Waldenbooks closing 200 stores in January

[pbray]

Employees were notified and there's a press release listing the stores being closed so it's now official.

One of the stores being closed is my local Waldenbooks, where I have numerous friends among the current and past employees. It's the place where I met jpsorrow--he was working there part-time to feed his book habit, and a mutual friend at the store introduced us.

It was your typical mall bookstore, but the staff made it different. They knew and loved books. I could walk in there and say "My sister used to like mysteries but now she's into conspiracy stuff, and anything historical is good, but not an obvious author that she'll have heard of like Dan Brown." And after about fifteen minutes of searching the shelves pulling out suggestions for me to look at, I'd have a nice care package of books to send to my sister, who would subsequently call to rave about the new authors I'd discovered for her.

Even when the official corporate policy was no local author events, they'd find a way to work the system so a local author could have her event, something members of the local RWA chapter were always grateful for.

The store closing isn't completely unexpected--Waldenbooks is in trouble, and the mall itself is dying, which was a bad combination. But it's still sad news, and I'm going to miss the store when it's gone.

Comments

[diamondreads.livejournal.com]

I'm so so sorry to hear this! It makes me nervous for the visit from our ceo tomorrow at work. I have no idea what the visit is about, but I hope it means good news. It's always sad when a book store closes and I hope your friends will find something good out there. Meeting Josh there was a bonus! Maybe you can have a farewell to where we met kind of event there?

[dynastic-queen.livejournal.com]

Awwwwww. Waldenbooks was my very first bookstore, and I hovered there like, forever. Until twenty years later, when a Barnes & Noble that looked like a castle went up, and this fantasy hound was reeled in. Now I'm more of an indy patron, and I still slip inside my old, nurturing Waldenbooks every now and then.

Looks like three in my area are closing, but not mine. I hope that's true. I'm sad to see yours go. :(

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

A loss for everyone. And weren't they one of the few Waldenbooks to make plan last year?

[pbray.livejournal.com]

They had a great 2008, but 2009 has been a different story. The mall overall hasn't been doing well, nor has the local economy, and there's only so much they could do. Particularly when a large part of the problem was the corporate ordering decisions-- I can't tell you how many times this year I walked into that store to buy a new release, only to be told that they'd only been sent 1 copy which had already sold, or they weren't going to get in any copies unless I special ordered.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of a mall that doesn't have a bookstore. Waldenbooks wasn't perfect by any means, but it was a good option, and I have fond memories of that store.

Once it closes, local buyers will be choosing between the Barnes & Noble superstore, a small independent literary bookstore, or driving an hour to another city.

Or ordering online, which is fine for established authors but a lousy way to discover new authors.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

We're definitely planning a post-closing party with everyone we can round up. Plus there's one last big author signing in December, where we're going to do our best to make it a blowout.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

Ah, the one size fits all philosophy of the large corporation.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Or their other speciality, the self-fulfilling death spiral-- "We have cash flow problems so we have to cut back on ordering books for the stores. Then store sales drop further, so we need to cut back even more."

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

That is sad :(.

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

Sorry for your loss. Hope the booksellers can find another bookstore to share their book passion with readers at.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

It's really a loss for us and for all her customers.

I know April would love to keep working with books perhaps managing another store, but the physical side of bookselling had been causing her problems for at least a year starting with her back and later carpal tunnel, so in some ways being forced to make the change may be turn out to be a blessing in disguise.