Above the Treeline, the five-year-old company that collects sales
and inventory data from nearly 400 general independent and Christian
bookstores and analyzes and compares the information for the stores and
many publishers, is expanding the service to Borders. Under the
Borders program, Above the Treeline will collect inventory and sales data for
all Borders superstores in the U.S. Borders had tested Above the Treeline for
four months with its bargain books.
In a prepared statement, Bill Nasshan, Borders senior v-p of trade
books, said that the bargain book collaboration "yielded strong
results, and we appreciate Above the Treeline's responsiveness and
breadth of services. It is exciting to roll the business intelligence
service out to other categories of our business."
John Rubin, founder and president of Above the Treeline, said that
adding Borders as a client will help all bookseller clients because it
"will allow us to continue to build and improve the best suite of
services for all of our customers. . . . We continually adapt our tools
so that all of our retailer subscribers derive value from the service."
Rubin emphasized to Shelf Awareness that the data and analysis of
information from independent stores would be kept separate from Borders.
Strategically the move was necessary, Rubin said in a letter to
independent booksellers sent last week. "We risk being marginalized in
the industry if we don't work with other channels besides the
independent channel," he stated. "Many of our publisher partners have
requested the ability to view their chain customer data through Above
the Treeline and, in fact, a number of companies have seen what we've
done over the last few years and are attempting to imitate it. We
welcome competition, but we're acutely aware that one of the strategies
these companies are taking is to provide the kind of tools we have to
the chains and provide the chain data to the publishers as we have."
In the letter, he said that the expanded business will help provide
"valuable support programs such as Treeline University and the upcoming
Treeline Learning Center." Above the Treeline is also incorporating
"the best practices of these additional channels into the core Above
the Treeline product. For example, the idea for the new Merchandising
Opportunity Inbox Express report came from a category manager at a
chain."
Reaction from most independent booksellers has been positive, judging
from listserv comments. One bookseller took it as a positive competitive sign that
Borders needed this kind of information analysis, too.
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Borders has chosen Source Interlink Companies to be exclusive
nationwide magazine distributor for Borders and Walden, excluding
Puerto Rico. In a prepared statement, Source Interlink chairman
commented, "We look forward to working with the company and our
publisher partners to enhance the customer experience at newsstands."
Linda Jones, senior v-p, merchandising, for Borders Group,
said, "We recognize the opportunity to drive sales and improve
efficiencies through the benefits that come from a single-vendor
magazine program."
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In October, Borders will open two new stores:
- A 22,239-sq.-ft. location in Stroudsburg, Pa., at the intersection of Route 611 and Heller Drive.
- A 22,140-sq.-ft. store in Mansfield, Mass., south of Boston, at Mansfield Crossing at Routes 495 and 140.