No more B. Dalton
From today’s Publisher’s Lunch email:
After closing 35 to 40 B. Dalton stores annually for years now, Barnes & Noble is preparing to shutter the last remaining group of 50 Dalton outlets. Spokesperson Carolyn Brown notes, “These are small-format, low-volume stores in malls and their leases are expiring.” All but two B. Dalton stores will be closed within the next few months, with branches in Washington, DC and Roosevelt Field, Long Island remaining open until their leases expire. Brown says some “booksellers will be offered a chance to move to Barnes & Noble stores in the cases where there are Barnes & Noble stores near the B. Dalton’s which are closing” and “others will be given generous severance packages.” She declined to indicate how many positions will be eliminated as a result of the store closings.
The B. Dalton’s are all “small, low-volume” mall stores, but Brown underscores that “we are still very committed to the mall business; about 75 percent of our new Barnes & Noble stores are in malls.”