Friday, January 13, 2012
Out with the old
The Barnes and Noble store in Seattle's University Village recently closed, and the Seattle Times is reporting that the furniture chain Room & Board is going to fill at least part of the (enormous) vacancy. I'd never heard of Room & Board, so I looked it up. Most of their stuff is A) way out of my price range, and B) not my style, but I did quite like these pillows, inspired by classic European comic book characters:   Not enough to shell out $49 apiece, naturally. But if they ever went on sale for, say, $19.99 I'd probably be tempted. Labels: Barnes and Noble, Economy of Doom, Home Decor
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Picking over the remains
 Last weekend, while hunting for a particular book for my brother's birthday, I ventured into a Borders store. I usually avoid stores that are closing (they make me feel like a vulture), but I'd already struck out at both my local independent bookseller and the nearest chain bookstore, so Borders was my last resort. They failed me, too, when it came to the book I was searching for, but they still have TONS of books on their shelves, most marked 40 to 60% off. I managed to restrain myself to picking up the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition of Austen's Persuasion, but I might go back later and buy some of the books I've been coveting for a while, like the tattoo-art-style edition of Bridget Jones's Diary.
Anyway, if my Borders is indicative of the chain as a whole, now might be a good time for budget-minded shoppers to get jump-started on their holiday gift buying. The shopping experience is totally depressing, but the books are cheap and plentiful.
Labels: Borders, Economy of Doom
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
For whom the bell tolls
 Well, Borders is officially toast: the troubled bookseller has confirmed it will liquidate its assets. If everything goes as planned, going-out-of-business sales will begin this Friday and continue until the end of September. Labels: Borders, Economy of Doom
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
An insider's look
 My mother was absolutely fascinated by the Bernie Madoff scandal, but she's determined to wait until she is 100% certain she's found the most informative and in-depth book about his situation before she shells out any cash for it. I doubt this will be the book in question, but less insanely finicky readers may be interested: Stephanie Madoff-Mack (daughter-in-law of Bernie and widow of Bernie's son Mark) has sold a memoir to Penguin for release this December. The publisher promises this as-yet-untitled book will be the "first genuine inside account...of one of the great public scandals and private tragedies of our time". Labels: Economy of Doom, Nonfiction
Monday, May 16, 2011
Borders trying the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach?
 Publishers Weekly has done another post on the rumors surrounding the current state of the troubled Borders chain. According to their most recent information, some of the bookstores may be sold (possibly to Barnes and Noble), they'll be offering a $79.99 Kobo e-reader within the next few months, and there are plans to expand the chain's non-book items, including spa, gift, and stationery goods. I will own myself straight-up amazed if there's enough money in cutesy pens and overpriced soy candles to support a chain as large as Borders, but any little bit helps, I suppose... Labels: Borders, Economy of Doom
Monday, April 18, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
GYAH!
 My beloved Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon laid off 31 employees (a full 7% of their unionized workforce) on Tuesday. Powell's management released a statement explaining that the layoffs were due to "adverse conditions", which they expect to continue for a number of years. Man, how depressing... Labels: Economy of Doom, Powell's Books
Thursday, February 03, 2011
The fall of civilization
 According to Publishers Weekly, second-quarter earnings at HarperCollins have fallen, although they claim their children's department (which produces titles ranging from the Pretty Little Liars series to Erin Hunter's Warriors books) has done "extremely well"—thanks largely to a Justin Bieber biography and two titles by former MTV reality starlet Lauren Conrad. What, no Kardashian memoirs? Labels: Economy of Doom, Such wrongness
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Grim signs
 The NY Times has posted another article about the struggles of independent booksellers. The American Booksellers Association just hosted its 6th annual Winter Institute, and the store owners who attended were clearly willing to try just about anything to stay relevant. (Bookstores with wine bars! Cafes! Online presences! Whatever!) The article also mentions the most recent rumors about the Borders chain, which delayed payments to publishers last month and appears to be within a gnat's whisker of closing its doors. Labels: Booksellers, Economy of Doom
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Down for the count
 PublishersWeekly recently posted an interesting article about chain bookstores' ongoing attempts to stay profitable during the economic downturn. Of the three major U.S. book chains (Books-A-Million, Borders, and Barnes and Noble), only B&N posted a sales gain in the most recent quarter—and that was due to strong online sales, which overcame a 2.6% loss in its retail trade stores. According to PW, the three stores are tweaking their floor layouts in various ways, including expanding bargain sections and non-book offerings, in an effort to respond to current demands. Frankly, I'm not sure how much (if any) of this will help... but at least no one is going gently into the good night, you know? Labels: Booksellers, Economy of Doom, Publishing
Thursday, August 05, 2010
The fall of the book-selling empire?
