The investigation by the UK’s House of Commons into multinational companies that pay little or no income tax to the British government on considerable revenues generated from UK customers has produced at least a little something tangible. Earlier in the month Amazon broke out for the first time sales from Amazon.co.uk over the past three years. (The committee document–found via the Bookseller–suggests they thought it was provided “on a confidential basis.”) Amazon’s UK sales were £2.910 billion in 2011; £2.360 billion in 2010; and £1.865 billion in 2009. Their Luxembourg subsidiary collected and remitted £416 million in UK VAT in […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: The Book Stall in Conversation With Potential New Owners; Mobile Libris Needs New Buyer By December 31
Owner of the Book Stall in Winnetka, IL Roberta Rubin, who has been preparing to retire after 30 years of running the store, tells the Chicago Tribune she’s “in conversation with three prospective buyers and is confident one will be able to close the deal.” In May Rubin said she was “plotting an exit strategy” though at the time the store was not formally up for sale. She had told the Sun-Times, “I’m talking to people who might be interested in buying it, but I’m still making that decision.” Rubin said her store turned a profit over the past year–after […]
Bookselling: That Bookstore in Blytheville Finds New Buyer; WHSmith High Street Comps Drop 5 Percent
Arkansas-based independent That Bookstore in Blytheville, which looked like it was going to close this week, has found a new buyer, Arkansas Business reports. Grant Hill told the paper he was “working with Southern Bancorp and the Greater Blytheville Area Chamber of Commerce to secure the $35,000 needed to buy the business” from owner Mary Gay Shipley, who put the store up for sale in February. Shipley confirmed the purchase, saying “We are getting to a contract and hope to be able to make an announcement soon.” In the UK, WHSmith said in a brief update that high street sales […]
UK Committee Aims to Embarrass Amazon and Google for Avoiding UK Taxes
The British Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee staged a nice bit of theater Monday, designed to embarrass large multinationals that conduct significant business in the UK while paying little or no income tax–but in the end the government may simply embarrass itself. Testimony was elicited from officials from Google, Starbucks and Amazon, though it’s not clear that the committee has the power to compel these companies to say anything other than what they have already stated publicly. Amazon’s Brussels-based director of public policy Andrew Cecil declined to disclose their UK sales multiple times, saying “We have not disclosed those figures ever publicly.” By all […]
Indigo Falls on Lower Book Sales and Delayed Devices
Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo reported a 5.9 percent decrease in sales of $185.6 million for the fiscal second quarter. Though the company sold their stake in Kobo, they still blame “a delay in the planned launch of the new Kobo devices” as the primary cause of the revenue drop. They claim “book sales for the quarter were down only modestly” yet the superstores sales comps were down 6.5 percent, and small-format store comps fell 2.2 percent. Their operating loss of $5.9 million was much better than a year ago–but that’s because they had a major writedown against Kobo’s goodwill last […]
Bookselling: All 57 Cokesbury Stores to Close; Argosy Book Store Suffers Storm Damage; and More
The United Methodist Publishing House will close all 57 of its Cokesbury retail shops — 38 standalone bookstores and 19 operating in seminaries — between January and April 2013, the Tennessean reports. 185 full-time and 100 part-time employees will lose their jobs as a result. “This is just part of the evolution that bookstores are all experiencing,” a company spokesperson told the paper. “The stores have been declining as a percentage of sales for Cokesbury and the cost to operate them have been increasing. They’re no longer financially viable.” They are changing their focus to sell books online and through […]