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Nonprofit Organization Makes Offer for Explore Booksellers

A consortium of national nonprofit organizations that fight for environmental, social justice, and consumer protection has offered $5 million in cash for Aspen, Colorado’s Explore Booksellers. According to the Aspen Times, the nonprofits have established a limited liability corporation under the umbrella of the Public Interest Network to buy the store.

The paper noted that the deal must be approved by a judge in the Texas bankruptcy case of Samuel Wyly, who owns the bookstore through Explore Booksellers and Bistro Real Estate LLC. If approved, the sale is expected to close on January 16.

In the face of the new offer, Explore 221 Main LLC, which had a contract to buy the business for $4.6 million, withdrew its offer.

The nonprofits in the Public Interest Network have an existing investment partnership called 1543 LLC that handles their endowment fund. “We’re always looking for things that are benign or positive to invest in,” Doug Phelps, chairman of Public Interest Network’s board of directors, told the Aspen Times.

The Fountainhead Bookstore to Expand

The Fountainhead Bookstore in Hendersonville, North Carolina, is growing.

“We’ll be expanding into part of the upstairs portion of the historic Ewbank & Ewbank building, adding about 700 square feet to the bookstore,” said owner Valerie Welbourn.

The expansion is necessary to address the business’ continuing growth and the demand for an increasing number of book clubs and events. The store, which carries an eclectic mix of titles for children and adults, including local and regional fiction and nonfiction as well as notecards and gifts, currently hosts six full in-house book clubs.

Chittenden Bids Farewell to Eight Cousins

With the start of the new year, Eight Cousins’ longtime owner, Carol Chittenden, bid farewell to her customers. In May, Chittenden announced her retirement and the sale of the Falmouth, Massachusetts, store, which she helmed for 28 years, to area residents Sara Hines, Mary Fran Buckley, and Eileen C. Miskell, whom she called a “Dream Team.”

Hines, who previously worked in publishing and at bookstores in the U.S. and the U.K., has worked at Eight Cousins since 2012, managing the store’s digital media, programming, and on-site events.

Buckley joined the Eight Cousins staff in 2007 and has served various roles, including managing finances, organizing book clubs, and buying adult fiction.

Miskell has a background in business management and is co-owner, with her husband, of Wood Lumber Company in Falmouth.

In an e-mail to customers in December, Chittenden wrote: “If everyone had a job as absorbing and rewarding as mine has been at Eight Cousins, the world would be a far happier place.”

Pomegranate Books to Add Café

Wilmington, North Carolina’s Pomegranate Books is planning to open Café Zola within the bookstore in mid-January, reported the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. “I love the idea of having a cup of coffee or tea while browsing a bookstore,” owner Kathleen Jewell told the paper.

Jewell’s daughter, Adrian, will help with planning the coffee, tea, and pastry selections, and Jewell’s son-in-law, Manol Georgieff, will create and manage the café.

Using biodegradable disposables and establishing a system for composting food scraps and coffee grounds, the café will produce as little waste as possible. Georgieff also plans to repurpose wood pallets to create tables and wall paneling.

Several of the 35 teas on offer will be certified organic, and coffee will come from local micro-roasters Folks Café and Kaldi. Café Zola will also offer juice blends made from local produce.

Dudley’s Bookshop Café Grows With the Addition of a New Business Partner

In Bend, Oregon, Dudley’s Bookshop Café owner Rebecca Singer has welcomed Tom Beans as a business partner and the bookstore is now thriving, reported The Bulletin. “We needed somebody with real expertise,” Singer said.

Beans called on his experience running a California bookstore in the 1990s to transform Dudley’s layout and stock to draw in new customers.

The store, which previously carried only used books, added new literary fiction in November. Since then, sales have jumped 300 percent, and the holiday season was particularly successful. “Sales of books over Christmas has been incredible,” Singer said.