The Dartmouth Bookstore in Hanover, N.H., changed hands this month for only the second time since its founding by Dartmouth College students in 1872. The Storrs family, owners for the past 121 years, sold the bookstore to TEP 62, a company owned by John Schiffman.
A liquidation sale is under way at both the main store and at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center satellite location in Lebanon, N.H. Although the store will continue to use the Dartmouth Bookstore name and technically remain an independent, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers will take over the operations.
A Hanover resident and Dartmouth graduate (class of '62), Schiffman told PW, "The primary reason I wanted to purchase the store is that my family has relied on the experience of a quality bookstore in Hanover." Schiffman, who built up his CPA and consulting firm, Schiffman & Company, from 12 to 160 employees, also said that he viewed the purchase as "an interesting entrepreneurial possibility." To help determine what types of book and nonbook products the approximately 20,000-square-foot store should stock, Schiffman is forming an advisory board, with representatives of both town and gown. He plans to move Dartmouth Bookstore back into the textbook business and will revamp the store's Web site (www.dartbook.com) this summer.
Once the remaining contracts are signed, the bookstore will undergo what Schiffman refers to as "significant improvements to the selling space," which had deteriorated during the store's bare-bones operation in the past year. "You need to give a buyer a pleasant, open atmosphere," said Schiffman, who anticipates that the makeover will be completed by September, when the class of 2008 enters Dartmouth. The store will remain open during the renovation.
At the time of the sale, the store's bookselling staff had been reduced to 12. "I will do everything I can for Barnes & Noble College Booksellers to keep them on," Schiffman said. For his part, he has no plans to quit his day job; he will continue to work full-time at Schiffman & Company.
