News broke this morning that the Canadian company McNally Robinson Booksellers “has entered bankruptcy protection.” As a result, the company will close two of its four bookstores: one in Toronto, one in Winnipeg.
In an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press, co-founder Paul McNally spoke of book price wars and the recession: “‘It was bad timing, that’s for sure,’ he said. ‘Bookselling has been struggling in general … The difficult climate, he said, is the result of stagnant book prices, steep discounting and increasing competition from Internet sales and electronic text formats … ‘There was very aggressive, reckless discounting,’ McNally said.”
McNally’s daughter founded McNally Jackson Books in Manhattan, a bookstore unconnected to the Canadian company. This NYC store is unaffected by the Canadian closings. (Via Sarah Weinman)