 Further hints of the crumbling world of major chain bookstores: Barnes and Noble is considering putting itself up for sale. (Specifically, they're exploring "strategic alternatives", one of which is selling.) My hometown contains both a Borders and a Barnes and Noble, and you can see that market factors are hitting 'em hard (limited hours, diminishing stock, fewer employees), while the five or so local, independent booksellers in the area seem to be doing okay. Wave of the future, or just a fluke of my hippie town? Only time will tell.... Labels: Booksellers, Economy of Doom, Money
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Hard times
 Seattle's Elliot Bay Book Co., an iconic bookseller located in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square District, has been sufficiently hard-hit by the recession to be considering a move. While I'm glad to hear they're not considering closing, this news is still a huge blow for the other businesses in Pioneer Square—a gorgeous bit of Seattle, for those of you who haven't seen it, but one that has long contained more than its fair share of the city's homeless and mentally ill population, and is now really struggling with the recent dip in tourist income. Labels: Booksellers, Economy of Doom
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Manga price hikes
 Hmm. It seems that several major manga publishers will be raising their prices in the immediate future, including Del Rey, Viz, and Dark Horse. Their books will now run $1 or $2 more per volume. People have pointed out (quite correctly) that manga used to cost anywhere from $15 to $20 per volume, and the industry survived somehow. However, that was several years ago, when publishers released far fewer titles and the market was limited to devoted fans, not twelve-year-olds shelling out their allowances for the ten-millionth volume of Fruits Basket or Naruto. I'm not saying these price hikes will kill the industry, but I think they might lose more readers than they're bargaining for. After all, those twelve-year-olds are feeling the economic pinch, too, and I bet "But, Mom, my manga costs more!" isn't going to convince their cash-strapped parents to give them more spending money. Labels: Economy of Doom, manga
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Central Park Media folds
 Anime producer and manga/manhwa publisher CPM filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last week—the kind of bankruptcy where the company will be liquidated. On one hand, any publisher shutting down is sad news. But on the other, CPM hasn't produced anything in a year or so, and their record was pretty spotty even before that. So at least we can't blame this failure on the Economy of Doom, and #Korean-Manhwa can finish scanlating the Masca series with a clear conscience. That's something, right? Labels: Economy of Doom, Silver linings
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Seriously, how big are these kids' allowances?
 According to Cinematical, Twilight fans at a Florida convention were willing to pay thirty dollars to get their picture taken with Kimbra Hickey, the apple-clutching hand model featured on the first book in the mega-popular series. I'm torn: half of me is appalled by this news ( Thirty dollars?! Have they no shame?), but the other half is beginning to wonder if the combination of Stephenie Meyer + tween girls with deep pockets really will be the force that saves our economy. Labels: Economy of Doom, Events, Stephenie Meyer
Thursday, April 09, 2009
I can't believe I'm saying this...
 ...but thank you, Stephenie Meyer. MSN Money is reporting that someone, at least, is doing well in this economy, and it's all thanks to you: sales of Twilight-themed merchandise helped Hot Topic's same-store sales grow 7.1% in March, compared with the same period last year. Your heroine still sucks (and not in a fun, vampire-ish way), but we here at Wordcandy sincerely appreciate you doing your bit for the economy. Labels: Economy of Doom, Stephenie Meyer
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Have they failed to notice that we are collectively broke?
 Brace yourselves, fantasy fans, because the fine people at Tor Books have decided to split the late Robert Jordan's final work into three pieces. The three releases combined make up A Memory of Light, the conclusion to Jordan’s bestselling fantasy series The Wheel of Time. A Memory of Light was partially written by Jordan before his death, and is being completed by Brandon Sanderson (with the blessing of Jordan's wife/editor Harriet McDougal). The three "volumes" will be released over a two-year period, with the first going on sale on November 3, 2009. Unfortunately, while they are referring to A Memory of Light as a single "book", and the three combined sections seem to tell as single story, I'm not getting the impression that will be reflected in the prices of the individual volumes. I don't see an Amazon page up for the standard release of the first volume yet, but they have posted a price for the audiobook edition: a wallet-gouging $40.84, marked down from $59.99. Now, I'm not a Jordan fan, so I can't claim to care about this personally, but my heart goes out to his readers. I'm hoping I'm wrong and the books are given an appropriately low cover price (say, ten to fourteen dollars, tops), because it seems remarkably unfair to ask readers who have already made a significant emotional and financial investment in Mr. Jordan's work to pay hardcover prices three times over in order to finish the last book in his series. Labels: Economy of Doom, Fantasy, Upcoming Books
Monday, March 30, 2009
Borders no more?
 There's been a fair amount of depressing-sounding Borders news floating around lately (not to mention the obvious shutting down/downsizing of its CD and DVD divisions), and it sounds like we might get some kind of confirmation soon: The Consumerist is reporting that things aren't looking good. I'm not totally clear on the roads to bankruptcy and/or going out of business (they seem to go hand-in-hand much more in this economy), but I'm assuming we'll hear more this week. Anyway, good luck, Borders! You charge too much for CDs*, but I really like your manga section, so I hope you stick around. *Seriously: the Neko Case CD I bought at the beginning of the month cost under $10 at Target, $12.95 at Starbucks, and an impressive $17.99 at Borders. Labels: Booksellers, Economy of Doom
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