Category Archives: Bookstores

Birmingham, Bookstores, News, On the Web

Making Changes to the Site

Leave a comment

Exciting things are happening over at LibraryThing and they tie in locally. So I am making a few changes to help bolster their efforts and build buzz for local Birmingham bookstores. This first change, really will affects the handful of visitors that have subscribed to the {head}:sub/head Google Calendar. I have decided to stop updating that calendar.

Three years ago, when I started it Google Calendar was a great way for people to subscribe to events that I posted, but now LibraryThing has a fetaure that they call LibraryThing Local. It’s relaly cool and gets cooler every month. So instead of keeping up with author events and book signings in Google Calendar, I will be maintaing the information over on LibraryThing and displaying the RSS feed from the events, in my sidebar. So you will be able to subscribe to the Birmingham Book Events RSS feed instead.

So if you have been using the Google Calendar, thanks! It’s been fun. But not as fun as the next few months are going to be. If you know of any local book-related events in and around Birmingham, please pass it along or enter it into LibraryThing.

Bookstores

Sears Sells Books?

Leave a comment

Retailers can’t run fast enough down the pricing ladder. Last week’s announcement from WalMart was the opening shot, stating that certain best-seller hardback books can be pre-sold for $10 (so Stephen King’s upcoming $35 book could be ordered for $10). Not to be outdone, Amazon made the same offer, but for the low low price of $9. To which WalMart answered with $8.99.

The next salvo came from Target, when they matched that price for seven upcoming books at $8.99. WalMart then bested the prices for those seven books by a penny, bringing the price down to $8.98.

As the dust was settling from that volley, Sears announced that they can’t/won’t compete on book prices, but they want to be in the game. So….

if you buy one of these upcoming best-seller pre-order type books from Walmart.com, Target.com or Amazon.com, you can email in your receipt and get “up to $9” in Sears store credit. That’s almost a little too complicated isn’t it? I wonder home many book buyers will take advantage of this? I wonder how many book buyers even new Sears sold books?

Let me know if any of you take Sears up on their offer. I’m curious as to how the whole process works out. Though, in the end, I’m thinking we all loose if nothing comes along to balance out this devaluation of books. Don’t get me wrong. I am always the first in line to buy cheap books and I buy from big-box and independents alike. I do have my favorites and price does matter. But the industry as a whole needs to start rolling out new products (not just new titles) faster before we all loose out. In a race to the bottom, everyone looses.

Birmingham, Bookstores, News

Greencup Books is Closing Its Doors

7 Comments

After a few years of trying to find its place in the Birmingham scene, independent bookstore and publishing house Greencup Books has announced it’s going-out-of-business after the November 2nd, el Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival. The shop has been struggling over the past few months, having never really regained its footing after founder and publisher Russell Helms sold it. Greencup had plenty of great titiles and was fun to browse, though they often crammed the store with music acts and theatrical performances, upstairs and between the stacks.

The official announcement came this weekend, via the Greencup Books Facebook Fan Page:

well… its been a good run… the question was never if we were going to last.. but how long…ideally, it would have been longer.. but between the economy, the new construction across the street that took our parking, and their workers that take up all available parking 5 days a week… we are done for…we are broke and I can’t do it anymore, I am tired of begging you and the city for breaks… non-profit or not, this city is not really interested in small business, not enough revenue for them… ..Don’t really feel like getting all mopey I will just say I am closing our doors after day of the dead….

thanks for making this possible
michael

This economy is tough on everyone and regardless of how things hit or missed at Greencup Books, it’s a shame to loose a true business experiment here in Birmingham.