Tattered Cover Bookstore is in negotiations to open several additional outlets in Denver International Airport. “Yes, we’re hoping to,” owner and founder Joyce Meskis told CBS4. “It’s in the hands of the city at this point.” She added that Tattered Cover would work with Hudson News and take over various airport store locations, which would then be re-branded under Tattered Cover’s name. Greg Smith, the onetime Goldman Sachs executive who resigned in spectacular fashion with a New York Times op-ed last week, is reported by the paper to be shopping for a book deal. Smith, who is being represented by […]
Bookstores
Investor Tries New Path For Barnes & Noble Break-Up; Flammarion Bidding Moves Forward
Investor Michael Glickstein of G Asset Management, 30, who has been writing letters to the Barnes & Noble board for almost a year asking for a break-up of the company, is trying a new approach. In his newest letter, Bloomberg reported Friday, Glickstein at least theoretically offered to “buy” half of Barnes & Noble College in a spinoff of that division. It’s not clear that G Asset, which appears to be a one-man shop, has available the assets or borrowing power to make such an offer. (G Asset has declared ownership of a modest number of shares of BN stock, […]
Bookselling: Labor Issues At the Strand; Douglas Holdings To Keep Thalia; Nicholas Hoare Stores To Close; and More
WNET’s Metrofocus blog reports on labor issues affecting the Strand Bookstore, where employees are struggling to negotiate with the bookstore’s owners with respect to what they see as a ‘two-tier wage system’, which if not rectified may lead to a strike. The issue stems from the Strand hiring 33-35 non-unionized managers in the past year, and unionized employees were offered a new contract “that would reduce their paid personal days and sick days by nearly half, and nearly double the amount each employee would have to pay for their health insurance premiums.” In addition, a 50 cent-per-six month raise that […]
Holiday Comps Decline Yet Again at Books-a-Million
Books-a-Million reported yet another weak holiday quarter, with same-store sales down 5.7 percent (compared to an ever lower-bar). Sales rose 10.7 percent, to $166.9 million, based on the net addition of 20 stores. While Barnes & Noble had one of their best holiday sales seasons in years, BAM has had at least six consecutive years of negative comps in the quarter. Net income from continuing operations was $7.6 million, up $0.9 million compared to a year ago–but they incurred costs for the quarter of $1.6 million related to the closing of 21 underperforming locations and the opening of 41 new […]
Nantucket’s Two Bookstores to Be Run Together
ReMain Nantucket, the nonprofit organization set up by Wendy Schmidt of The Schmidt Family Foundation that owns the island’s Mitchell’s Book Partners, announced Monday that it is partnering with Nantucket Bookworks owner Wendy Hudson to operate the store. Hudson is creating a new entity, Nantucket Book Partners, that will run both stores. Hudson tells Shelf Awareness, “My vision is to continue to operate the two as unique but complementary sister stores open year-round. We will have one website, one events program, one POS system that can share information, etc., and one unified approach to buying, but we will be able […]
No Sterling Sale for Now
After a lengthy process of soliciting offers to purchase Sterling Publishing, run by investment bank Broadwater & Associates, the targeted completion date of February 29 has come and gone, apparently with no deal in place. People familiar with the bidding process indicate that although there was at least one interested publisher until recently, that company withdrew and there are currently no offers on the table. Sources familiar with the offering cited a number of factors as potential complications to a sale, including a decline in Sterling’s sales through parent company Barnes & Noble’s stores, the separate negotiation of Barnes & […]