Books & Booze–profitable business, or pending hangover?
Friday, March 13th, 2009Asheville’s latest addition to the bookstore scene is Battery Park Book Exchange, and offers a wide range of books in a great downtown setting. They operate two floors of books, shelved around rooms decorated with couches, Oriental rugs, quality lamps–and a champagne bar? I almost couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen a bookstore that offers [...]
Big Box Brick and Mortar Singin’ the Blues
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008Last week, Barnes & Noble CEO Leonard Riggio released sang a dire song for his employees, citing: Never in all of the years I’ve been in business have I seen a worse outlook for the economy. And never in all my years as a bookseller have I seen a retail climate as poor as the [...]
Save Wordsmiths! And your other (local) bookstores…
Friday, August 15th, 2008I was driving home from the office the other day and heard a compelling story on NPR about Wordsmiths Books, an independent bookstore in Decatur, Georgia, that is currently asking for financial contributions to help offset their start-up debts. Start-up debts, you ask? What do you mean Catherine? Well, according to owner Zach (no last [...]
BookHound 7ce: Free Bookstore Software for Windows XP and Vista
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008Biblio.com has partnered with Bibliopolis to offer booksellers BookHound 7ce (Community Edition) for Windows XP and Vista operating systems. This release is available starting today, and will offer booksellers a new option for free inventory management software. To download the Windows version of BookHound 7ce, please visit the BookHound 7ce information page. BookHound 7ce features [...]
Look Homeward, Bibliophile
Monday, July 7th, 2008Not so long ago, I wrote about Asheville’s penchant for books. (For those who don’t already know, Biblio.com is based in beautiful Asheville, NC – home of Thomas Wolfe). Over the past weekend, our local newspaper, the Asheville Citizen-Times, just happened to run a story on some of the local independent bookstores in Asheville. I [...]
Newark needs a bookstore
Monday, June 9th, 2008The New York Times reports that in 2007, Newark, NJ “ranked last among the nation’s 69 largest cities in the number of bookstores per capita, with 15 stores for 281,000 people, or 0.53 stores per 10,000 residents.” That sounds like an irresistible call to action for an enterprising independent bookstore owner hopeful or indy looking [...]