Borderlands Books in San Francisco, which announced last month it was set to close as a result of the city’s new law mandating minimum wage increases, will stay open thanks to a membership drive. Not only did the store reach its goal of 300 subscribers contributing at least $100 to keep the store open through March 31, 2016, but Borderlands co-owner Alan Beatts told the SF Chronicle it now has more than 500 sponsors. “It’s been incredible,” Beatts said. “I had no idea that this would get so much attention from the press, from the public. I was astonished by […]
Bookstores
Barnes & Noble to Spin Off College Business As Separate, Public Company
Barnes & Noble filed a registration statement with the SEC to separate BN College into a separate, publicly-traded company, which will operate as Barnes & Noble Education Inc. They say “the separation is intended to be a tax-free distribution to Barnes & Noble shareholders and is anticipated to be completed by the end of August 2015.” Investors welcomed the news, with the stock rising 7 percent to roughly $26 a share in early morning trading, the highest it has been since 2009. The company politely admits that combining the once private BN College with the BN retail stores and declining Nook […]
People, Etc.
In the Riverhead publicity department, Claire McGinnis has been promoted to senior publicity manager; Liz Hohenadel moves up to publicity manager; and Margaret Delaney is now associate publicist. The ABA nominated Pete Mulvihill at Green Apple Books in San Francisco to join the board, with Valerie Koehler (Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston) and Jonathon Welch (Talking Leaves…Books, Buffalo) put up for second three-year terms. As planned, current board vp Betsy Burton (The King’s English Bookshop, Salt Lake City) will move up to president for a two-year term at the end of May, with Robert Sindelar (Third Place Books becoming vice president/secretary), subject to ratification by ABA membership. Deputy director […]
In Bankruptcy Court, Questions About Plan to Sell Family Christian Stores Back to Itself
There was no hiding the suspicious reorganization strategy being pursued by Family Christian Stores in a bankruptcy court hearing earlier this week. Family Christian Ministries has proposed selling the stores from one FCM subsidiary to another, new subsidiary. No other changes are proposed across the 266 stores and roughly 4,000 employees; the sole point of the reorganization is to clean out their creditors and start all over again. In the initial announcement, FCS ceo Chuck Bengochea said, “We strive to serve God in all that we do and trust His guidance in all our decisions, especially this very important one.” In a video […]
ABA News: 54 New Stores In 2014, and Winter Institute Buzz Authors
In the lead up to next week’s tenth annual Winter Institute, the ABA noted that they tabulated 54 new member stores selling new books in 2014: 45 new bookstores, and 9 new branches or satellites of existing members (plus another 5 stores primarily selling used books). Perhaps more significantly, they also charted sales of 28 ABA member businesses to new owners. (The story includes a complete list of new stores and new owners.) At their dedicated WI mini-site the ABA lists all of the many authors who will appear at next week’s event, and we have already run our seasonal […]
Daily Amazon: Flame Out On Tablet Sales, Interest In Radio Shack, and More
Suspicions about broad weakness in the market for new tablets were confirmed by the latest fourth quarter Tablet Tracker report from International Data Corporation. Apple already reported that iPad sales declined to 21.4 million units in the holiday quarter, still the dominant player in the market. More surprisingly, IDC says that Amazon shipped only 1.7 million Fire tablets across the line, despite refreshing their offerings last September. By IDC’s count, Amazon’s tablet shipments were down almost 70 percent from 5.8 million units in Q4 2013. Similarly, the company estimates Amazon shipped only 3.3 million tablets all year last year, down […]