Sunday, February 01, 2004
Dartmouth Bookstore For Sale
PW Daily is reporting that the Dartmouth Bookstore is for sale after a loss of textbook business. This is one of the oldest independent bookstores and has been family-operated since opening in the late nineteenth century.
Full scoop from PW Daily:
Dartmouth Sale
Elsewhere in New England, 132-year-old Dartmouth Bookstore in Hanover,
N.H., one of the country's oldest bookstores owned and operated by the
same family, is also up for sale. According to general manager and
president David Cioffi, whose wife, Ann Stebbins Cioffi, is a
descendant of the founder, "this is a good time to sell. Our
mother-in-law, Phoebe Storrs Stebbins, who owned the store, passed
away a couple years ago. The store was in the estate, and we're in the
process of settling the estate."
In recent years the bookstore, which is just a block from Dartmouth
College, has suffered from the loss of its textbook business, which it
closed a year ago. According to Cioffi, ever since the college stopped
co-operating with the store on textbooks, which at one time accounted
for 20% of sales, the 6,500-sq.-ft. textbook area "has become an
albatross around our necks." The store's music business has also
declined. "We sell more blank CDs than CDs with music," says Cioffi,
who faces stiff competition from a Borders in W. Lebanon, N.H.
Even as Cioffi pursues possible bidders for the store, he has begun to
remake the store's physical layout by subletting portions of the
27,000-sq.-ft. space, which was created over the years by annexing
several neighboring buildings. "We're very close to signing a lease
with a couple guys who want to put a 1,500-sq.-ft. cafe in the
bookstore," says Cioffi.
Dartmouth Bookstore's branch store at the Dartmouth/Hitchcock Medical
Center is also for sale. Possible buyers may contact Cioffi at
603-643-3616, ext. 640.--Judith Rosen
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Full scoop from PW Daily:
Dartmouth Sale
Elsewhere in New England, 132-year-old Dartmouth Bookstore in Hanover,
N.H., one of the country's oldest bookstores owned and operated by the
same family, is also up for sale. According to general manager and
president David Cioffi, whose wife, Ann Stebbins Cioffi, is a
descendant of the founder, "this is a good time to sell. Our
mother-in-law, Phoebe Storrs Stebbins, who owned the store, passed
away a couple years ago. The store was in the estate, and we're in the
process of settling the estate."
In recent years the bookstore, which is just a block from Dartmouth
College, has suffered from the loss of its textbook business, which it
closed a year ago. According to Cioffi, ever since the college stopped
co-operating with the store on textbooks, which at one time accounted
for 20% of sales, the 6,500-sq.-ft. textbook area "has become an
albatross around our necks." The store's music business has also
declined. "We sell more blank CDs than CDs with music," says Cioffi,
who faces stiff competition from a Borders in W. Lebanon, N.H.
Even as Cioffi pursues possible bidders for the store, he has begun to
remake the store's physical layout by subletting portions of the
27,000-sq.-ft. space, which was created over the years by annexing
several neighboring buildings. "We're very close to signing a lease
with a couple guys who want to put a 1,500-sq.-ft. cafe in the
bookstore," says Cioffi.
Dartmouth Bookstore's branch store at the Dartmouth/Hitchcock Medical
Center is also for sale. Possible buyers may contact Cioffi at
603-643-3616, ext. 640.--Judith Rosen
