Notes: More on PGW/AMS; Two N.Y. Bookstores; ABS Sold
In a letter sent on Monday, PGW president Rich Freese updated client
publishers on some important issues, although in many cases, final
determinations are up to the bankruptcy court handling the AMS Chapter
11 filing:
A motion the court will hear January 24 requests PGW
publishers be given "critical vendor" status and PGW be allowed to make
payments of "the amounts due from PGW to PGW publishers in January."
In filings, PGW asserts that "PGW publishers are the owners of their
inventory held by PGW in its warehouses in accordance with our
contractual relationships." Under those contracts, when books are ordered, PGW purchases them
from the publishers and sells them to retailers.
Freese emphasized that "neither AMS nor PGW have ever pledged the PGW
publishers' inventory held in PGW's warehouses against our credit line.
Accordingly, the bank excludes the PGW publishers' inventory from its
calculations against the borrowing base."
In related news, Dow Jones (via the San Jose Mercury News)
reported that AMS has asked the bankruptcy court to stop attempts by
publishers, including Random House and Simon & Schuster, to reclaim their books from the wholesaler.
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For the second time since Sunday, the New York Times
focuses on independent bookstores: in today's case, it's an Our Towns
column by Peter Applebome about the Village Bookstore, Pleasantville,
N.Y., and Second Story Book Shop in neighborning Chappaqua, both of
which coincidentally opened on the same day, September 9, 1972.
Village Books has had five successive owners and two names. Second
Story has been owned the whole time by the legendary former ABA
president Joan Ripley (who last November sent out fliers asking
residents to support the store, an effort that was forwarded via e-mail
by a customer and led to "a stellar Christmas season").
The "absolutes"--or lessons--from the two stores: "You can't get rich
running a small-town bookstore, but smart, resourceful businesspeople
can survive. If lots of trends can kill bookstores, plenty of suburbs
are full of smart literate residents who treasure having one nearby.
And, to some extent, people really do get what they pay for. There are
good things about the fancy Borders in Mount Kisco, but if people want
the small independent with the handwritten tags recommending books real
people actually read--or the other local shops battling the big box
stores--it's their choice whether they live or die."
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Follett Educational Services has bought Academic Book Services, which buys and sells used K-12 textbooks, Bargain Book News
reported. ABS shares its facility with Kudzu Book Traders, which
wholesales remainder books; Kudzu will continue its separate operation after ABS leaves.
When the sale is finalized, ABS's 18 field salespeople will be
interviewed for positions with Follett Educational Services. About 20
of ABS's 140 headquarters employees will continue to be employed by
Kudzu and affiliated operations.
Kudzu plans to expand its remainder book business.
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gather's book chat room 4 Borders customers. they r ready to roll.
Borders and Gather.com
have gathered together into a joint project in which Borders shoppers
who receive informational e-mails from the company will be offered
links to a chat room on Gather.com, a social media Web site, where they
can "share their thoughts on books, music and other entertainment,"
according to the AP (via the Washington Post).
The room will also feature author interviews and information on author
readings. Users will be able to earn points redeemable for Borders gift
cards and other products.
"The power of social networking and social media is changing the way
companies interact with their customers," Gather.com CEO Tom Gerace
said in a statement. "Borders is a brand that appeals to highly
educated and highly informed adults who are the core of the Gather.com
community."
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This
spring the Easy Chair Bookstore in Blacksburg, Va., is getting off its
duff and leaving downtown to move to the University Mall, where it will
share space with its sister company, Easy Chair Coffee Shop, the Roanoke Times reported.
The two-year-old bookstore, which was founded after the café, was
originally going to have a café of its own, but that project never came to a boil. The café next to the Easy Chair Coffee
Shop recently shut its doors.
"Now that the bookstore has two years under its belt and is
supporting itself, we'd kind of like to add the cafe environment to the
mix and see if the two businesses can't energize each other," co-owner
Russell Chisholm told the paper.
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Cool idea of the day: instead of labeling its New Year's resolutions display "resolutions" or "I resolve . . . ," the Fountain Bookstore, Richmond, Va., is calling it "I aspire . . . " Bookseller Anna Cloninger came up with the idea, which the store considers much positive than the alternatives and which allows it to expand the display to include such things as travel books and books on how to write a novel.
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In October, Barnes & Noble plans to open a store in Rockford, Ill., in the Cherryvale Mall at 7200 Harrison Ave. When the store opens, the current B&N at 6685 East State St. in Rockford will close.