Bookselling News
Staff -- 8/14/00
Joseph-Beth to Open Cleveland Store
B&N and Borders Openings | Eve Jaffe Dies at 31
Joseph-Beth to Open Cleveland StoreIn an unusual bit of news concerning an independent bookstore, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, which operates in Lexington, Ky., and Cincinnati, Ohio, and owns Davis-Kidd Booksellers, which has stores in Nashville, Memphis and Jackson, Tenn., is opening a store in Cleveland, Ohio.
The 36,000-sq.-ft. store will make its debut in October as part of the $20-million renovation and redevelopment of Shaker Square, a 70-year-old landmark bordering Shaker Heights.
Neil J. Van Uum, head of the Joseph-Beth Group and last but not least the 1996 Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year, grew up in Cleveland and spent several years looking for a location for a store in his hometown.
"This is a great opportunity for our entire company," he said. "There are few independent bookstores that are still growing, especially in light of the challenging time in bookselling. The store in Cleveland will be a great addition to the Joseph-Beth family."
Cleveland is one of the cities that lost its dominant independent bookstore in the 1990s because of chain superstore expansion. Booksellers Cleveland once had five bookstores in and around the city, including two children's outlets, but declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1994 and shut its doors finally in 1997.
Joseph-Beth has appointed one of PW's favorite booksellers, Mary McCarthy, to be general manager of the new store. She and her family have deep roots in the book business. Most recently, McCarthy was v-p of sales and marketing for the Booksource, the book wholesaler in St. Louis, Mo. Before that, she was the general manager of the Library Ltd., the well-known St. Louis independent that is now owned by Borders. She was earlier a rep and worked at Kroch's & Brentano's, where her father, Bill McCarthy, held a variety of positions, working his way up from sales clerk to president.
Other management positions in the Cleveland store are being filled both from within Joseph-Beth and from Cleveland.
The revamped Shaker Square will include six restaurants, a Wild Oats Marketand a movie theater specializing in independent films. The new store will offer more than 120,000 titles, a large children's department, music, stationery and travel specialty areas, a full-service bistro and separate coffee bar.
Like other Joseph-Beth stores, it will have some striking architectural highlights. The centerpiece of the main floor will be a fully restored fireplace. The store will also include a mezzanine and a curved open staircase.
--John Mutter
B&N and Borders OpeningsBarnes & Noble will be one of the anchors of the new "entertainment wing" of the Eden Prairie Center, in Eden Prairie, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The shopping center, at the intersections of Highway 494 and Highway 212, is currently being renovated and expanding by 20% to 1.1 million square feet of space. The number of retailers will jump to 100 from 30. The 25,000-sq.-ft. B&N will coanchor the entertainment wing, opening next year, with an 18-screen theater operated by AMC Theaters. The rest of the mall will include a 135,000-sq.-ft. Target Greatland. Current tenants include Kohl, Mervyn and Sears.
For its part, Borders Books and Music has announced six more store openings, one for this month in Texas and the rest set for this fall in Illinois, Colorado, California and Pennsylvania. Each store will have more than 150,000 book, music, video and periodical titles. The 24,000-sq.-ft. store in Dallas, at the Shops at Spanish Village shopping area, will be the sixth Borders in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The 25,000-sq.-ft. store in Illinois will open in October in St. Charles at the Main Street Commons Shopping Center. It will be the 19th Borders in the Chicago metropolitan area.
The company will open a 25,820-sq.-ft. store in Boulder, Colo., near the Pearl Street Mall in November. Last year, independent retailers in Boulder had rallied against Borders--and other national chains--but those efforts apparently were unsuccessful. Just up the road, 12 miles northeast of Boulder, Borders is opening a 24,840-sq.-ft. store in the St. Vrain Center in Longmont. The Longmont store will open in September. It and the Boulder store will be Borders's sixth and seventh outlets in Colorado.
In November, Borders plans to open a 22,960-sq.-ft. store in the Viewmont Mall in Dickson City, Pa., a suburb of Scranton. It is the first Borders in the area.
Also in November, Borders will open a 25,000-sq.-ft. store at the Union Landing Shopping Center in Union City, Calif. It is the 14th Borders to enter the San Francisco market.
--Staff
Eve Jaffe Dies at 31Eve Jaffe, manager of Travel Books & Language Center in Washington, D.C., and daughter of Rochelle Jaffe, founder and owner of the store, died on Friday, June 23.
Jaffe, 31, was riding her bicycle in the DC AIDS Ride from Raleigh, N.C., to Washington, D.C., when she died. The cause of her death is still unknown. She had worked at the bookstore for eight years.
Memorial contributions can be made to one of the three charities that were important to Jaffe: the Whitman-Walker Clinic (Development Department, 1407 S St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009); Food & Friends Inc. (58 L St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20003); or Literacy Volunteers of America DC Inc. (1325 W St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009).
Travel Books & Language Center is at 4437 Wisconsin Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016; (202) 237-1322; e-mail: travelbks@aol.com.
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