The Grand Rapids, Mich., Downtown Development Authority approved a
$50,000 grant to Debra Lambers, owner of Book Nook &
Java Shop in Montague, who plans to open a 7,800-sq.-ft. bookstore in
Grand Rapids later this year, the
Grand Rapids Press
reported. The store will be in the former Steketee's department store
in space that was once part of Steketee's book department. Lambers said
she expects to spend $980,000 to open the store, hiring 20 parttime and
4 fulltime employees. It's the first general bookstore in Grand Rapids
in 17 years.
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NACS's
CM Bulletin offers
more details on Universal Digital Textbooks (UDT), the pilot program of
MBS Textbook Exchange, textbook publishers and 10 college bookstores to
offer e-book alternatives to students on some titles this fall.
While in the past, publishers have offered e-books, usually approaching
students and faculty directly, this is one of the first times stores
have been included in the process. The program also gets high grades
because "the UDT card doesn't require upfront money from bookstores.
Bookstores don't have to pay for an e-book until it's sold. Plus, if
the card is stolen, it's useless without an access code."
As noted here in Wednesday, the e-book program has a few possible
downsides: the discount vs. textbooks is just 33%, the e-book has
printing limitations, it expires in five months and it can't be sold
back.
Two e-steps forward, one e-step back.
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I-T M-U-S-T B-E A S-L-O-W N-E-W-S D-A-Y at the
New York Times,
which today ran a feature on books for aging baby boomers on the upper
left side of the front page. Edward Wyatt said that Penguin's and
S&S's taller mass market paperbacks with larger typefaces and more
space between the lines have received mixed receptions at retailers.
Wal-Mart and some other big discounters objected to the higher prices
and ordered "smaller-than-normal" quantities of the books. But a
Borders buyer, Allison Elsby, said that "initial reaction looks
relatively positive," although she emphasized that there are just a few
books in the new format and they've been out only a few weeks.
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Everyone who read
The 9/11 Commission Report on the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks was struck by its gripping, thriller-like narrative.
That quality and the fact that the report is a public document have
helped Hollywood to begin making films and shows about that day,
according to today's
Wall Street Journal. The Discovery Channel will air a show
The Flight That Fought Back
about United Flight 93 this coming Sept. 11, and in the fall, ABC will
broadcast a six-hour miniseries about the attacks and earlier related
attacks. A&E is casting its own show about Flight 93.
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Some people have the unshakeable opinion that flip-flops are not
appropriate footwear in many situations, but they're quite popular on
campus, NACS's
CM Bulletin
notes. Arizona State University Bookstores sold nearly $50,000 worth of
flip flops last year at prices ranging from $12 to $40.
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Sigh. A Patagonia outdoor gear store opens today in the site of the old
Ruminator Bookstore near Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
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The post office--technically speaking, a postal substation--in the
bookstore at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., will stay open
after all, according to the
Corvallis Gazette-Times.
The bookstore had planned to close the post office, which serves the
23,000-member community, because the Postal Service was demanding it
upgrade equipment and sign a new contract that the store said was too
costly. The store has said the service is already a money-loser.
Under a compromise, the store will continue to use the old equipment until it breaks down. . .