The “cover story” in the current issue of Costco’s member magazine dubs the warehouse clubs “the big little bookstore” and looks at how Pennie Clark Ianniciello and her three assistant buyers have built “one of the top five booksellers” in the country. Carrying only about 200 titles at any given time, they say “it’s not uncommon for Costco to purchase 20 to 25 percent of a new book’s first printing.” Harper vp of sales Jeff Rogart concurs that “Costco is consistently one of our top retailers for total sales and frequently ranks number one or two on individual titles.” But […]
Bookstores
New Wrinkle for Bookstores: How About a Liquor License?
Schuler Books and Music has four stores in Michigan; “all of them have fireplaces and cafes and are designed as comfortable places to hang out.” Now, in their newest location in downtown Grand Rapids, they “may get a liquor license in two to three months, and that innovation may solve the problem all downtown small businesses have — slow evening and weekend business.” Co-owner Bill Fehsenfeld says, “The vision is it’s an enhancement to the bookstore and our cafe and provides an alternate place where people can relax, browse the books and enjoy food from our cafe. We’re feeling this […]
Powell's New Look; BN.com Personalizes
The leading online site from an independent bookseller, Powells.com has introduced a broad redesign. In browsing the revamped site, we noticed that their admirable subscription program “Indiespensable”, which offers signed editions of specially selected books that come with some other “extra” (a cd; a special slipcase; etc.), continues to grow impressively. The first selection, Lydia Millet’s How the Dead Dream, had 200 copies offered. The newer selections, now Iain Banks’ The Crow Road, are moving approximately 750 copies.Powell’s changes Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble.com has gone social with a new personalized “My B&N” page that lets users catalog and display their […]
Bunch of Grapes Sale Goes Through
Businesswoman Dawn Braasch has bought the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Martha’s Vineyard, where he also worked as events coordinator before last summer’s fire, and will reopen in temporary quarters next month while the original is being restored. Braasch has signed a long-term lease for the store’s previous space, and hopes to reopen there next summer. Ann Nelson, who owns that building and used to own and run the store, will serve as a consultant for Braasch.MV Gazette Separately, Anchorage bookstore A Novel View “will be closed indefinitely due to the death of its owner, Patricia Tegtmeier, who passed away […]
Let's Play the Amazon Guessing Game
How can we get a handle on what Amazon’s mysterious Kindle statistic–a unit-based percentage of a percentage of titles, where books comprise an unspecified percentage of overall media sales–actually looks like? Given all the variables it’s very hard, but below is one potential formula, and you can adjust the assumptions as you wish. As reported above, North American sales for all media for the quarter were $1.245 billion. At the closest roughly comparable businesses, Barnes & Noble and Borders, book sales tend to comprise 70 to 60 percent of total sales. Let’s be conservative and start with 70 percent, which […]
Update on Efforts to Unlock Borders UK's Financing
The Independent says “Borders UK is still trying to extricate itself from the fall out from the troubles of Landsbanki, the nationalized Icelandic bank” after “last Friday, a number of companies, particularly retailers, found they could not withdraw money from their Landsbanki accounts.” Chairman of the private equity firm that owns the bookseller Luke Johnson says that “We are never more than £3m to £4m drawn on our [continuing] credit facility” but “declined to comment on the other questions put to him.” Additionally, “Euler Hermes is understood to have scaled back its insurance cover for Borders UK in the summer, […]