Last November, when Barnes & Noble announced that it was putting itself up for sale, Neil Van Uums bank called in the loan for his Joseph-Beth Booksellers chain. The ensuing bankruptcy has since wound down, but only after three of the six JoBeth stores closedCharlotte, N.C.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Cleveland, Ohioand the Davis-Kidd store in Nashville. Van Uum lost both the Joseph-Beth and Davis-Kidd names along with the Lexington and Cincinnati stores and a health clinic in Cleveland to his former landlord, Robert Langley, in auction; a fourth store in Virginia went to Books-A-Million. Instead of planning a 25th anniversary celebration for JoBeth, which he cofounded in 1986, Van Uum has spent the past six months since the bankruptcy was resolved renovating the only store in the chain that he kept, the former Davis-Kidd in Memphis, renamed the Booksellers at Laurelwood. Continue reading at 'Publishers Weekly'
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]