OutLoud founders Ted Jensen and Kevin Medley announced they will start liquidating inventory and close their store after 15 years in business. The Tennessean says “they alluded to reasons for closing such as high interest rates that small businesses can’t afford, lack of meaningful legislation that would help small businesses and the unfair advantages chain stores have over the small, locally owned ones.” Tennessean When the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale finishes a renovation in January, they will feature a new boutique run by Miami’s Books & Books. Owner Mitchell Kaplan says “there are terrific people to partner with…. […]
Closing
Barnes & Noble At Fisherman’s Wharf Says It’s Closing
According to a sign in the window of the Barnes & Noble at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, the location is closing December 31. The company did not respond to the SF Chronicle, but an employee told the paper, “As far as we know, the rent got raised a little too much for us to deal with.”
Bookselling: Bids for Politics and Prose; Trouble in Minnesota
Politics and Prose co-owner Barbara Meade says the evaluation of bidders to buy the store is focused on six suitors, and the Washington Post says there is a January deadline for bids. A local consortium that includes agent Rafe Sagalyn, along with departy editor of the New Republic Franklin Foer, XM Satellite radio founder Hugh Panero, and Atlantic correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg remains one of the contenders.Washington Post Separately, the Minneapolis Star Tribune looks at the wave of Minnesota stores that have closed recently–the latest are Biermaier’s Books in Minneapolis, “for 60 years among the largest used bookstores in Minnesota,” and […]
Also Closing: Chicklet, and BookArmy
Princeton children’s bookstore Chicklet will close at the end of the month, as their landlord turns the space over to a tenant paying market rent.Princeton Packet In the same week that Figment.com has launched, Harper UK’s book social networking site BookArmy indicates it will close December 21. The Bookseller says an email to site members indicated “the decision has been made to close the site, after facing strong competition from similar sites and fewer advertising opportunities in such a tough economic climate.” The company tells the magazine that staff will be reassigned to their site Authonomy.
Bookselling: Northern Lights May Close, Palin Books Defaced
Duluth, MN store Northern Lights Books & Gifts has been on the market since August with no buyer yet. Owner Anita Zager tells the local paper she will close the store when her lease expires next February if a buyer does not emerge. Zager says she is exiting due to both family concerns and competition from e-books. “It’s kind of a Gutenberg moment,” she says. “If we had the ability to sell e-books to our customers, it would be different.”Duluth News Tribune At the Borders store at the Indianapolis airport, copies of books by both Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck […]
Borders Store Closings Update
A number of local reports cover Borders outlets across the country that are scheduled to close on or about January 7), with liquidation sales underway in many of the covered locations. Spokesperson Mary Davis confirms to us that “approximately 17” stores will close, though she says the company is not making available a list of affected stores. From local press accounts we have accounted for 10 of those locations: Four stores are closing in California–in Los Angeles’s Westwood, downtown Santa Barbara, Thousand Oaks, and Carlsbad; two in New Jersey, in Nassau Park near Princeton and Marlton in South Jersey; plus […]