ANGUS & ROBERTSON has axed 519 workers in the latest wave of job cuts to hit a retail sector battered by consumer apathy and high debt.
The administrator John Melluish of Ferrier Hodgson said 42 Angus & Robertson stores owned by the failed REDGroup would close within four weeks.
In a statement posted on the Ferrier Hodgson website last night, Mr Melluish said 19 other stores would be sold within a fortnight.
A Ferrier Hodgson spokesman was unable to say where the doomed stores were located, but the Angus & Robertson website shows there are just 13 company-owned shops in Victoria and 14 in NSW following previous store closures.
The 48 Angus & Robertson franchise stores are not affected. Last night's bloodletting adds to the thousands of jobs lost from retail in the past year. Jobs lost include 1042 on Tuesday when Colorado Group announced it would close all its namesake stores and 40 other shoe and clothing stores.
Also gone are 1675 jobs lost when bookstore chain Borders, also owned by REDGroup, closed its doors this month, and hundreds more in the near-collapse of donut chain Krispy Kreme in November.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Bookstores are dying. Books are becoming antiques.
Just look around here. People constantly demand that one "post a link" for something. If you can link it, they'll read it. Maybe. But if you got it from a book, it's irrelevant.
I have posted things with specific citations to books -- author, title, publisher, date of publication, page number, the whole deal -- and ended up being described as someone who has a knack for finding things on the net. The net is a wonderful thing. But it is rapidly becoming the only thing, and that is not a wonderful thing.
Reason is valuable only when it performs against the wordless physical background of the universe.
So, B&N or Borders isn't a "real" bookstore? So they are...what, UNREAL bookstores? Do you EVER think before typing something stupid? Or have you just been hitting the bottle again?
It is difficult to imagine any business model by which a "book store" can be a viable profit-making enterprise in the long term. Between Amazon (for buying hardbacks) and Kindle - even I own one of these - going to a book store will in a few short years be like visiting a museum.
I enjoy browsing around in a Borders or B&N, and they seem to be doing well, but when I see walkers in my neighborhood carrying round those electronic gadgets, reading a "book," I think we've turned a corner here and there's no going back.
dgs49 wrote:It is difficult to imagine any business model by which a "book store" can be a viable profit-making enterprise in the long term. Between Amazon (for buying hardbacks) and Kindle - even I own one of these - going to a book store will in a few short years be like visiting a museum.
I enjoy browsing around in a Borders or B&N, and they seem to be doing well, but when I see walkers in my neighborhood carrying round those electronic gadgets, reading a "book," I think we've turned a corner here and there's no going back.
Anyone like to see my collection of LP's?
Cassettes took out LPs and CDs took out Cassettes and the n-Pod/mp3 has taken out CDs (bogus claims of Napsterism aside)
Now a bookcase can fit on what used to be a large PDA? Goodbye print.
dgs49 wrote: I think we've turned a corner here and there's no going back.
I agree Dave. Book collecting, rather than printing, will be the mainstay of the book industry.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
That said (and agreed), I still prefer reading an actual book to the computer screen or Kindle (though I like both of those as well). And I prefer an actual newspaper to the computer screen. You see a lot more that is there that you might miss. See it the law office fairly regularly -- people miss stuff when they just use the computer that they would not if they actually picked up the statutes or ready a hard copy research source.
I have to agree with Long Run here, a book is a wonderful thing to read, a screen no so much.
However, I think we will see a generation, within our life spans, who will be brought up reading screens first, and that will become their norm. I shudder at the thought of this.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Gob wrote:
However, I think we will see a generation, within our life spans, who will be brought up reading screens first, and that will become their norm. I shudder at the thought of this.
I remember Fred Flinstone saying the same type of thing about stone tablets...
Back in the 1970s the big chain bookstores, Borders, Barnes and Noble, Pickwick, Crown Books, were using unfair competition to put all the local bookstores out of business. A few of the "real" bookstores, locally owned which are part of their communities fought back led by Bookshop Santa Cruz and won a lawsuit.
Borders tried to muscle in here and now they're out of business hammered by an even larger megastore, Amazon.
Funny you should mention Amazon rubato, I'm just about to order a book ("Pies and Prejudice" by Stuart Maconie) from the UK branch. Of course by doing so I am contributing to the demise of the Aussie mega bookstores, in a small way. But look at the second hand price, "from 1 p"! Even including postage it's still a bundle cheaper than buying local.
I recently had the great pleasure of purchasing a book I have enjoyed, from Amazon USA, and getting it delivered to two of the members here.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Gob wrote:
However, I think we will see a generation, within our life spans, who will be brought up reading screens first, and that will become their norm. I shudder at the thought of this.
I remember Fred Flinstone saying the same type of thing about stone tablets...
Online book retailing is about to get a little bit less competitive, with Amazon announcing that it will buy The Book Depository.
The cost of the transaction remains undisclosed.
The UK company, which is popular in Australia due to its low prices and free shipping, was expected to chalk up sales of 120 million pounds ($180 million) for the fiscal year ending in June, according to industry specialist TheBookseller.com. Last year it had an operating profit of 2.3 million pounds, TheBookseller.com said.
On its website, the company sought to reassure its customers that its service and range would improve after the acquisition by Amazon.
‘‘The Book Depository and Amazon are aligned in wanting to ensure the best possible experience for customers,’’ the group said.
‘‘Working with Amazon we will look to continue to increase our vast selection of great titles and provide even better customer experience.’'
Amazon’s vice-president of European retail Greg Greeley said: "The Book Depository is very focused on serving its customers around the world, and we look forward to welcoming them to the Amazon family.
"With the support of Amazon, we look forward to continuing our growth and providing an ever-improving service for readers globally," said Book Depository founder Andrew Crawford.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
Book Depository offers six million books for delivery globally.
Locally, administrators for collapsed private equity company REDgroup, which bought and gutted the Angus & Robertson and Borders retail chains before collapsing earlier this year, said today they have sold the company’s online business to the Australian arm of Penguin’s owner Pearson.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
dgs49 wrote: I think we've turned a corner here and there's no going back.
I agree Dave. Book collecting, rather than printing, will be the mainstay of the book industry.
I don't think that's going to happen for some time yet (although feel free to call me a luddite, and point back to this ridiculous statement when I'm proven wrong in under 5 years -- ). There are too many reasons why people need hard copy books, not the least of which is cost and the ability to share. The vast majority of the world doesn't have ereaders, and they sure don't have them in schools. The free library access is limited, slow, and clunky. Unless and until the cost model changes, ereaders are going to remain the limited province of the well-to-do.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
I hope you are right Guin. While I've been off work I've been reading 4-6 books a week, my love for them is undimmed, I wonder how I would fare with an e-reader now? Would I be able to hold the attention needed.
(Ps. Guin, try and get hold of any of Phil Rickman's "Merrily Watkins" series, I'm sure you'd love them.)
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
). There are too many reasons why people need hard copy books, not the least of which is cost and the ability to share. The vast majority of the world doesn't have ereaders, and they sure don't have them in schools. The free library access is limited, slow, and clunky. Unless and until the cost model changes, ereaders are going to remain the limited province of the well-to-do.