In a conference call with investors yesterday, Borders CEO Ron Marshall mentioned closures of Waldenbooks stores. Today, GalleyCat has more context about the future of the bookseller.
Vice president of corporate communications Anne Roman told GalleyCat: “[W]e are not planning to close hundreds of Waldenbooks stores in the near future–we are not going from over 300 today to 50 or 60 immediately. We have been very public about the fact that we are closing underperforming Waldenbooks stores and have been doing so for the past couple of years (closed 112 in 2008).”
“We will continue on this path in 2009, closing only those stores that do not meet profit/business objectives, and of course, keeping the profitable stores open as they are an asset. When [Ron Marshall] was asked what the ultimate endgame for Walden would be in the long-term, he said it would be somewhere between zero and the number we have now (over 300) and perhaps could settle in at 50-60 locations ultimately,” she explained in an email.