The somewhat slower-than-expected rollout of Barnes & Noble‘s previously-announced concept stores is in its final stages. The smaller-format test store in Legacy West in Plano, TX opens today (after originally aiming for a spring debut). The 9,000 to 10,000 square foot store — a little less than half the size of the first concept store in Eastchester, NY — is said to carry approximately 17,000 titles. The restaurant space remains sizable even with the smaller bookstore footprint, with seating for 178 people. Separately, the delayed fifth and final of the announced concept stores in Ashburn, VA is now set to open […]
Bookstores
Dropping Another University, Amazon Said to Withdraw from Campus Contracts
Last month the University of Massachusetts at Amherst announced that Amazon was canceling their contract to serve as the official textbook provider bookstore (and pay the school commission) as of December 2018. Now SUNY’s Stony Brook University indicates that Amazon is withdrawing as their official textbook supplier as well after the spring 2018 semester. The school says on its website that “Amazon has decided to change their business model nationwide, and starting Summer 2018, Amazon will no longer be providing customized course material services to higher education institutions.” Office manager of the Office of the Bookstore Liaison Vlad Moraru told […]
Briefs: Kirkus Prize Winners, and More
KF Literary Scouting has been appointed scout for Tchelet in Israel and Eksmo in Russia. Awards The winners of the Kirkus Prize were announced Thursday night at a ceremony in Austin, TX. Lesley Nneka Arimah’s What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky (Riverhead) won for fiction, and Jack E. Davis’s The Gulf (Liveright) took the nonfiction category. The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (DCB) won in Young Readers’ Literature. Best Of The renamed New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Awards announced its ten best books of the year: Muddy, written by Michael Mahin, illustrated by Evan Turk Frida […]
Bookselling: Indigo to Test US Stores, and More
Canadian bookseller Indigo reported fiscal second quarter sales on Thursday, showing their continuing and successful conversion from “books and music” to a “cultural department store”: Sales of $224.5 million (CA) were up $7.5 million compared to a year ago, driven by non-book sales. Print sales actually fell $5 million, to $131 million, as general merchandise sales grew $11 million. Print now comprises 58.4 percent of Indigo’s sales, compared to 63.1 percent a year ago. Retail superstore comps increased 2 percent, as small format store comps fell 4 percent — with the print and small-format store weakness blamed on comparisons to last […]
Midwestern Chain Book World to Liquidate
Appleton, WI-based bookstore chain Book World, Inc. has run a notice in the local paper announcing that they will start liquidating their inventory as of November 2, after which they expect that all of their stores will close: “A liquidation sale will begin at each Book World store location which will run until all inventory is sold. The liquidation sale will offer customers deep discounts on books, toys, games, puzzles, magazines, calendars, trading cards, gifts, and all other merchandise. Customers are encouraged to shop immediately to take advantage of the sale while inventory is still available.” Book World operates 20 […]
Waterstones Has Banker Looking for New Financing, or New Owner
UK bookseller Waterstones has retained investment bank NM Rothschild, to look for a new lender or possibly a new owner for the chain. That representation is making news following a report last week in the Evening Standard suggesting that current owner Alexander Mamut is facing financial pressure in the wake of the collapse of Russian bank Otkritie, in which Mamut was a big shareholder. As the bank reorganizes, shareholders are being required to turn over significant assets and — because those owners are said to have used the bank to finance some of their own deals, in some cases Otkritie is taking over […]