Monday, February 21, 2011

The End of the Chain Bookstore Era


Is it?

From a piece in Off on a Tangent...

Obviously, the chain bookstore story is by no means over. Borders believes it can emerge a stronger company; publishers and other people with a vested interest are more skeptical, when Borders’ financials are a little too similar to Circuit City, which tried to emerge from Chapter 11 and ended up liquidating completely. Books-a-Million plods along, the strong, silent 3rd-largest (and never-national) retailer, piggybacking onto B&N for its e-book strategy and making do with okay-ish same-store sales.

And of course, B&N, transitioning more and more into a digital book-first company now that the proxy fight sideshow with Ron Burkle has reached a rest point. (So long as Burkle still has a significant stake in the company, I can’t say with absolute certainty that he’s out of the picture, though he has certainly been discouraged from making another run for the board.) They do stand the best chance, but it depends on whether they continue as a public company or go private.

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