With competitor Barnes & Noble preparing to close all but the last two of their B. Dalton mall stores by January, Borders announced after yesterday that they will close approximately 200 of the remaining mall-based Waldenbooks outlets in January. The move will leave Borders with about 130 mall-based locations remaining. The company estimates that 1,500 jobs–mostly part-time–will be eliminated as a result. CEO Ron Marshall says, “We believe there remains an opportunity to profitably operate a much smaller Waldenbooks segment that complements our core Borders superstore business and continues to serve readers in their communities. Through this right-sizing, we will […]
Bookstores
Lulu Adds An eBook Store—with Real Authors
Lulu.com announced in a press release the addition to their site on an ebook store they say features over 200,000 titles from mainstream publishers and authors. While the company hopes to sell some of those titles to its site visitors, they are also clearing hoping to use the established titles as bait to attract more self-publishing customers–already said to be producing “nearly 15,000 new titles a month.” Sic. On the site, Lulu says that for self-publishing customers, on a $13.99 ebook they will pay the creator $10 per title sold. On titles from other publishers, they appear to sometimes offer […]
Bookselling: Borders Will Ship It If They Don't Have It; Leading Australian Chains May Go Public
We’ve always wondered why any (and every) bookstore–chain or indie–doesn’t offer to ship you for free any book that is not in stock. After all, in an internet-everywhere age, customers know they can go to any browser and accomplish the same thing. But Borders appears to be the first to figure this out, announcing today a “promise to customers that if they do not find an item in stock in a Borders store, and that item is among the more than one million titles available on Borders.com, Borders will find it and pay the shipping costs to the customer’s home.” […]
Seattle's Bailey-Coy Books to Close Shortly
Owner of Baily-Coy Michael Wells told staff on Saturday that the store will close at the end of November after selling off stock. In a press release he notes: “This has not been an easy decision for us. We have struggled, along with independent bookstores across the country, for the last decade to keep our bookstore profitable and healthy. The economic downturn of the past year, combined with the rapidly changing world of bookselling, has led us to believe that this is the most responsible decision.” They add that “the recent news that Elliott Bay Book Company is considering moving […]
One Analyst Warms to Barnes & Noble
After dour reports last week from stock analysts at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, Barnes & Noble’s stock gets a better assessment today from Alan Rifkin at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. They have upgraded their assessment of shares to neutral from underperform, with a price target of $19 a share. They write, “while we remain cautious of book industry fundamentals overall, we favorably view recent developments BKS has made to enhance its competitive position.” In their report, they see nook as helping to compete with Kindle; believe that the BN College acquisition can provide sales growth (since so many schools […]
Retailers Limits On Price War Books
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Walmart.com, Amazon and Target.com are limiting the how many copies each customer can buy of their loss-leader deep-discount books, but the WSJ sums up the respective ceilings: 2, 3, and 5 copies, by vendor. But that still means as long as an independent store has a few employees, they can order dozens of copies for the store with no problem (and free shipping.) Walmart.com ceo Raul Vazquez says “the company’s book promotion had resulted in brisk sales of the coming titles, and had also boosted sales of other products.”WSJ