The bookstore retail sector has shrunk significantly over the last 25 years as Amazon and other online sales decimated brick-and-mortar booksellers.
Crown Books, which had locations in malls, was one of the first major bookstore chains to fold in the new millennium, as it filed bankruptcy and liquidated in 2001.
Big-box bookstore retailer Borders was one of the biggest to collapse as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011 and liquidated about 400 stores.
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Other mall bookstores, Waldenbooks and Brentano’s, which were owned by Borders, also filed bankruptcy and liquidated in 2011.
Today’s major brick-and-mortar bookstores, such as Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble, have succeeded by diversifying their in-store offerings with toys, games, gifts, DVDs, music, and coffee shops to satisfy a larger cross-section of consumers.
Those major national bookstore chains are in fierce competition with smaller local and regional chains that also have to compete with online businesses
One of those struggling, small bookseller chains just made a trip to bankruptcy court.
Books Inc. filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize its business.
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Books Inc. files bankruptcy to reorganize
Iconic bookstore chain Books Inc., the San Francisco Bay Area’s oldest independent bookstore company, on Jan. 21 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize its business and close one of its locations.
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The 174-year-old privately held bookstore chain filed its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California facing annual revenue losses as a result of steadily rising operating costs and dramatically changing consumer buying habits exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said in a statement on its website.
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Books Inc. will close a location in February
The San Leandro, Calif.-based bookstore chain, which operates 11 locations in Northern California according to its website, said that it will close one of its stores located in Berkeley, Calif., on Feb. 9 as part of its reorganization. Some staff is expected to transfer to positions at its other locations.
Customers who purchased gift cards at the Berkeley Books Inc. store may use them at any of the other stores or online at booksinc.net.
“Books Inc. is not going away,” said Books Inc. CEO Andy Perham. “Our board, investors, senior managers and key partners agree that reorganizing with the tools afforded us by Chapter 11 is the fastest path toward putting our company on a smaller, financially stronger platform from which we can continue our long legacy of serving California readers.”
“Restructuring Books Inc. for long-term viability will require we make some very difficult decisions that affect our people and business partners, and we intend to do everything we can to minimize these impacts,” said Perham.
After the Berkeley Books Inc. store closes, the remaining stores will continue operating pending court approval of the company’s proposed reorganization plan that will seek to consolidate certain physical retail stores.
Books Inc.’s website will continue to operate and fulfill orders, and the chain’s Frequent Reader Program and related benefits will continue without interruption, the statement said.
The debtor’s revenue plummeted from $20.9 million in 2019 to $11.3 million in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but began rising each year afterward to $18.9 million in 2023, according to SiliconValley.com.
Revenue, however, declined in 2024 by 9.5% to $17.1 million.
Book’s Inc. origin dates back to 1851 when European immigrant Anton Roman opened a bookstore in Shasta City, Calif., and then moved the store to San Francisco in 1855, according to the website.
The bookstore had operated under the names of various owners until 1946 when a new bookstore owner Lew Lengfeld renamed the store Books Inc. Over the years, the company opened new stores in New Mexico, Denver, Dallas, Seattle, and Southern California.
The chain had 12 stores when Lengfeld died in 1996, but the proliferation of national bookstore chains forced the company to file for Chapter 11. It emerged from bankruptcy in August 1997 with four stores, and a fifth store was added in 1998.
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