As part of Waterstone’s perpetual turnaround efforts in the UK, the chain informed multiple major publishers by e-mail earlier this week that for new titles coming in March they are cutting their initial orders by approximately 20 percent. Publishers were asked to cancel existing pre-orders so that the chain can place new orders at the lower inventory levels. They told publishers that “initial over-ordering of new titles” is continuing to create “substantial unnecessary costs across the supply chain, most notably in returns.” One UK executive noted that “they’re managing their working capital very carefully for obvious reasons” but the good […]
Bookstores
More Highlights From DBW’s First Day
We have lots more DBW coverage from Day 1 over at the PM website. Some of the highlights include: — An outside dose of reality on the future of brick-and-mortar bookselling from Goldman Sachs analyst Matt Fassler and Susquehanna Financial Group’s Marianne Wolk. Fassler was down on B&N’s prospects: “There are no safe investments, but publishers and booksellers are something to avoid” in his assessment, because they don’t control their own destiny. Wolk believes that Amazon makes little to no profit from ebooks as they try to maintain dominant market share, and doesn’t even think it’s a corporate goal to […]
Have Sales Reps Turned Into Marketers?
The sales department is in transition for a variety of reasons–declining bookstores, increased digital sales, an emphasis on just-in-time inventory, and more. At Digital Book World on Tuesday, David Wilk queried Rich Freese from NBN, Alison Lazarus from Macmillan, Michael Selleck from Simon & Schuster and Jaci Updike from Random House on the changes underway and ahead. Clearly the traditional sales rep is turning into more of a local marketing officer, though the exact expression of how that’s working varied among the participants. Lazarus expressed it most dramatically, saying “we’re telling our physical sales reps, ‘don’t sell so many of […]
Indie Bookstores Stay Optimistic in These Digital Times
It was, as expressed in the Q&A session, “a refreshingly upbeat and optimistic panel.” And indeed, the stereotypical gripes and whines that are too often associated with independent bookstores, for legitimate and not-so-legitimate reasons, were not really in evidence Tuesday afternoon. That isn’t to say this was a complaint-free session, as WORD Bookstore’s Stephanie Anderson, Andy Laties of the Eric Carle Museum Bookstore, and Nicole Magistro of The Bookstore of Edwards were pointed in what frustrations they have with publishers, most notably the reluctance to move to more efficient billing practices and the price disparity on non-agency e-books.) Shelf Awareness […]
With Sale of Day by Day Kiosks to Calendar Club, Borders Raises Some Cash
It remains to be seen whether publishers will accept Borders’ proposed plans for renegotiating credit arrangements by the reported February 1 deadline, but the retailer will get at least some cash from the sale of its seasonal calendar kiosk service, Day By Day Calendars, to competitor Calendar Club LLC. The purchase, under negotiation for some time, closed last Wednesday and was announced to Borders staff on Friday by CEO Mike Edwards. In a telephone interview, Calendar Club CEO Marc Winkelman said the deal has been in the works since the fall, when Borders approached Calendar Club along with other prospective […]
ABA Identifies Markets Where Independent Retailers Do Best
A study backed by the ABA looked at over 300 metropolitan areas in the US to see where independent retailers perform the best. The top 15-ranked markets are: 1 Ocean City, NJ 2 Bellingham, WA 3 Medford, OR 4 Carson City, NV 5 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 6 Barnstable Town, MA 7 Austin-Round Rock, TX 8 Dalton, GA 9 Harrisonburg, VA 10 Gainesville, GA 11 Glens Falls, NY 12 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 13 Lewiston, ID-WA 14 Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA 15 Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT Download complete results and analysis