"Pressed by creditors who have filed claims against the company's inventories and by rising overhead costs," as the Washington Post put it, Olsson's Books and Records, Washington, D.C., plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Saying they were owed $386,000, three publishers last week petitioned bankruptcy court to put Olsson's in involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would force it to close. Chapter 11 allows the company to reorganize and continue in business.
Olsson's, which closed its Penn Quarter store on June 27 (Shelf Awareness,
June 17, 2008), "will evaluate its ability to operate its remaining
five properties," Richard H. Gins, an attorney for the company, told
the Post.
"The book business is getting a little soft.
It's not selling as much as it used to," founder John Olsson said. "Our
music sales went from 50 percent of our business to maybe 15. We lost a
lot of revenue, and at the same time rents went up and real estate
taxes went up. I don't know what we would have done differently. It's a
killer."
"It's hard to compete against megastores like Barnes
and Noble," Gins added. "We're looking at it positively, and we're
hoping to come out of it. It depends on how many stores we can have."
---
Morris Book Shop, Lexington, Ky., will hold its grand opening Saturday, July 12. The Herald-Leader
reported the new bookstore, owned by Wyn Morris and Hap Houlihan, "is
already operating" and offered the following irresistible introduction
to this "compact, neighborhood-friendly book browser's heaven":
"Imagine that you had a library--not the one you've got, with books stacked randomly, and three Ian McEwan titles but no Atonement--but
something tastefully chosen and artfully arranged, with a couple of
attentive guides to point out intriguing stuff you might have missed."
Natives
of Lexington, Morris and Houlihan previously worked for University
Press of Kentucky and Joseph-Beth Booksellers. For more on the
background of the store, see our feature from earlier this year (Shelf Awareness, February 14, 2008).
---
SoBo Book & Bean, South Berwick, Maine, held its official ribbon-cutting ceremony recently, Foster's Daily Herald reported. Owner Marie MacDonald had said last month (Shelf Awareness,
May 22, 2008) that she has "been a book person from childhood, but I
think one of the things that sets apart an independent bookstore is its
role in the community . . . This isn't just selling books or
coffee--it's really community-building, and I'm proud to be part of
that."
---
Claire Rose, deputy director of the Peter White Public Library, Marquette, Mich., has won the second annual Spotlight Award for Public Librarians, sponsored by BookPage and recognizing library professionals who "never seek the spotlight but certainly deserve it." Rose was one of 500 librarians nominated for the award by patrons and was cited in the nomination for her "passion for her work and a mission to provide for the good of the community." She was also praised for her grant writing ability, including an application for a $300,000 NEH Challenge Grant that helped the library expand. She has worked for the library 18 years.
The award carries a $2,500 prize for Rose; the library receives $250.
---
As the Fourth of July approaches, Slate offered an Independent Reading list of "the best books and Web sites about the birth of America."
---
The Wall Street Journal
featured "Investment Page-Turners for the Summer," which may "make you
a shrewder money manager without making you feel like you're poring
through the Tulsa phone directory."
---
The St. Clair, Ill., County Journal featured several regional bookshops that are searching for ways to be unique and yet remain competitive with national chain and online retailers. Among the bookshops profiled were the Bookworm, Belleville; Piece of Mind Books, Edwardsville; the Booktrader, Belleville; and Sonshine Unlimited, Granite City.