Approximately 50 Hispanic employees say they were fired from Barnes & Noble’s Reno, NV distribution center after a routine federal immigration audit found they did not have the required paperwork on file. The employees were told to report to the Reno Immigration and Customs Enforcement office with proper documentation by Friday, the Reno Gazette-Journal reports. But BN spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating tells the paper in a separate piece “those people have not been fired.” They add: “she said Thursday that some employees have provided the required documentation to ICE officials and are back at work but declined to say how […]
Bookstores
More Big Cuts At Borders HQ
Borders Group is eliminating another 136 corporate positions, representing approximately 12 percent of their corporate employees, primarily from their Ann Arbor headquarters. The company says “the workforce reduction was spread across virtually all business areas, including marketing, human resources, field management and corporate sales. The reductions were made at various ranks, ranging from entry level to middle management.” New CEO Ron Marshall comments: “While reducing payroll is never easy and we respect the impact it has on employees and their families, it is one of the necessary steps we must take along with other non-payroll expense reductions to help get […]
ABA Revamps Awards Program
With the fading out of the Book Sense branding program, the ABA is renaming their annual prizes the Indies Choice Book Awards. The seven categories have been revamped as well, now honoring an Indie Buzz book (fiction), Best Conversation Starter (nonfiction), Best Author Discovery (debut), Best Read-Aloud Book, Best YA Buzz Book, Most Engaging Author, and the Read-Aloud Hall of Fame. Book finalists will be picked by a bookseller jury, but the pool is still limited to monthly Book Sense/Indie Next list selections. Most Engaging Author Award nominees must be “engaging at in-store appearances” and have “a strong sense of […]
Waterstone's Exclusive Deal Provokes Indies' Ire
Sunnyside, Glen David Gold’s first novel since 2001, will be published in the UK by Sceptre this July – but only Waterstone’s stocks the hardback for an exclusive four-month window while all other booksellers will receive only a paperback later in the fall. The news has independents in a letter-writing campaign calling for a boycott of the paperback edition, while others have said they are considering removing the publisher from any recommended lists, or that they will “think twice” about ordering books from Sceptre in future. Waterstone’s sold 19 books with an exclusive time window in 2008 but it appears […]
Borders Deadline Extended Again
Borders Group is paying Pershing Square $750,000 for “reimbursement of expenses” and the extension of the “put” to require Pershing to buy their Paperchase subsidiary, as both the option and the expiration of Pershing’s $42.5 million loan are extended for a second time, until April 15. Borders will report earnings for the fourth quarter and full year on March 31.
ABA Cuts Dues and Staff
ABA president Gayle Shanks writes to booksellers to announce a 50 percent reduction in dues for member stores on their calendar 2009 renewals “to help and support booksellers in these extraordinarily difficult economic times.” A hiring freeze for the organization’s staff has resulted in a 12 percent reduction through attrition. Other cost-cutting measures include a wage freeze and suspension of pension contributions, as the ABA aims to juggle “how to provide more services while relying less on financial support from booksellers.”Shanks letter