Strange things are happening with bookstores these days. (Besides that fact that lots of them seem to be closing up shop.)
Take Books-a-Million for instance; they seem to be sneaking into several old Border’s stores…almost overnight.
First off, I can’t believe that I just wrote “old Border’s stores.” That’s really weird.
Second of all, why would another bookseller want to move in to these massive retail stores, and take their chance in a rapidly-changing industry?
Even if they’ve received sweet lease deals from the commercial real estate brokers that were involved in the transactions, the overhead still has to be huge.
So, what gives? Am I missing something?
Are they thinking about franchising?
Maybe. If any bookstore is going to survive now-chains…even independents, they’re going to need to be super-innovative.
Like Books-a-Million, who just last year bought a 40% interest in a start-up franchise, Yogurt Mountain, for $3 million. According to this post on Seeking Alpha, they’ve also committed to provide a $1.5 million credit line.
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Are you interested in eating some Yogurt Mountain frozen yogurt in a bookstore setting?
Of course, it’s possible that frozen yogurt franchises are cooling off just like retail bookstores, and if that’s the case, talk about a possible double-whammy…
Even if this bookstore chain, (which is currently a family-owned one) didn’t actually become a franchise business, but just started adding Yogurt Mountain franchises in all 200 of their stores, would it be enough to turn the retail bookstore business model on it’s head?
Selfishly, I hope so; I really want to see my new franchise book on a bookshelf near you.
(And, near me, too!)
So, what do you think of a bookstore+frozen yogurt? Could it work?
Several things incorrect about this article. First, BAM has been moving to Borders stores since their demise, and not “overnight.” They attempted to take over many of the stores during bankruptcy, but were unsuccessful. So, instead they moved into several of Border’s higher volume stores. Secondly, BAM now owns 100% of the Yogurt Mountain chain (BAM, the company, owns 60% and Anderson Private capital, same family, owns 40%). Finally, BAM is a publicly held company. The Andersons own a great deal of the stock, but it is still a publicly traded company.
Thanks for those updates. I feel bad that Border’s went under. They were great store!
JL
Great store but made some poor decisions. Book and music business is tough enough, then they stopped charging for their discount card. That is money right on the bottom line and they just gave it away. I can tell you from experience, that discount card money really adds up.