Bookstores

UBS issued a rare downgrade on Amazon’s stock, with analyst Eric Sheridan basing part of that call on a recent survey to explore whether the company could charge more for Prime. On Amazon’s recent fourth quarter earnings call, the company said it was considering raising the annual fee by $20 to $40. Sheridan writes: “Our survey results call into question our prior views about the value that a broad set of consumers are applying to the current iteration of Amazon Prime.” He adds, “We were negatively surprised by the results of the survey.” The downgrade and survey weighed on Amazon’s […]

France’s bankrupt second-largest bookstore chain Chapitre completed its dissolution with the court approved sale of 8 more stores, and the formal closure of the remaining 23 locations they were unable to sell, out of a total of 57 branches. France’s Les Echos says 434 jobs will be eliminated as a result — including 100 jobs at company headquarters — or a third of their workforce. Chapitre’s owner Actissia announced last summer that it intended to sell the chain outright and, if it could not find a buyer, would close all stores by summer 2014. Eleven stores had closed last December, with […]

And if you have to ask, the implied — but not particularly explicit — answer is no. George Packer looks at Amazon and the book business in this week’s New Yorker. Much of the piece will be familiar to our readers. He does find evidence of a forgotten Amazon imprint from late 1999 from former employee James Marcus, when “Amazon tried publishing books, leasing the rights to a defunct imprint called Weathervane and putting out a few titles,” mostly revived remainders. “Weathervane fell into an oblivion so complete that there’s no trace of it on the Internet. (Representatives at the […]