The publishing house announced it will close 38 full-line stores and 19 seminary bookstores
::
11/07/12
On Monday, The
United Methodist Publishing House announced that it will be closing all of its
Cokesbury retail stores and investing in other channels, including its online store
and toll-free call center.
UMPH’s press
release said that the number of customers relying on brick-and-mortar stores
had declined with only 15 percent of Cokesbury customers reported to shop
exclusively in stores. As a result, it made the decision to close its 38
full-line stores and 19 seminary bookstores.
Fuller’s Vice
President for Finance, John Ward, said UMPH’s decision affects Fuller’s
bookstore and coffee shop, Coffee By The Books, which have both been operated
by Cokesbury since July of 2011.
“We’ve been
informed that Cokesbury plans to continue to operate our store through the
beginning of Spring quarter 2013,” Ward said. “It should be business as usual
for the next five months. We will begin internal dialogue soon to determine
what will happen after April.”
Fuller has no
immediate plans yet as UMPH’s announcement came only recently.