Here's an appropriate item for Cyber Monday: Borders Group may reverse or modify the decision it made five years ago to outsource online retailing to Amazon.com, a decision that caused much surprise at the time, given the strong growth in Web sales. [See separate stories below.]
Now, under new CEO George Jones, Borders is "reviewing options for its Internet relationship" with Amazon, Jones told Bloomberg in an item that appeared in the Detroit Free Press. Borders is developing a major strategic plan in which "the Internet will play a large role," the paper wrote. The plan will be unveiled early next year. [For more on the plan, see the following item.]
---
Consolidated
sales at Borders during the quarter ended October 28 rose 1.7% to
$851.6 million compared to the same period in 2005, and the consolidated
loss was $39.1 million compared to a loss of $14.1 million in the same
period a year earlier.
Sales at U.S. Borders superstores rose 1.8% to $583.2 million and sales
at stores open at least a year dropped 0.7%. Comp-store sales at
remodeled stores did 2.4% better than non-remodeled stores. Café, gifts
and stationery performed best in the remodeled stores. The net loss for U.S. superstores was $9.4 million, compared to net
income of $7.6 million a year ago. In the third quarter, the company
opened 11 Borders superstores in the U.S. and ended with 487.
Total sales at Borders international stores rose 14.9% to $144.6
million in the quarter. Sales at international superstores open at
least a year fell 0.3% in local currency. Continued weak sales in the
U.K. (which represents about 65% of international superstore sales)
were partially offset by stronger comp-store sales in Asia Pacific. The
net loss of $10.4 million was the same as last year. During the
quarter, Borders opened two more international superstores and now has
61.
In the Walden specialty retail division, which includes Borders
Express, sales dropped 10.5% and sales at stores open at least a year
dropped 5%. The net loss was $8.4 million, compared to $3.4 million a
year ago. Borders closed seven Walden specialty retail stores and now
has 652.
Borders is predicting that in the fourth quarter comp-store sales at
U.S. superstores will range from "flat to an increase in the low single
digits"; at Waldenbooks Specialty Retail stores sales will "decline in
the low to mid single digits"; and at international stores, sales will "range
from an increase in the low single digits to a decrease in the low
single digits."
In a statement, Borders Group CEO George Jones said, "To drive
shareholder value long-term, we are developing a strategic plan that
has four key goals--differentiating Borders superstores from the
competition in meaningful ways, including product merchandising and
presentation; aggressively right-sizing the mall business; driving
profitability in the International segment; and embracing innovation
and technology."
---
Nominees have been chosen for the 11th annual Borders
Original Voices Awards, which honor "innovative and ambitious new books
and music from new and emerging talents, as well as works that
represent a new direction for established authors and musicians."
Borders corporate and store employees chose the nominees; a committee of corporate staff members will read and listen to each
finalist and choose winners, who will be announced in January.
Winners of the annual awards receive $5,000 each.
The Original Voices nominees in book categories are:
Fiction:
- The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier (Knopf)
- Pride of Baghdad by Brian Vaughan (Vertigo)
- Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (Viking)
- The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue (Nan Talese)
- Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Algonquin)
-
Winkie by Clifford Chase (Grove Atlantic)
Nonfiction:
- From Baghdad with Love by Jay Kopelman (Globe Pequot)
- The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery (Ballantine)
- I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors by Bernice Eisenstein (Riverhead)
- Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent (Viking)
- A Strong West Wind by Gail Caldwell (Random House)
-
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin)
Children's Picture Books:
- Art by Patricia McDonnell (Little, Brown Young Readers)
- Chicken & Cat by Sara Varon (Scholastic)
- Dear Fish by Chris Gall (Little, Brown Young Readers)
- Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser (HarperCollins Juvenile)
- Sound of Colors by Jimmy Liao (Little, Brown Young Readers)
-
True Story of Stellina by Matteo Pericoli (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Intermediate/Young Adult Books:
- Bass Ackwards & Belly Up by Elizabeth Craft (Little, Brown Young Readers)
- Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock (Houghton Mifflin)
- Endymion Spring by Mathew Skelton (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
- The Boy in Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (David Fickling Books)
- Skinny by Ibi Kaslik (Walker)
- Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu (Atheneum)