US chain Book World to close its 45 stores

In the US, bookselling chain Book World has announced it will close its 45 outlets across the Midwest by mid-January next year, reports Publishers Weekly.

Book World senior vice-president Mark Dupont attributed the company’s stores’ plummeting sales over the past 12 months to the continuing national consumer shift toward ecommerce. Dupont said the shift away from large department stores ‘has triggered the loss of vital mall anchor stores and a downward spiral in customer counts, reducing sales to a level that will no longer sustain our business’.

The first Book World store opened in 1976. A dozen of Book World’s corporate office employees and more than 300 booksellers across the 45 stores will be laid off.

Category: International news