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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Books Today in Bookselling

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 3:27 PM

Borders is closing their huge Chicago flagship store because it "isn't meeting profit goals."

And in Boston, The Harvard Book Store is launching an emissions-free book delivery program:

In partnership with MetroPed, “Boston’s human-powered delivery service,” Harvard Book Store will now deliver all local orders for as little as $5, six days a week, using emissions-free vehicles. And all in-stock orders placed for Cambridge and parts of Somerville and Allston will receive same- or next-day delivery.

Some bookstore in Seattle needs to start doing this green delivery thing.

(Thanks to Slog tipper Clinton for the Borders tip. Hat tip to Bookshelves of Doom for the delivery story.)

Comments (5) RSS

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Paul, Seattle has been doing the "green delivery thing" for years - local, neighborhood bookstores mean we can all just stop by, buy our books, and walk the hell home. No emissions (unless eating at Taco Del Mar first).

Posted by Lolo on March 3, 2009 at 4:05 PM

I'm all for sustainability, but what exactly does the Harvard Book Store think humans exhale? And humans on bikes produce more carbon than walkers -- they breathe harder. The only properly emissions-free delivery system I can envision is letting Ichiro throw packages to their intended destinations, like in that ad.

Posted by Nat on March 3, 2009 at 4:16 PM

Bicycle delivery is not emissions-free. A lot of factories let out tons of emissions to make those bicycles.

Unless the bicycles are made of bamboo and assembled by blind people. Still if the people farted then they let out methane gas, a greenhouse gas more powerful than CO2....It never ends.

Posted by robot2501 on March 3, 2009 at 4:20 PM

Wow I sure hope Borders survives in Chicago...what with the just slightly smaller Borders 1.1 miles south of the one they are closing, or the similarly sized one less than 2 miles north. And the one that's about a mile north of that.

I kid, I kid. I'm actually pleased to see the closing this "flagship" if it means they are saving money to keep more locations open. The one in my neck of the woods in Uptown probably loses them lots of money based on the amount of business I've seen them do - but bully for them for doing right by a neighborhood who needs them more

Posted by LogopolisMike on March 3, 2009 at 5:57 PM

That's pretty wild that the Michigan Ave. store is closing. It always seemed packed to me, but I'm sure the property costs are astronomical...

Posted by Julie in Eugene on March 3, 2009 at 6:24 PM