice in advance of their annual results on August 31, saying the report will be “in line with expectations.” Simple enough. That release inspired an equally short but potentially confusing Bloomberg piece that declares, “In the era of Facebook and Twitter, a British newspaper seller pre-dating Queen Victoria is providing bigger gains for investors than modern technology. Over the last five years, WH Smith shares have eclipsed an index that also includes Apple and Google, even as its sales have maintained a steady decline.” Yes, WH Smith’s stock rose sharply between January […]
People, Etc.
At St. Martin’s, Lisa Senz has been promoted to vp, associate publisher, reporting to Jennifer Enderlin. Jackie Cantor will join Gallery Books as senior editor on August 29. Most recently she was executive editor at Berkley. Jessica Schmidt will join Running Press as director of marketing and publicity on September 14, working out of the Philadelphia offices. Previously she was director of sales and subsidiary rights at The Story Plant. Cara Raguz joins BlueBottleBiz as marketing coordinator. Previously she worked in the field marketing department at Nimble Storage. Awards Marilynne Robinson has won the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award […]
Barnes & Noble Fires CEO Boire; Will Try Again
After the close of the market on Tuesday, Barnes & Noble announced that the board of directors “determined that [CEO Ron] Boire was not a good fit for the organization and that it was in the best interests of all parties for him to leave the company.” As a result, executive chairman Len Riggio will postpone his planned retirement this September “until a later date.” The undistinguished tenure of Boire lasted a little less than a year. In that time, the company failed to recover from the botched relaunch of their website and continue to lose online sales. They also failed to […]