Tag Archives: brick and mortar

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With Creativity Bookstore in L.A. is Bucking the Odds

The Last Bookstore

Located on the ground floor of the Spring Arts Tower downtown, the Last Bookstore is a mix of old and new. It has pillars stretching 25 feet up to a painted, vaulted ceiling; underfoot are intermittent mosaics, all part of the former Citizens National Bank, which opened in its grand location in 1915. The light fixtures are new, created from bicycle wheels by Brad Goldhorn, and high on the south wall flows a sculpture made of wire and old paperbacks created by Mike Piscitello, a student at SCI-Arc.

Tucked under wheel-equipped bookshelves is a new, low stage where bands perform regularly. One of the 15 people who works for Spencer books bands; theater events are also coming up and, Spencer hopes, films. “My dream was to create one giant space where everything I thought was cool would be in one place,” he says. “Hopefully, other people will come in and share it with me.”

[GREAT STORY FROM L.A. TIMES]

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Don’t Confuse Borders’ Bankruptcy with partner Kobo

kobo ereaderFrom a company statement: Kobo does not rely on Borders for content. Kobo owns the publishing agreements and has direct relationships with all major publishers, including Random House, Simon & Schuster (NYSE: CBS), HarperCollins, St. Martin’s Press and many more.

Kobo is solely responsible for payment to publishers for eBooks sold through the Kobo platform and publishers will continue to be paid on time as usual. [READ MORE FROM KOBO]

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Don’t Blame Borders’ Closing on e-books

Blame it on e-books?Borders been ailing for years-and shuttering stores along the way and its strategies for getting healthy usually seemed to make things worse. I mean it wasn’t until 2007 that it decided that it made sense to have its own Web site rather than to outsource online sales to archival Amazon.com.

While Borders was busy giving the Web and e-books short shrift , it was also doubling down on the notoriously tricky business of running brick-and-mortar superstores. Until late 2010, San Francisco had four Borders stores-three of which were within a mile and a half of each other. I’m no retailing genius, but I couldn’t figure out how… [READ THE PC WORLD STORY]

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Empty Saratoga Springs Bookstore

Heading to Saratoga Springs, NY this summer for a little horse racing? A stop to browse at the local bookstore in the heart of town may not be in the cards, as that location is part of the Borders bankruptcy.

“It has nothing to do with Broadway in Saratoga,” said Todd Shimkus, president of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. “It has everything to do with the fact [that] bookstores are a dying breed, at least at that large-scale type of commercial operation.”

Shimkus and others said it will be a challenge to find other tenants, but the empty store won’t stop other investments downtown. [READ THE FULL ARTICLE]

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Using E-Books to Sell More Print Versions

Brick and mortar bookstoresHow do you help brick-and-mortar stores sell books? Throw in an e-book.

That is the idea of one publisher, Algonquin, which began a promotion in 300 Barnes & Noble stores this month that gives a discounted e-book to customers who buy an Algonquin trade paperback. The publisher has planned a similar effort for October, giving customers who buy a hardcover copy of “When She Woke,” by Hillary Jordan, the digital version of the book free.

“We spend a lot of time lately trying to figure out how to sell books in this new world order,” said… [READ THE FULL STORY AT NY TIMES]