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Kids Ink Turns 25
To mark Kids Ink Children's Bookstore’s first 25 years, owner Shirley Mullin decided to hold a birthday party for the store. When she opened the children's specialty bookstore in Indianapolis in May 1986, there were only two children's book authors in Indiana. Now there's an active group of writers.
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Borders Files to Close More Stores; Gores Asked to Do Better
Events are coming to a head at Borders as the chain works to stay within the requirements of its DIP financing while juggling offers for some of its assets. On Thursday, faced with what it termed a “Hobson’s choice,” in which there is only one option, Borders filed to close up to 51 of its most profitable stores.
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Aletheia Cuts Stake in Barnes & Noble
Aletheia Research and Management disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission Wednesday morning that it had cut its stake in Barnes & Noble to 5.2 million shares, or 8.65% of the company from the 10.59% stake it held in April. Aletheia is B&N’s third largest shareholder after chairman Len Riggio and outside investor Ron Burkle.
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Ingram Publisher Services Adds Three
Ingram Publisher Services, Inc., an Ingram Content Group company, announced distribution agreements with three new clients: Beautiful/Decay, a 15-year-old magazine that publishes limited edition, hand-numbered, advertising-free art books and designs apparel; year-old Dreamscape Media LLC, which publishes digital and CD-format audio content; and Where to Bike, LLC, a subsidiary of Bicycling Australia, which publishes cycling books and international cycling guides.
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Hoping for a Hot Summer
For bookstores in vacation destinations, the summer can be the equivalent of other stores' holiday selling season. But this summer could be a bit quieter than last, and not just because of tornadoes or rising gas prices. As Claire Benedict, co-owner of Bear Pond Books and Rivendell Books, in Montpelier, Vt., pointed out, "This is the first summer where we're going to feel the effects of the e-readers. They're chipping away at our sales." That didn't stop her from opening a second Rivendell location in the Berlin (Vt.) Mall in a former Waldenbooks store earlier this year.
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Cambridge's Curious George Store to Close
Close on the heels of this week’s announcement from Globe Corner Bookstore that it will close its bricks-and-mortar bookstore in Harvard Square, Cambridge, comes word that children's specialty store Curious George & Friends will also shut its doors this month. The book and toy store, located just a few blocks from Globe Corner, was founded by Hillel Stavis and Donna Friedman in 1995 and named for the mischievous monkey created by their friends and neighbors Margret and Hans Rey.
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Borders Merchandise Officer Quits
Borders has endured a rash of executive resignations since it filed for Chapter 11 in February and the latest to jump ship is Michele Cloutier executive v-p and chief merchandising officer.
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New Clients for Consortium, SCB & Innovative Logistics
Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, a member of the Perseus Books Group, signed five presses for the fall selling season.
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Bookseller Launches Balladier Press
“I have always worked around books,” says Daniel Butler, who has been a bookseller in a succession of independents since he turned 16 and took a part-time job at Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah, Calif. During college he worked at Back Pages Books in Waltham, Mass., and since graduation he has become a frontline bookseller for Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Mass. Now Butler is planning to take what he’s learned from bookselling and apply it to publishing with the founding of Balladier Press (www.balladier.wordpress.com).
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Borders Gets Extension; Sales Process Gears Up
Over the objections of the Creditors Committee, the most contentious issue since the start of the Borders bankruptcy on February 16 was resolved in Borders favor Thursday, with the retailer being given an additional 120 days beyond its original June 16 deadline to file and solicit acceptances for a Chapter 11 plan. In ruling against the committee, Judge Martin Glenn noted that he will file a decision with the order later today or tomorrow.
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Borders Defends Need for Extension
With a crucial hearing set for tomorrow in which judge Martin Glenn will rule on, among other things, Borders Group's motion for an extension for an exclusive period to develop its reorganization plan, the retailer's lawyers fired back at arguments made by the Creditors' Committee that Glenn should deny the request. In reply, Borders attorney Andrew Glenn said the company has pursued a dual-track process of exploring the possible sale of its assets as well as a standalone plan of reorganization as suggested by the committee. If Judge Glenn denies Borders' request for an extension, the future of the Chapter 11 process will be put in doubt.
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Indigo Sales Grow, But Investments Take a Bite Out of Profits
Indigo Books & Music, Canada’s largest book retail chain, reported 5% revenue growth for its fiscal year ended April 2, but its net earnings dropped to C$11.3 million from C$23.6 million in the previous year. CEO Heather Reisman said the drop in profit was not unexpected due to the company’s long-term strategy, which includes large-scale investments in its e-reading spinoff, Kobo, and new lifestyle product line. Revenue for the year was C$1.02 billion compared to C$969 million last year.
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Globe Corner Bookstore to Close
After putting 29-year-old Globe Corner Bookstore up for sale last November because of a health issue, president Patrick Carrier announced today that the travel book and map store in Harvard Square Cambridge will close by the end of June. When Globe Corner opened in downtown Boston in 1982, it was one of the first travel bookstores in the U.S. It has been in Harvard Square for the past 24 years.
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Reimagine Everything: New Bookstore Concepts Abound at BEA 2011
Going into this year's BookExpo America, things were not looking particularly upbeat for independent booksellers. The most recent ABACUS study of bookstore sales, for 2009, showed a loss of 8.4% for 61% of the respondents; the other 39% showed only a modest gain of 3.8%. The study of 2010 sales is unlikely to offer a rosier spin.
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Creditors Committee Objects to Borders' Extension Request
One week after Borders Group filed a motion to extend the exclusivity period for filing and soliciting acceptances for a Chapter 11 plan, the Creditors Committee filed an objection. In it, they note that they are “gravely concerned” that an extension could be detrimental to general unsecured creditors. If granted, the extension would give the retailer an additional 120 days from the June 16 deadline to file a plan.
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Books-A-Million Has First Quarter Loss As Comps Plunge
With sales falling 11.1% in the first quarter, to $104 million, Books-A-Million reported a net loss in the period ended April 30 of $3.5 million. In last year’s first quarter BAM had net income of $2 million. Comparable store sales were down 13.2%. BAM's Terry Finley called the first quarter a "very difficult sales environment" that reflected the erosion of print book sales to e-book sales, a weak bestseller lineup, and soft media environment, exacerbated by the tornados that ripped through the southeast.
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Borders Lost $132 Million in April
Borders lost more money in April than it did in March, according to statements filed with the bankruptcy court Friday.
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The Book Works to Close in July
Lisa Stefanacci, owner of The Book Works in Del Mar, California, announced that the 35-year old store will be closing in July because of competition from online booksellers and the profound growth of digital books. "I did everything I possibly could to keep the store going," says Stefanacci, who bought The Book Works five years ago. "Our landlord even helped us to remodel the store, but ultimately that didn't bring more customers in."
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Will Riggio Pull The Trigger?
Ever since he has owned Barnes & Noble, Len Riggio has shown little interest in ceding control of the company he built into the country's largest bookstore chain, as evidenced by his bruising proxy fight with Ron Burkle last summer. But the $17 per share offer by Liberty Media to buy B&N may be too sweet an offer for Riggio and the B&N board to turn down.
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Acting on Impulse
The question of how readers will discover books that they didn't already plan to buy has been growing in importance in the book industry as more sales move from physical bookstores to online retailers.
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