Red Balloon Celebrates 25th Year By Claire Kirch - 11/19/2009
The Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, Minn. celebrated its 25th anniversary last weekend with a birthday bash that included author signings, story times, and other fun activities that children of all ages enjoyed. And we're sure the adults accompanying their children also celebrated the 20% discount on everything in the store, because store co-manager Justine Stahlmann reported that the store did two to three times the amount of business as it usually does on weekends.
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Barnes & Noble Responds to Burkle Investment with Rights Plan By Jim Milliot - 11/18/2009
After investor Ron Burkle revealed that he now owns a 16.8% in Barnes & Noble, the retailer's board approved a shareholder right plan that will make it difficult for an outsider to take control of the company.
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Low Price Items Lead Hastings 11/16/2009
Unit sales increased 6.9% at Hastings in the third quarter, but sale still fell as consumers focused on low-priced items. Book comps rose 0.2% driven by used and bargain books.
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AmazonEncore Adds Three Titles 11/12/2009
Amazon adds three new titles to AmazonEncore. Its first book, Legacy, has sold 1,000 copies since August.
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National Bookstore Day: The View from Southern California by Wendy Werris - 11/09/2009
Skylight Books of Los Angeles held a wine and cheese reception that brought together many of the areas independent bookseller who shared stories of the art of bookselling. Diesel Books said National Bookstore Day turned into National Reader Appreciation Day.
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RJ Julia Launches Gift Book Site By Judith Rosen - 11/09/2009
Madison, Ct.'s RJ Julia Booksellers has begun the soft launch for the online version of its gift book program.
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Borders Offers “In-Stock Guarantee” 11/03/2009
Borders has started a new holiday program under which it will ship for free any item listed on Borders.com that is not in-stock in a store where a customer is shopping.
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Barnes & Noble Touts Three-Prong Approach by Jim Milliot - 11/02/2009
Try as it might, Barnes & Noble has had a hard time convincing investors and analysts that, as reading moves more and more to e-books, there is a place for retailers that derive most their revenue—and profits—from the sale of print books. In a 90-minute presentation October 27, B&N's management team did its best to persuade analysts that the company's dominant position in th...
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Soapbox: Now More Than Ever by Carl Lennertz - 11/02/2009
There's been some talk recently about the future of the fall regional association trade shows: GLiBA, MBA, MPIBA, NAIBA, NEIBA, NCIBA, PNBA, SCIBA and SIBA. Every August and September, I curse these shows.
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Wal-Mart, Amazon Limiting Discounted Purchases 10/30/2009
The big box retailers are limiting the number of copies customers can buy of their deep discounted titles. Some booksellers had hoped to buy large quantities of the books to benefit from the price war.
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Phaidon Opens Temporary Store in Manhattan By Lynn Andriani - 10/28/2009
Phaidon Press is opening a “pop-up” store in Soho, New York City, next week. The 2,500-square-foot store, at 100 Wooster Street, will be open from November 2 through January 2010. Store hours will be 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.
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The Gen Z Reader: Finding Profits in an Elusive Market By Wendy Werris - 10/29/2009
Kristen McLean, executive director of the Association of Booksellers for Children, presented a detailed outline of the technological challenges facing the teen book market at the fall meeting of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association on October 24. After commenting on the proliferation of teen Web sites, blogs, and social networks and how they are transforming the way books are read...
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SIBA Launches Collective Ad Program By Claire Kirch - 10/28/2009
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has launched a new banner ad campaign under which the associaiton will coordinate the promotion of one title across participating stores Web sites.
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The Nook is Barnes & Noble Top Seller By Jim Milliot - 10/27/2009
The Nook has become the fastest selling single item at Barnes & Noble since the retailer introduced the e-reader October 20.
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Mixed Indigo Second Quarter By Leigh Anne Williams - 10/27/2009
Sales rose slightly, but earnings were off at Canada's largest bookseller.
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Barnes & Noble Defends Its Turf By Jim Milliot - 10/27/2009
The country's largest bookseller is well positioned to grow as it plans to leverage its traditional bookstores, online presence and growing digital footprint to boost results, executives said.
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