Word Bookstore in Jersey City is moving to a new location off of Hamilton Park, with plans to reopen in February 2022. The new space of 1,200 square feet is less than half the size of the current space, which originally accommodated a cafe that closed two years ago. To prepare for the move, owners hope to whittle down inventory over the holidays. After two years of preparation, Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA recently opened its second location in Boston’s Seaport District.
Bookstores
Bookselling: Paper Source to Open in Two B&Ns
Paper Source will launch a shop within two Barnes & Noble stores this holiday season– Hingham, MA, opening on November 19, and the Morrison shopping center in Charlotte, NC, opening on November 22. This marks the first collaboration between the brands since Elliott Management, which owns B&N, acquired Paper Source in May. Paper Source ceo Jenica Myszkowski said: “With our shared heritage in paper and a commitment to nurturing creativity, it is a natural fit to partner with Barnes & Noble to explore new retail experiences. Our customers will love being able to find their favorite Paper Source products at […]
Bookselling: Shakespeare & Co. to Open in Norwalk, CT; Yu and Me Books Planned for NYC’s Chinatown
Shakespeare & Co. will open location in the new SoNo Collection mall in Norwalk, CT. This is the first suburban location for the chain, which also has locations in Manhattan and Philadelphia. CEO Dane Miller told The Hour, “It is a beautiful new mall. Malls got pretty hurt by the pandemic but it appears that, hopefully, we are coming out the other end.” Manhattan’s first Asian-American female-owned bookstore-cafe-bar, Yu and Me Books, is set to open in December, Bowery Boogie reports. Owner Lucy Yu crowdsourced the bookstore via GoFundMe earlier this year. “My hope is to create a home that […]
Half Price Books Union Effort Gains Momentum In Minnesota
Employees at four Half Price Books locations in Minnesota are the latest hoping to join a growing number of bookstore employees unionizing across the country. On Wednesday morning, Workers for Half Price Books Union announced that the company “agreed to our terms” and an election will be held on November 24. Votes will be counted on December 16. The unionization effort began in mid-October, when employees from HPB’s St. Paul location announced they would join United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1189. Since then, employees from three additional Minnesota stores also signed on (from Roseville, Coon Rapids and St. Louis Park). […]
Newspaper Hates Portland, Loves Powell’s: Irreconciliable Differences?
In the great tradition of NYT stories asking if a given place can possibly be saved, the business section offers a bizarre piece about the Fox News hellscape that is Portland, OR — where smoke from forest fires “pervad[ed] a near-biblical sense of doom.” With efforts to recover at Powell’s Books the vague focus, the story suggests that they are talking broadly about life and bookstores in America: “How will brick-and-mortar stores fare in a time of continued fear over a deadly, airborne plague? What happens to city life when sidewalks are strewn with the rain-soaked belongings of people who […]
Bookselling: Barnes & Noble In Skokie, IL to Close As Landlord Redevelops
A BN store in Skokie, IL’s Old Orchard Mall will close Christmas Eve after 27 years there, as the landlord is redeveloping the site and declined to renew the lease. The bookseller says, “We are doing everything we can to find a new store in this area and are very close to announcing a new location.”