Largest bookseller in US. They opened a lot of new stores this year, and plans for a lot more next year.
‘The end has been called many times.’ Television was gonna stop kids reading. There's a ‘huge dynamism’ among young adults, kids are reading. ‘It’s discovery and it's a social space.' ‘Bookstores have to be friendly, they have to be open.’ ‘It’s the stores that matter.'
In 2019, when the current CEO took over, the company stopped accepting payments to place books in certain locaitons, ie advertising, neither in stores or on the website. Before, they took ‘most of the money that way.’ He gave each store total control over their curration, so ‘you get much more dynamic stores.’
‘We don’t need AI.' ‘There will be an explosion [of books written by AI] but that isn't in our stores, and that's the real power of the store, it's actually a curation, deciding for each store, what books for our customers.'
There have been hugely-grossing moves based on books, but they're still not as good as the books. ‘Science fiction, you can’t do Science Fiction, what your mind is capable of when you're reading it cannot be captured on any screen.'
‘In our stores around 3:30 they’ll be quite empty. Come in at 4 and they'll be full of kids ... We are an absolute magnet for young people, and right into young adults.'
‘It’s different around the country.' What young people are reading.
Books don't come from China. Only the color pages ones do. The paper for black and white books comes from Canada, largely, and printed in US.
Average price point of a softcover is $18, and hardcover $25 to $30.
When you have a bookstore corp, you positively must have a CEO with a strong British accent.