Powell’s Gets App

To demonstrate what a time-location aware app can do, mobile app developer Spotlight Mobile, with offices in Portland and San Francisco, worked with Powell's Books as one of the first customers for its mobile app Meridian, launched earlier this week.

Charis Books & More Plans Makeover

Atlanta's Charis Books & More, the oldest feminist bookstore in the Southeast, is gearing up for a big relocation, the first in its 37-year history. Earlier this month, the store's co-owners, along with the chairperson of the store's nonprofit arm, Charis Circle, announced plans to open the Charis Feminist Center, a multi-purpose space that will house the bookstore, the nonprofit, and a café, as well as provide space for other nonprofit organizations.

Children's Specialist Buys Bookstore in Worcester

Longtime children's bookseller Patty Cryan purchased Annie's Book Stop of Worcester in Worcester, Mass., late last year and has already given the store, which specializes in used books, her own stamp.

What's Selling at Hooray for Books

Trish Brown, co-owner of Hooray for Books in Alexandria, Va., gives word of a trio of titles that are current favorites with her customers.

Chegg Moves Beyond Textbook Rental

Textbook rental powerhouse Chegg is expanding by helping students organize their academic life by better integrating two recent acquisitions. In August Chegg purchased Mountain View, Calif., start-up CourseRank, begun in 2007 by three Stanford University students who wanted to make it easy for students to share schedules, write reviews of classes, and find out how professors grade. Then in December Chegg bought Cramster, a social online homework help platform started in 2002 in Pasadena. Now it is integrating both on Chegg.com.

Indigo Makes Changes at the Top

Indigo Books and Music has appointed a new president and a new chief financial officer. Ted Marlow, an Indigo board member, will be Indigo’s president effective April 1.

Distribution: Harvard Common to HMH; Seven Stories to RH

Sales, Earnings Fall at Books-A-Million

Book-A-Million reported lower profits and earnings for both the fourth quarter and full fiscal 2010 for the year ended January 29. The results, said CEO Clyde Anderson in a prepared statement, "illustrate a dynamic and rapidly changing retail environment for booksellers." Anderson said BAM was pleased with the results of its partnership with Barnes & Noble to sell the Nook range of e-readers beginning in the fourth quarter as well as the performance of BAM's expanded toy and game business.

MBA, GLiBA Joint Meeting Scores with Booksellers

It was unanimous: the 60 booksellers and more than a dozen publishers' reps who gathered for the first-ever joint spring meeting of the Midwest Booksellers Association and the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association agreed that the event was a huge success that exceeded their expectations.

Three Borders Stores Get a Reprieve; List of Creditors Revealed

Borders has decided to keep three of the 28 additional stores it said it was going to close last week open. Separately, a list of companies owed at least $100,000 has been released.

Book Comps Off at Hastings, But Retailer Posts Profit

Book comps fell 4.2% in the fiscal year ended January 31 at Hastings Entertainment, one of only two categories to post negative comps for the year (music was the other). Book sales were particularly soft in the fourth quarter, declining 7.0%, which Hastings attributed to decreased sales of new trade paperbacks, mass market books, and hardcovers, which Hastings said was due to some degree to "the increasing popularity of electronic book readers." Sales of used hardcovers rose approximately 10.0% for the quarter, and sales of value books increased 12.5%.

Karin Slaughter’s Library Campaign Starts in Atlanta

In the fight for more funding, America’s libraries have a new champion in thriller author Karin Slaughter and her Save the Libraries Campaign, whose inaugural event on March 12 raised $42,000 for the 25-branch DeKalb County Public Library in Atlanta, Ga.

B&N Is #1 in Trade Books

Barnes & Noble, through its combination of physical bookstores and bn.com, remained the largest outlet for the sale of trade books in 2010. That was one of the first findings from Bowker’s annual rollup of its monthly book consumer tracking program, PubTrack Consumer.

A Different Trend: A Toy Store Moves into Books

At a time when independent bookstores are looking to increase their margins with nonbook items—educational toys, Bucky Balls, and Bananagrams—and Barnes & Noble and Borders are adding large toy sections to their superstores, one independent toy store is doing the opposite and growing its books department.

Digital Still The Hot Topic at Diamond Comics Retailer Summit

Dueling digital formats were the big news story on the first day of the 2011 Diamond Retailer Summit, an annual meeting of comics shop owners organized by Diamond Comics Distributors, the biggest U.S. comics distributor, on the eve of the C2E2 pop culture festival in Chicago. Overall combined 2010 sales of periodical and graphic novel comics were reported to be down slightly, while gaming and apparel made big sales gains at comics stores.

Four Joseph-Beth Stores on the Auction Block; Fredericksburg to Close

Bowing to pressure from the Unsecured Creditors Committee, Joseph-Beth Booksellers is putting four of its stores and its assets up for auction. The bidding deadline is April 19. The auction will take place no later than April 22, with a court approval hearing slated for April 27. Joseph-Beth is also asking the court for permission to begin a closing sale at its Fredericksburg, Va., location as early as a week from today.

Borders Targets 28 More Stores for Closing

One month after Borders went into bankruptcy and got court approval to close 200 stores by the end of April, it is readying going-out-of-business sales for 28 more. They will close by the end of May. In its first-day filings, Borders reserved the option to close up to 75 more stores on top of the initial 200.

Borders Gets DIP, Outlines Downsizing, Rejects Leases

The bankruptcy court on Wednesday approved Borders's DIP motion, giving the chain at least $450 million to fund its ongoing operations. Papers filed with the court order also provided some indication of how Borders believes the downsizing of its operations will impact its spending and cost requirements through June. Also yesterday, the court approved early rejections of five more leases.

Kinokuniya Bookstores Challenged by Japanese Disasters

The Kinokuniya Bookstore chain, known as the Barnes & Noble of Japan, has suffered profound damage and business disruptions in the wake of last week’s earthquake and tsunami in the region, particularly at the Sendai location. Kinokuniya has 65 stores in Japan and eight in the U.S.

Borders Gets Extension to Assume or Reject Leases

At Tuesday morning's omnibus hearing in Borders's Chapter 11 proceedings, Judge Martin Glenn of federal bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York granted the chain's motion to extend the time it can assume or reject leases for another 90 to 210 days.