Amazon vp for global public policy Paul Misener told a Connecticut legislative committee in written testimony that if the state adopts a proposed law which “sets a nexus test of $2,000 in quarterly sales generated over four consecutive quarters by in-state affiliates,” Amazon would “would simply sever affiliate advertising relationships with Connecticut residents.” The etailer just took a similar step in Colorado. One association estimates that approximately 2,000 Connecticut small businesses are Amazon affiliates.Connecticut Mirror In a press release, Amazon says that they have been adding more cookbooks to their Kindle store, including the release today of books from Mark […]
Bookstores
Bookselling: BN's Matterhorn Push, More Online Rentals, Children's Store to Close
With strong buzz for Grove/Atlantic’s reissue of Karl Marlantes’ MATTERHORN later this month, Barnes & Noble celebrates the role of their Discover Great New Writers program in building attention for the book. Originally published last year by Berkeley’s El León Literary Arts, the book was submitted to BN’s Discover program, and “the Discover program shared their enthusiasm for the novel with the publisher of Grove/Atlantic.” Grove/Atlantic publisher Morgan Entrekin says in the release, “I’m grateful to the booksellers involved with the Discover Great New Writers program who are open to good works from any source. Without them, this amazing book […]
Comp Sales Down 6 Percent at BAMM
Fourth quarter sales at Books-A-Million fell 6 percent on a same-store basis and 4.6 percent overall at $157 million, but net income of $11.9 million was up more than 6 percent. For the full year sales of $509 million were down 1.3 percent, declining 3.8 on a same-store basis, and net income rose to $13.8 million. The board authorized another stock repurchasing program of up $5 million.
Anonymous Official Says Canada Is "Leaning" Towards Approving Amazon's Expansion Plan
The Canadian Booksellers’ Association has urged the country’s government to reject Amazon’s application to operate their own Canadian-based warehouse and fulfillment operation. But an article in the Globe and Mail quotes an unnamed senior official who indicates the Harper administration is “leaning towards” approving Amazon’s plan, believing there is a “net benefit” to Canadians. That person added, “If you look at the issue specifically, it’s Amazon setting up a warehouse to be able to distribute what they already distribute via the Internet. There’s no change in terms of Canadian content.” Part of the booksellers’ argument is that “individual Canadian booksellers […]
More Layoffs at Borders' Stores
Last week Borders is said to have eliminated more jobs across its stores, according to numerous anonymous employee posts on a company forum, though the retailer has not made any official public announcement of reductions. Many individual posts have been made by people who held training supervisor and inventory supervisor positions who say they werelet go. This quote is said to be taken from an internal announcement: “We made the decision to eliminate the training supervisor position so that we could allocate more hours to the sales floor. Training remains an important function in our stores, and the responsibilities of […]
Today's eNews
Engadget featured “exclusive” pictures of Microsoft’s Courier, a tablet/ereader–now called a “digital journal–that the company is working on.Link Amazon is said to have e-mailed its Colorado-based affiliates to notify them that their relationship with the etailer has been severed as of March 8 as the result of new state legistation “to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers.” The company writes: “The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to ‘voluntarily’ collect Colorado sales tax — a […]