Story Finally Ends for Woodland Hills Bookstore

Live in the west San Fernando Valley and looking for a copy of that bestseller? You may have to drive a ways. Brick-and-mortar bookstores continue to crumble as the 24,000-square-foot Barnes & Noble Inc. outlet in the Westfield Promenade in Woodland Hills closed Dec. 31. It was the second large store the New York book seller has shuttered in the San Fernando Valley since its Encino location closed on New Year’s Eve in 2010. The closure leaves just three Barnes & Noble outlets in the Valley: one in Calabasas, one in Glendale and another in downtown Burbank. There are other outlets in Thousand Oaks and Valencia, and the company operates Bookstar, a separate chain with a Studio City location. Based on its website, the company now has 16 Barnes & Noble locations in Los Angeles County, plus the Bookstar outlet. The closure was not exactly surprising, as the bookseller has been shuttering stores in recent years as book sales migrate online, though reasons for the latest closure are a bit murky. David Clark, manager of the Woodland Hills outlet until it closed, said the store was considered successful and did not close because of losses. Instead, Clark blamed unsuccessful lease negotiations with Australian mall owner Westfield Group, which has its U.S. subsidiary based in Los Angeles. The lease expired on New Year’s Eve. “This has nothing to do with business,” said Clark, who has managed the store for two years. “It came as a major surprise that we’re closing because business was doing so well.” That characterization of the closure was disputed by Karen Strack, one of Westfield’s managers at the Promenade, who said the mall owner wanted the bookseller to stay. “This has nothing to do with Westfield. They will be sorely missed in the community. It’s unfortunate they’re leaving,” said Strack, who declined to discuss details of the lease discussions. Calls placed to the Barnes & Noble corporate office for comment were not returned. Whatever the cause of the closure, Peter Wahlstrom, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. who covers Barnes & Noble, said he was not surprised. He said the book seller will likely close about 15 stores nationwide a year as it shrinks its footprint. The company had 690 stores nationwide in April at the end of its fiscal year, down from 705 stores a year earlier. The company operated 725 stores at its height in 2010. More recently, in addition to the store in Woodland Hills, the company closed two stores in Texas and one each in Virginia and Illinois in the last two months. “We definitely believe the brick and mortar model is declining,” Wahlstrom said. “I don’t expect Barnes & Noble to go into any sort of liquidation in the next five years, but bookstores are clearly struggling.” Used books The closure is a particular blow to the west Valley, which saw the closure of a Borders store less than a mile away on Victory Boulevard near Canoga Avenue in late 2011. Borders Group, the nation’s second largest bookseller, went bankrupt and liquidated in 2011. However, the closures have benefitted used book stores, including the Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood. Owner Dan Weinstein said that since the closure of the Encino Barnes & Noble, customers have flocked to his store. Though the Iliad does not carry many of the new bestsellers, Weinstein said more people are making a voyage to his store from other parts of the Valley. “Business has never been better. Amazon is just killing new bookstores,” said Weinstein, who opened the used bookstore 25 years ago. “We’re very busy these days. People find us whenever a Barnes & Noble goes out of business. If you can order as cheap online at Amazon as I can get a book from my wholesaler, why wouldn’t America shop online?” Barnes & Noble has been struggling as it has invested heavily in its Nook e-reader business amid stiff competition from Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle and Apple Inc.’s iPad. Barnes & Noble last earned an annual profit in its 2009-2010 fiscal year when it had net income of $36 million on $5.81 billion in revenue. The chain has seen revenue grow the last two years but it has lost nearly $150 million in that time. What’s more, the company warned last week in a regulatory filing that its holiday sales were weaker than anticipated. Still, Barnes & Noble has a huge presence in the book market. That was reflected in a deal last week that saw Pearson plc, a British publishing and education company, pay $89.5 million for a 5 percent stake in the company’s Nook Media digital business. Microsoft Corp. invested $300 million last year. Pearson is said to be interested in integrating its textbooks into the Nook reader, which may have a future if publishers rally around it as a counterweight to Amazon’s Kindle. Barnes & Noble has announced plans to spin off the unit, leaving the brick-and-mortar stores as a standalone business. That leaves open the question about the future of the stores, which grew dramatically during the real estate boom as developers built shopping malls often anchored by the massive bookstores