Retailers of all kinds have been looking for creative ways to stretch the important holiday shopping period since this year’s late Thanksgiving provides the shortest possible span of 26 days until Christmas. (And Hannukah actually begins on Thanksigiving day.) Barnes & Noble has responded by inventing “Discovery Friday” for November 22, “created to serve as the official launch of the holiday shopping season and help customers experience the thrill of discovering the perfect gifts for friends and family.” On that day, “Barnes & Noble’s booksellers will be on the front lines to provide personalized recommendations.” Their stores will also feature a […]
Bookstores
Some End-of-Year Barnes & Noble Store Closings
Barnes & Noble often closes a handful of stores around the end of calendar year due to expiring leases that are not renewed. We charted reports of 8 such closings at the end of 2012, and 7 at the end of 2011. So far this season, we have spotted news of another 6 store closings due at the end of this year, for locations in Chestnut Hill, MA; Boylston Street, Boston, MA; University Park Village and Sundance Square in Ft. Worth, TX; Old Pasadena, CA; and Columbia, SC. In June, at the close of their fiscal year, the company said […]
S&S Celebrates Indies
As part of the build-up to the success Small Business Saturday program (on November 30) Simon & Schuster has created a Shop Local video featuring many of the publisher’s authors “praising the role of independent booksellers as community centers,” also including shots of many well-known indie stores. This page showcases the video along with downloadable promotional banners stores can use.
ABA Opposes Amazon Source Because, Well, It’s From Amazon
American Booksellers Association ceo Oren Teicher released a statement regarding the Amazon Source initiative. He is, as you might expect, opposed to the program, though the rationale is not entirely clear. Perhaps primarily, he just doesn’t like the company: “Given Amazon’s aggressive corporate tactics and their long-standing strategy to avoid the collection of sales tax, we don’t see this new program as being at all credible.” In one part of the statement, Teicher actually laments that the new Amazon program is only available to some of the organization’s members: “Based on available information, independent bookstores in more than half the […]
Amazon Courts Independent Retailers With Kindle Sales Program
Amazon’s ongoing attempt to convince independent retailers to sell Kindle devices and ebooks persisted a little bit more with the formalization of program under the name Amazon Source. The company touts Source as a way for “independent bookstores and other retailers to sell Kindle devices and accessories, and earn money while doing so” through programs tailored for small businesses. At least two bookstores in Washington state, the University of Puget Sound Campus Bookstore and JJ Books, tested out Amazon Source in a pilot program. Source presents two options to retailers: Buy Kindle devices at a 6 percent discount and earn a […]
Bookselling: Publishers Stop Supplying Chapitre, In-Store Browsing, and RiverRun Expands
After France’s second-largest book chain Chapitre announced their intention to sell all of their stores — or close any that remain unsold by next summer — the country’s publishers have been reluctant to supply it with stock, which only diminishes the value of those stores and accelerates the sale process for parent company Actissia (owned by Najafi Companies). The Bookseller picks up on an AFP report (in French) that says Hachette Livre, France’s largest publisher, is among those not shipping to the account. The company says in a statement, “The Virgin experience [Virgin Megastores in France went bankrupt earlier this […]