Notes: Alice Becomes Maggie; Riggios in the News
Alice, the bookstore in Snow Hill, Md., that was owned by Alice Virginia Kesterson, the longtime Random House sales director who died in 2006 (Shelf Awareness, November 20, 2006), has been bought by Judy Menavich and renamed Maggie's in honor of Menavich's late sister, the Salisbury Daily Times reported.
"Her sister loved the store so she bought it as a labor of love," store manager Michelle Fulton told the paper.
The new owner is making few changes at the Eastern Shore store. "We're keeping the same type things here," Fulton said. "But we've uncluttered a little and we're opening a coffee shop in the back.
"It's comfortable," she continued. "People don't necessarily love books that come in here but there's an array of different things for everyone. It's a good down-home bookstore."
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Last week Barnes & Noble chairman Leonard Riggio bought another 300,000 shares of company stock, according to SEC filings reported by the AP. He bought the shares for between $32 and $33.97 each, meaning he spent a minimum of $9.6 million on the purchases.
The week before, Riggio bought 350,000 B&N shares (Shelf Awareness, January 30, 2008) and now owns about 13.7 million shares of B&N.
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Steve Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble, and Steve Kessel, senior v-p, worldwide digital media, Amazon.com, are among the industry people who will be interviewed during the AAP's annual meeting, Wednesday, March 5, in New York City. David Young, head of Hachette Book Group will put questions to Riggio while Kessel will be interviewed by Richard Sarnoff of Random House and AAP chairman.
For a full schedule and more information, go to publishers.org.
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In May, Borders will open a 23,195-sq.-ft. store at the Hamilton Town Center in Noblesville, Ind., near Indianapolis. The store will be located at the intersection of Interstate 69 and 146th Street.
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Nick DiMartino of University Bookstore, Seattle, Wash., and a Shelf Awareness reviewer, offers his entertaining, informative outlook on books as a contributor to the blog Book Group Buzz. Check it out at bookgroupbuzz.booklistonline.com.
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Ever wonder what it might be like to be a KFYR-TV reporter in Bismarck, N.D, working at a Barnes & Noble store for a segment called "Try My Job: Bookstore Employee"?
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Bob
Benham, co-owner of Book World, Aurora, Colo., plans to "embrace the
tiger" by closing his bricks-and-mortar store in July and selling his
antiquarian book inventory exclusively online, according to the Rocky Mountain News.
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Anthony
Frost, a new English-language bookshop in Bucharest, Romania, "has
become popular among students, academics and expats, especially for its
fair pricing system--which sees English-language books on sale for the
same cost as in the West," the Diplomat Bucharest reported.
Why
"Anthony Frost?" Co-owner Vlad Niculescu said it's the name of a friend
who helped foster the three owners' collective passion for English. "He
doesn't know we've named the bookshop after him yet. It may be a
surprise."
The Diplomat added that "one of the store's
unique selling points is helpful staff who know what they are talking
about. For browsers, this makes the experience of speaking to shop
assistants a pleasure rather than an act of public humiliation."
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"Money can't be equated with a bookstore," 86-year-old bookseller Ram Advani told the Times of India.
"I have been here for 60 years. I hope my sons can make a century. I
don't want to accept defeat. Just by seeing the way a person reads or
smells the book, I can say whether he'll be buying it or not."
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