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UK bookstore chain Waterstone’s for sale by corporate owner
March 28, 2011 | 10:27 am
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By Chris Meadows
Is the sale or bankruptcy of bookstore chains becoming a trend? The Bookseller reports that HMV, the corporate owner of UK bookstore chain Waterstone’s, is “pursuing strategic options,” which is to say, trying to sell the chain off. HMV has not been having a very good year financially, and seems to want to lighten the load.
Waterstones founder Tim Waterstone is trying to get financing together to buy the chain, wanting to return it “to its roots as a stock-holding book chain with knowledgeable staff.” It isn’t clear from the article whether this means he also plans to move it away from the e-book business it also currently operates if his bid is successful. This would mark Waterstone’s sixth attempt to regain control of the chain he founded.
Barnes & Noble, Borders, Waterstone’s…who’s going to be next to feel the pinch of the economy and the rising popularity of e-books?
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If Waterstones goes under it will hit the book buying public in England hard, as the only books store around is Waterstones. We do have W H Smiths but it’s limited on the books it sells, mostly the top 100 best sellers, and does more magazines and stationary. Borders closed up shop here about 2 years ago and there are no other major bookstores around.
That is why I ended up getting a Kindle. Every time I went to Waterstones they never had what I wanted no matter how new the book and ended up buying everything off of Amazon anyway so when the K3 came out here I got it.
It is sad to see brick and mortar stores go by the wayside but more so in a country with only two major sellers and no real options outside of on line shopping.