SFist reports that “Stacey’s finally told its employees today that they will close shop sometime in March. A source in Stacey’s corporate sales tells us: ‘Venerable Stacey’s Books, after celebrating 85 years in business this last fall, announced to staff today that the store will close sometime in late March.'” The SF Chronicle follows with its own story. “The store’s general manager, Tom Allen, said sales had dropped 50 percent since March 2001. But the final blow was the crumbling economy, which hit hard during the holidays. Stacey’s sales in the fourth quarter of 2008 plummeted 15 percent from the […]
Bookstores
Borders Gets A New Chief As It Battles For Survival
New Borders ceo Ron Marshall placed phone calls yesterday to top publishers to reassure them of the company’s viability, the WSJ reports. Hachette Book Group ceo David Young says, “He said he is absolutely hell-bent on insuring that Borders is the first choice for the serious book buyer.” The WSJ adds: “Publishers and other suppliers said that Borders is currently paying its bills. But the retailer has been aggressively selling assets, slashing costs, laying off employees, and reducing debt to stave off the kind of financial crisis that could result in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing…. However successful Mr. Marshall […]
Jones Replaced at Borders
Would-be retail turnaround specialist George Jones is being replaced immediately as ceo of Borders Group after two-and-a-half difficult years of failing to bring to the retailer to profitability. Taking over is Ron Marshall, most recently principal of Wildridge Capital Management, a private equity company he founded. Previously, Marshall was ceo for eight years of food distributor Nash Finch Company and prior to that he was evp and cfo at Pathmark. Earlier in his career he worked at Crown Books and BN College. Board chairman Larry Pollock says in the announcement, “it is imperative that the company more aggressively attack these […]
Bookseller Glenn Goldman Dies
The founder and owner of the West Hollywood independent bookstore Book Soup Glen Goldman died on Saturday at 58 of pancreatic cancer. Goldman founded the store in 1975. LAT book editor David Ulin posted a personal remembrance on the book section’s blog. Separately, LA Observed reported right before Goldman’s death that “staffers and friends of Sunset Strip fixture Book Soup are contacting potential buyers.” They add that, “judging by emails circulating in L.A. book circles, the search has become urgent in recent days.” The LAT’s obituary reports that Goldman decided to sell the store on Friday. But Book Soup general […]
Barnes' Best
BN.com has posted a variety of top ten lists for 2008 (fiction debuts; haunting historicals; stories on the edge; luminous lives in fiction; history; sumptuous books; our modern world; and life stories). Among their Number One selections: Child 44 by Tom Rob SmithPeople of the Book by Geraldine BrooksA Most Wanted Man by John Le CarreUnaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa LahiriThe Forever War by Dexter FilkinsThe Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane MayerMy Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte TaylorThe Hunger Games […]
Two Looks at Used Books
Because it was in the NYT, David Streitfeld’s weekend column about “feeling sheepish” about buying and selling used books online has gotten a fair amount of attention even though it’s purely personal. Working from impression rather than fact, he decides the liquid online market for personal buying and selling of books is suddenly to blame for the industry’s troubles though it has been brewing for years. “Don’t blame this carnage on the recession or any of the usual suspects, including increased competition for the reader’s time or diminished attention spans. What’s undermining the book industry is not the absence of […]