Industry News

In late April, over 8 million merchants won a significant victory in an antitrust lawsuit against MasterCard/Visa, in which the two card companies agreed to pay out a total of $3.05 billion in damages to merchants, to lower debit card transaction fees, and to drop the "honor all cards" policy. The total settlement is the largest ever in an antitrust case, according to the American Bar Association.

The Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association (MSIBA) held its fall trade show at the Renaissance Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas, from September 4 - 7. Austin, an apt choice for the trade show, was celebrating the "Keep Austin Weird" campaign, which promotes independent businesses and was created by Austin's BookPeople and Waterloo Records.

Indigo Books & Music Inc., the Canadian bookseller, switched from paper gift certificates to plastic gift cards in November 2002, and has seen escalating gains since then, according to Keith Liu, vice-president of business development for Indigo. Instituting the gift card program, run by the Givex Corporation, increased Indigo's sales 35 percent over the paper certificates, and, Liu told BTW, "Our stores experienced an immediate uplift, and we're pretty happy about it.

This is the first of four articles looking at the results of the recently released 2002 Consumer Research Study on Book Purchasing, conducted by Ipsos BookTrends and published by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). This week's focus is the adult book market.

Booksellers in the Pacific Northwest, New Atlantic, and Southeast regions will be gathering next week for fall regional trade shows featuring extensive educational programming and a number of special author events next week. ABA will be providing educational sessions at each of the shows, as well as ongoing demonstrations of the new Book Sense Gift Card Program at the ABA/Book Sense booth on the trade show floors.

Nominations Sought for a Very Special Top Ten 76

Book Sense booksellers should check the September White Box for the Entrepreneur Press "There's No Business Like Sports Business" Sweepstakes materials, publicizing The Business Playbook: Leadership Lessons From the World of Sports by sports marketing master Brandon Steiner.

Building on the success of the Hotel California, which was the exclusive host hotel for ABA bookseller members at this year's BookExpo America (BEA) in Los Angeles, ABA has announced plans for a Hotel ABA/Chicago at BEA 2004.

Bookseller Roxanne Coady Featured in Fast Company

Independent bookstore owner Roxanne Coady of R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut, was recently featured in the September issue of Fast Company Magazine, a national publication aimed at business executives.

More and more gift buyers are avoiding the decision-making process of book purchasing for the more convenient purchase of a bookstore gift card/certificate, according to recent research conducted by Ipsos BookTrends. If the gift certificate/card growth rate continues through 2005, and total consumer dollars continue to be relatively flat, "it is a good assumption that gift certificates/cards could account for 5 percent of consumer dollars or around $700 million," noted Michael Hoynes, ABA marketing officer.

This past spring, Julie Drake and Steve Lloyd, co-owners of Title Wave Books in Anchorage, Alaska, were named Alaska's Small Business Persons of the Year for 2003 by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Four other Alaska businesses were vying for the award, according to the SBA.

This year's Upper Midwest Booksellers Association (UMBA) Trade Show will be held from Friday, October 10 to Sunday, October 12, at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, Minneapolis. Exhibit hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. Education programming, all free this year, will be held on Friday.

The American Booksellers Association Nominating Committee, chaired by Neal Coonerty of Bookshop Santa Cruz, is seeking qualified candidates to serve on the ABA Board of Directors. Any ABA member may submit nominations -- and all nominations will be held in the strictest confidence by the Nominating Committee.

Under ABA's bylaws, the terms of three members of the nine-member board expire each year, and at least one of the three candidates cannot have served on the current board. Board members are eligible to be elected for two three-year terms.