Book this: Closing this store is wrong

     The Barnes & Noble Booksellers store that is maybe a 5-minute walk from our apartment is about to be closed, and we are unhappy about it.
     Aw, unhappy is too mild. I am puzzled, irritated, frustrated, disappointed, outragted, disgusted ... just pick an adjective. It'll fit.
     We have some avid readers in this family, and I am a distant third to my wife and daughter (who lives in Tennessee). We are book clubbers, and so we like bookstores -- a lot. Bea and I like to spend time in the B&N in nearby University Park Village.
     It's one of our favorite places just to hang out. It's an exciting life, isn't it?
     It has been more than three months since a Fort Worth Star-Telegram story revealed that Barnes & Noble is closing two stores in the city, the one in downtown Sundance Square and "our" store.
     That story said that Barnes & Noble wanted to keep the University Park Village store open because it is a profitable operation, but that the new owners of the shopping center -- Glimcher Realty Trust, based in Columbus, Ohio, took over in January -- wanted more money to extend the lease than B&N is willing to pay.
    We've been through this before. Three years ago, the then-owners of the TCU-area shopping center also raised the lease price and Barnes & Noble announced it would close the store, but they kept negotiating and settled.
     That was fine with us. We kept right on making our visits there 3-4-5 times a week.
     We loved browsing, checking the new books, the classics, the magazines, people-watching, visiting with staff and other customers, listening to music being played in the store (some to our liking, some not), book authors' appearances/signing, buying toys for the grandkids, taking the grandkids to play in the children's section, buying journals and calendars and, yes, even books.
     This time a B&N spokesman said the company made "a tremendous effort" to retain the space, but Glimcher apparently has design to break up the space into two or three new businesses that it believes will be more profitable and will pay the lease prices it is seeking.
     Maybe. But I find it hard to fathom that new stores will be more popular and draw more traffic than Barnes & Noble, which undoubtedly is one of the top five draws in this upscale shopping center if not one of the top two (the Apple store is No. 1, if I'm not mistaken).
     Look, I know a lot more about baseball and football and sports than I do business, and how it works. To me, this is the kind of greed we see far too often in America today -- everyone wants more, more, more. Glimcher wants more. Barnes & Noble wants more.
    You can tell me "it's business." I'd like to think the human element should factor in, too.
     I don't wish Glimcher any bad luck. I don't wish it good luck, either. I don't like to use this term, or see it written, but this sucks.
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     It's been a tough last couple of months at the store, with many people expressing their sadness and dismay at the potential closing.
     We've gotten to know the staff -- five managers, some 20 other employees -- and they are familiar faces (although we might not know the names). They, too, are sad and uncertain about their job futures. A couple have transferred to other Barnes & Noble locations, a choice the company gave them.         
     We also like the downtown store -- located right across from the beautiful Bass Hall -- and it's been there for 17 years, a relationship that worked well for B&N and Sundance Square. But that store has not been profitable enough to remain open.

Empty toy shelves: Barnes & Noble is not restocking
because of the impending closing.

     We know bookstores and bookstore chains in general are endangered, with the increased online presence cutting into the store business. But it's hard to tell from "our" place. All the staff people we've talked to say business is still thriving.
     When I went in Thursday afternoon, for instance, it was busy, with a line of a dozen people at the cash register up front, and plenty of people in the store. But there is an empty feeling ... with Christmas coming up, and with much of the merchandise at 50 percent in a "closeout" sale, many shelves -- in the toys section, especially -- are bare.
      It doesn't feel or look good.
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      There are two other Barnes & Noble locations in the area -- the TCU store, which caters mostly to students, faculty and staff, and isn't open after 7 p.m. or on Sundays, and the South Hulen store, which for us is 3.4 miles away and which, frankly, we don't like as well.
      "Our" Barnes & Noble has been in this location since 1995, the first store opened when the shopping center -- established in 1986 -- expanded. And if you ask me, its storefront is the most impressive in the whole University Park Village complex.
      During the lease negotiations three years ago, a letter-writing campaign by people from the nearby neighborhoods perhaps made a difference. This time, according to a couple of stories in the Fort Worth Business Press, Debra Million -- a resident of a nearby neighborhood -- led a phone-call and Facebook page campaign -- directed at Glimcher and Barnes & Noble.
      As Million pointed out, this store has been a community gathering place. For instance, during the holiday seasons just as this one, various high school organizations did gift-wrapping fundraisers near the front door.

The view from my usual "front-row" seat near the
entrance of the University Park Village Barnes & Noble

      But more than 1,500 "likes" on Facebook and the calls and e-mails didn't help. Apparently negotiations broke down in late October, and the final countdown began.
      No word on the Starbucks location attached to the bookstore; we've been told it will remain open.

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Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/09/06/5140153/barnes-noble-to-close-two-stores.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

      There is a bit of hope. According to the Fort Worth Business Press story, Barnes & Noble representatives said they would consider placing a store in another Fort Worth location.
       Fine, hopefully it will be close to where we live. But within walking distance? That would be too good.
       Because I am an optimist -- yes, some people will laugh at that thought, but I like to think so -- I still believe we can save this store from execution. So this is my appeal.
       There are, as I write this today, 18 working days remaining at this rapidly emptying Barnes & Noble. C'mon, Glimcher people. C'mon, Barnes & Noble people. Each of you give in a little, be a little less greedy. Get this settled and sign a new lease.   
       If the U.S. Congress -- finally -- can reach a budget deal for a couple of years, anything can be settled. The Fort Worth community, the people around here, will thank you.
       Happy reading ... and it needs to be at University Park Village.
 

 

 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/09/06/5140153/barnes-noble-to-close-two-stores.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy