November 1, 2017 at 4:24 p.m.
Book World to close all 45 remaining stores
Closure will include Rhinelander and Minocqua locations
Book World to close all 45 remaining stores
Most of its stores - 20 of them, including Minocqua, Rhinelander and Eagle River - are in Wisconsin.
The Appleton-based company explained the reason for the closure in a press release.
"The national shift in the retail marketplace towards e-commerce has triggered the loss of vital mall anchor stores and a downward spiral in customer counts at Book World stores, reducing sales to a level that will no longer sustain business operations," the press release states.
The company's senior vice-president, Mark DuPont, said the Minocqua store, opened in the late 1970s, was one of the company's first stores.
Asked if there had been consideration given to keeping at least a few of the stores open, DuPont said there was consideration.
"Quite a few of our locations have been profitable," he said. "However, the sales trend has been going down, essentially for all locations. Minocqua has been one of our best stores. It really has but even at that store, the sales just keep trending down. Obviously, with this huge shift in retail, this is really the best decision for us. We tried to think of everything we could possibly do to not let this happen. Even up to three or four months ago, we did not anticipate this at all."
The decision to close all 45 Book World stores comes just weeks after the company opened a store in Jefferson City, Missouri.
"If that's any indication we didn't plan on this, obviously we wouldn't have opened that store," DuPont said. "It costs a lot of money to open a store. When we signed that lease, we had no idea. We didn't foresee this."
Book World has hired the liquidation company Yellen Partners of Northbrook, Ill., to assist with the liquidation and closing process.
Liquidation sales are planned at each Book World location and will run until all inventory is sold.
Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].
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