By Diane Petryk
The Daily Item
LEWISBURG —
Barnes & Nobles’ financial woes, and possible sale of the company, will have no immediate impact on the new store here.
And maybe it never will.
That was the word Wednesday from Bucknell University spokesman Tom Evelyn.
Technically, the bookstore that moved from campus to Market Street is still Bucknell’s. It is only managed by Barnes & Noble. But, everyone refers to it as “Barnes & Noble.”
It’s also larger — 29,500 square feet. It opened to eager crowds in late June and stays open — with Starbucks Coffee — later and longer than most businesses in town.
Before it opened, its looming potential helped spur independent Page After Page bookstore owner Murrie Zlotziver to relocate to Vicksburg. Other shop owners expressed concern about the competition as well, whether they sold coffee, backpacks or stationery.
Zlotsiver had no comment Wednesday on the corporate “air of desperation,” as Wall Street Journal writer James B. Stewart called it, surrounding Barnes & Noble.
Nothing will change in the relationship between Barnes & Noble and the university, Evelyn said, at least “for the time being.”
He said it might never change, and even if the company were sold, the name could remain the same.
He declined to discuss specific details of the deal between the university and the behemoth bookseller, including the duration of their pact. When it was formed. it was fostered by $9 million in state money. In fact, Evelyn wrote for the college website, “the majority of the funding for the $10 million bookstore project came from state and federal grants and incentives for small-town economic development projects.”
Evelyn said he can’t predict what the university would do and it’s difficult to say what may happen with Barnes & Noble.
“I guarantee we are selling textbooks,” he said, and that will continue.
Barnes & Noble’s college bookstores are very successful, he added.
Where Barnes & Noble ran into trouble, according to Stewart, was in competing with Amazon.com, e-readers, and digital books.
“But that didn’t have to be the end for B&N, which had a dominant market position and could have out-Amazoned Amazon, leveraging its brand and innovating when it began marketing and selling books on-line.”
Stewart said he likes his iPad for easy access to books and for alleviating his sagging shelves, but it distracts him with ads and extraneous information. He said he misses the bookstore he grew up with in the Midwest and smaller stores where staff can recommend a good book.
Stewart said he sees in Barnes & Noble’s woes a new ray of hope for independent booksellers.
“I enjoy the community of other people who love books,” he wrote. “I like talking to someone both before buying a book and after reading it. I think independent bookstores may be able to provide these services ... I may be naive, but I’d like to think there are new opportunities for booksellers.”
Evelyn said Bucknell heard about the possible sale of Barnes & Noble more than a week ago.
“It’s very early,” he said. “It’s difficult to say what may happen.”
Meanwhile, the store’s official grand opening is still 11 days away, timed to coincide with the opening of fall semester the weekend of Aug. 27.
