In-News

Are there any readers out there in the DC area?  If so, jump in the car this weekend and find a bookstore called Olsson’s Books.  They need your help!  They are filing for Chapter 11 due to a decline in sales.

“The book business is getting a little soft. It’s not selling as much as it used to,” Olsson said. “Our music sales went from 50 percent of our business to maybe 15. We lost a lot of revenue, and at the same time rents went up and real estate taxes went up. I don’t know what we would have done differently. It’s a killer.”

Olsson’s yesterday closed its Penn Quarter store, which opened 15 years ago. Olsson said rents and taxes had risen beyond affordability at the store and acknowledged falling behind on payments to booksellers.

Last week, two of its biggest publishers, Random House and Penguin Group, as well as Hachette Book Group petitioned the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Greenbelt to place Olsson’s in involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would force the company to liquidate.

Read the complete story here!

I hear it time and time again.  Tourists and locals love a quaint little shopping district with a coffee shop and an old independent bookstore, but you never go inside and buy anything.  Here’s your chance to save one of your own!  It may be too late to save the business, but money in the till may relieve just a bit of tension this bookstore is experiencing right now.  Heck, it will help keep the employees paid!

“We sort of helped make the neighborhood what it is. And it’s a great neighborhood, but we can’t afford the rent,” Olsson said. A few years ago, the store’s rent in the renovated Lansburgh department store building was $30 a square foot. Now, it has risen to $50 to $60 a square foot.

I’m going out on a limb here, but I’ve got a challenge for you. To the first 5 people who can get to one of the Olsson stores and buy at least $25 this weekend, scan a copy of your receipt and then post a comment below on this post.  I’ll shoot you an email and you can reply with a copy of the receipt as proof.  Then, I’ll send you a crisp 5 dollar bill.  That’s right, I’ll give you five bucks of the money you spent right back to you.

Or do you really want to see your bookstore turn into a Beanie Baby haven?

“It’s hard to compete against megastores like Barnes and Noble,” Gins said. “We’re looking at it positively, and we’re hoping to come out of it. It depends on how many stores we can have.”

Over the years, Olsson’s has battled to maintain profitability, selling alongside its books and CDs such impulse items as Beanie Babies.

Now, get out there and get shopping!  You’ve got a bookstore to save!