Bookstores everywhere are going broke

A state-of-the-art report by Jill Elaine HUGHES--a Chicago-based writer of stageplays, screenplays, journalism, and fiction

It's earnings-reporting season. I know this because I once (long ago) worked in investment banking. Earnings-reporting season is the time when publicly traded companies (i.e., those that have stock) report their quarterly earnings. In the past few weeks, the three big bookstore retail chains (Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million) reported their earnings.
Barnes & Noble and Borders---by far the largest two bookstore companies---both reported BIG losses. Borders is especially hemorrhaging cash via its Waldenbooks stores (the smaller, popular-fiction-based bookstores you usually see in malls), many of which it has shut down. Borders is losing money hand over fist---to read their earnings press release, click here. Barnes & Noble is also faring very poorly. (they reported big losses about a month ago)...

I know I'm part of the "problem", too. Since I moved to the 'burbs, I have greatly deceased the amount of money I spend on books. I have the benefit of living in Arlington Heights, Illinois, which has one of the best public libraries in the Midwest. The Arlington Heights Memorial Library has one of the most robust collections in the region, and it acquires multiple copies of almost every new book published----it's basically eliminated the need for me to go to the bookstore. I can get a copy of almost any book I want to read for free within days of its publication just by dropping by my library. My library also gets all the latest DVDs, which I can also view for free. With that, who needs a bookstore? Living in the expensive Chicago suburbs, with their high property taxes and such, does have benefits when it comes to the library.



continue reading @ Jill Elaine Hughes- The Blog!