Barnes & Noble has agreed upon a lease extension for a Fort Worth, TX store in University Park Village after indicating last month the outlet would close at the end of the lease. The mall manager says “we never wanted them to leave, as Barnes & Noble brings more to a property than simply rental income.”Star-Telegram In Bellingham, WA The Bookworm Burrow opens later this month, selling new and used children’s books.Herald But the news is not good for a couple of other stores. Chattanooga’s largest remaining independent store Rock Point Books will close in December after four years in […]
Bookstores
Borders Said to Plan Closing of LaVergne Distribution Center; Employees Speculate On Store Closings
Tennessee labor officials disclosed that Borders Group has begun eliminating another 96 jobs from their 564,000-square-foot distribution center in La Vergne, which the Nashville Post now says will close entirely on December 23. The company has had at least two rounds of layoffs at that facility earlier in this, attributed in part to the relocation of their returns center to Pennsylvania in March and a reduction in their customer call center in August. As of a year ago the center was reported to employ more than 600 people. We requested further clarification from the company, but have not heard back […]
An Update On Politics & Prose’s Sale Process, And A Look at A New Model Gaining In DC
Washington’s City Paper has a long look at the sale process underway at Politics & Prose. Talking to business appraiser and broker Jeff Jones, they say a typical successful bookstore would sell for approximately 15 percent of annual sales plus the value of the inventory, leading them to a rough estimate of tangible assets (before goodwill) worth $3 million. Complications include a lease that is set to expire in two years (which Barbara Meade is renegotiating now), and a cafe arrangement that expires in 2014. The big intangible is that “no accountant will ever truly figure out is how much […]
Nook Launches “The First Reader’s Tablet”; Pairs with Books-A-Million, and Says Sales Are Over A Million Units
Barnes & Noble introduced the expected Nook Color at a splashy press conference on Tuesday afternoon convened in their own backyard, on the fourth floor of their Union Square store–which was transformed into a nightclub-style space for the event. What is it may be the most asked–or mis-answered–question in the days to come. Contrary to many press reports, it’s not a true tablet, and even though it has an Android operating system this is not a device to compete with the wave of notPads coming from Samsung, Dell, Blackberry, Motorola and others. It’s a touchscreen color ereader that integrates other […]
Seattle Judge Agrees with Amazon’s First Amendment Argument and Blocks North Carolina’s Sales Tax Request
US District Judge Marsha Pechman agreed with the argument that North Carolina’s request from Amazon for personal customer data that could be matched to their purchase records violates the First Amendment. She affirmed that an individual’s purchases of books, music, and other products is protected. Pechman indicated that the state was free to make a new request for customer data “provided it destroys any detailed information that the department currently possesses.”Bloomberg
Craft and Sentiment In Bookselling and Publishing: McNally Jackson Books, and Canada’s Gaspereau Press
Poets & Writers has a long featured interview with New York City bookseller Sarah McNally. The store is successful even without any ecommerce, but McNally talks candidly about her process of rethinking potential changes while remaining focused on her mission. “We opened without knowing what the hell we were doing, but somewhere along the line we’ve become a good bookstore. And I feel confident that we’re a good bookstore. But who cares in 2010? Does anyone care whether you’re a good bookstore? Is that enough? I don’t know.” McNally says her vision has been to provide “a community center for […]