Australian retailer Booktopia announced that it would cut 30 to 40 jobs (or 10 to 15 percent of employees) and implement other cost-cutting plans, “to improve shareholder returns and in response to changing consumer sentiment, greater competition online and inflation.” A company spokesperson told the Brisbane Times that the layoffs are predominantly in “administrative roles.” Booktopia chairman Peter George said, “Letting some of our talented staff go as part of these cost-cutting initiatives is a disappointing but necessary step in these economic times.” He also noted, “Booktopia is focused on building a profitable, sustainable business in the interests of all […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: More Barnes On the Move
There may be a lot of these short items this year, as Barnes & Noble adjusts their real estate portfolio — opening, but also closing, a number of stores. In Philadelphia, the chain will close their big two-story Walnut Street store in Rittenhouse on February 15 after more than 25 years there. They will move to a smaller location on Chestnut Street in the spring. Near Sacramento, CA, later this month they will close their store at The Promenade at Sacramento Gateway in Natomas.
Bookselling: Another Longtime BN Closes
The latest closing announcement: The Barnes & Noble in Paramus, NJ will close February 11 after 28 years in that location because “the landlord has chosen not to renew our lease and will be redeveloping the site.” The store said online, “Unfortunately we don’t have a location for our new building yet, but we will be back.”
Bookselling: B&N to Open Store in the Hamptons
Barnes & Noble will open a store in Bridgehampton Commons, its first location in the Hamptons, in summer 2023. (In November, they added another Long Island store, in Riverhead.) CEO James Daunt says, “We are very happy to be bringing a bookstore to Bridgehampton, a community we have wanted to be a part of for many, many years. We do so at a time when there is renaissance in reading underway, with bookstores bursting with energy.”
Barnes & Noble to Switch More Locations
Barnes & Noble will close their longtime store in Framingham, MA in January, but expect to open a new 18,000-square-foot location nearby in Natick, MA in the spring. Similarly, in Tampa, FL, they will vacate a longtime space of almost 20,000 square feet and open a new 10,000-square-foot location in Westshore in February.
Barnes & Noble Part of “Big-Box Revival”
The WSJ touts Barnes & Noble’s previously-announced store expansion plans as part of a bigger trend, as “several other big-box retailers are expanding again after years of shutting stores, a sign of the industry’s resilience emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic.” The bookseller has said it has “over 30 stores in development for 2023.” BN CEO James Daunt says, “We’ve now got both the profitability and the confidence to start opening up stores again.” The story concedes that, “Many of the new bookstores are smaller in size and opening in markets where larger locations had closed.” Often much smaller, as the […]