I'm getting tired of the sound of closing doors.
BookStream to shut down on Friday, January 23rd
A letter from Jack Herr and Rich Stone.
Quote: A wholesaler, however committed to or respected by its customers, cannot be a wholesaler for very long without books. Over the course of the last year, we have not been able to raise the capital necessary to fund BookStream’s inventory in a way that compensates for never having established, after three years of being in business, trade credit commensurate with the inventory needs of a wholesaler.
We are grateful for and gratified by the enthusiastic reception we have received from booksellers in the Northeast. Thank you for your support - in all the forms it has taken - over the last three years. All of us at BookStream have been pleased and honored to serve you.
BookStream has also enjoyed truly remarkable support from publisher sales organizations. The sales reps in our region enthusiastically talked us up when they called on their customers. We did not make a sales call for which sales reps had not paved the way. We could not have asked for more - either directly in overall service or generally in their commitment to the idea of BookStream - from our friends in publishing.
My bookseller-heart has already suffered a lot of damage this year, and this news puts yet another huge crack in it, for personal reasons as well as professional ones. I've worked with BookStream's staff members in a variety of different circumstances over the years, outside BookStream as well as within, and every single one has been top-notch to work with... absolutely no hyperbole there.
Thank you, Jack, for bending my ear about BookStream back in September 2005 at the NEBA trade show, and for letting me bend yours in return on several other occasions. Thank you, Lily, Felice, Kim, Carol, Ken, Carolyn, and Omari for always answering my questions and filling my orders promptly. Thank you, George and Rick, for doing the unseen work.
Thank you, BookStream, for three wonderful years of working with my business.
---pmc2
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