Only a day after Borders Group in the U.S. filed for chapter 11
bankruptcy reorganization, the parent company of Borders in Australia
and New Zealand, which has no connection with the American company, also
went bankrupt.
REDgroup Retail, which owns the Angus &
Robertson chain in Australia and Whitcoulls stores in New Zealand and is
in turn owned by private equity company Private Equity Partners, went
into voluntary administration after a board meeting today, according to
the Sydney Morning Herald.
Administrators are conducting "an urgent assessment of the business's
financial status and to prepare for the first meeting of creditors,"
which will likely take place in early March. The stores will continue to
conduct business as usual, but the paper called Borders's and A&R's
outlook "grim."
Last year REDgroup Retail said it would probably
breach two of its three banking covenants because of declining sales and
had a full-year loss of A$43 million (about $US43.7 million).
Borders's
first store in Australia opened in 1998, and there are now 27 Borders
stores in Australia and New Zealand. In 2008, Borders Group in the U.S.
sold its Borders stores in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore to
A&R/Whitcoulls. With 103 company-owned stores and 61 franchised
stores, A&R is Australia's largest bookselling chain. It was founded
in 1886. Whitcoulls was founded in 1882 and has 65 stores in New
Zealand, 40 of which are in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
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In an editorial, the Seattle Times said that it cannot support Amazon, "a neighbor of ours," in the company's "campaign to dodge the payment of state sales tax all across America."
The editors argued that Amazon's recently announced plan to close its Texas distribution center in response to a $269 million tax bill "would have been a slick strategy for the 1990s, or maybe even today for a company nobody ever heard of. But Amazon, which ambitiously named itself for the biggest river on Earth, has become what its name implies. It is the Internet's widest and deepest source of products, which makes it too big to be excused from its obligations. Amazon is going to lose this fight. It knows this. It is trying to drag its feet as long as it can because it is profitable to do so. Settle now and get it over with."
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What does the Borders Bankruptcy mean for Kobo e-reader owners? Kobo's company blog had reassuring words for customers who've purchased e-books through Borders, noting that their "e-book library is perfectly safe. The Borders e-book experience is powered by Kobo, an entirely separate company from Borders. Kobo is financially secure and will continue to maintain your e-book library no matter what happens.... [W]e are working with Borders to provide seamless service to their customers."
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On Tuesday night, the Washington Literary
Council presented its Lifetime Literacy Achievement award, honoring "those
who consistently advocate for literacy, support reading for the entire
community, and provide opportunities for readers of all ages to gather, to
explore, and to learn," to Politics & Prose co-owners Barbara Meade
and the late Carla Cohen. Carla's husband, David Cohen, accepted on her behalf.
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As the digital age continues to draw a bead on traditional indies, the Everett, Wash., Daily Herald observed that "the cultural coroners are out in force again, pronouncing the time of death for all bookstores. But people like bookstores. They especially like, and are loyal to, independent bookstores. People who write books also especially like bookstores. That’s where they give readings (libraries too!) and meet people who read their books....
"Community is key. In the Northwest, we are lucky to have plenty of our own examples: Village Books in Bellingham, Watermark Book Co. in Anacortes, Elliott Bay Books in Seattle, Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane and Powell's Books in Portland. Funny how a 'dead' business also continues to sound like one of the best things that could happen for the future of downtown Everett."
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In Ohio, the Toledo Blade showcased independent bookstores in the region that "not only have a presence but also a loyal following," including the A Novel Idea, Sylvania; Book Cents, West Toledo; Grounds for Thought, Bowling Green; and Book Nook, Monroe, Mich.
"It's not a get-rich scheme, but it's working," said Kelly Wicks, co-owner of Grounds for Thought. "We've worked very hard to make it a success. We've had a lot of good luck.... The people of Bowling Green are very supportive. The downtown area is still very vibrant, and that brings a lot of traffic through our store. The [rent] prices are reasonable and that allows a lot of businesses to remain downtown unlike some other major metro areas."
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Special Occasions bookstore, Winston-Salem, N.C., will close "sometime after Mother's Day" as owners Ed and Miriam McCarter yield "to a weak economy and strong competition from e-books and online booksellers," the Journal reported, adding the "fact that Special Occasions
specializes in merchandise geared toward blacks has provided a niche for
the bookstore over the years."
"People now in this economy are holding on and trying to meet necessary demands on their shrinking incomes," said Miriam. "So they cut out things that are not necessities."
"A lot of the things that we offer you just couldn't find anywhere else," Ed observed. "It allowed us to have a wider base. It's not unusual during the day for us to have people come in from Charlotte or Greensboro or for people to call from out of the area.... The most rewarding thing for me is the way the community has accepted us and supported us over the years. We have no regrets about what we've done. We've enjoyed it thoroughly. We feel like we've brought something positive to this community and to others."
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Cool idea of the day: To launch its yearlong 100th anniversary celebration of the Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press has launched a "Show Us Your Loebs" campaign with a call for photos of Loeb collections: "Do you have your own? Do you separate the reds and greens? Have some creative shelving solutions? Just a pile on the floor? Maybe you're a bookseller, or a librarian, and have a collection to show off? Maybe you've happened on a collection of them in a used book shop, or a junk store, or, like us, in a Pottery Barn ad. We want to see it all."
Send pictures to hup_promo@harvard.edu and the HUP blog will feature them throughout the year.
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For the writer who has everything: Boing Boing featured the "New Yorker," a Streamlined Art Deco keyboard.
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So you think you know about Brooklyn's literary scene and heritage? Test yourself with the Guardian's Brooklyn books quiz.
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Dan Vyleta, author most recently of The Quiet Twin, shared his favorite "exophonic" writing by selecting his top 10 books in second languages for the Guardian.
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Book trailer of the day: When the Killing's Done by T.C. Boyle (Viking).