It is with much sadness that this newsletter, which will also be our final one in this form, will confirm the news many of you might have already heard: Murder One will be closing its doors at the end of January; however in all likelihood we will all be working from behind closed doors packing and dismantling the shop from the 24th January.I visited Murder One when it was a small shop on Denmark Street before it moved to Charing Cross Road and was where I discovered M C Beaton and many other writers. My visits to London will not be the same.
It is not a decision that has been taken lightly. We have been making small losses for the past few years, and had actually been trying to find a buyer to coincide with Maxim's likely retirement later this year. Sadly after extensive talks with a couple of parties, these negotiations have failed due to the current economic climate which has discouraged the optimism of possible investors. In addition, the Pound Sterling's fall of 30% against the value of the US Dollar over past weeks has made the cost our American imports so much higher, thus badly affecting our future profitability.
Since our inception, we have never had bank borrowings or an overdraft and it is a fact we are particularly proud of. With the current poor prospects for retail on Britain's streets, now would not prudently be the time to go down that road, we felt.
We've survived almost 21 years which is not a bad innings in a time when chains and the Internet benefit from outrageously more favourable terms from publishers than a single independent bookshop.
When the news broke, it was covered by all the major British newspapers and television and brought heartfelt expressions of dismay from all: customers, journalists, publishers, authors. I can only say THANK YOU most sincerely (and a particular nod to the wonderful people at Orion, who also sent over complimentary champagne for the staff...).
On the positive side, two of our senior staff Tanya and Trisha have made an offer to acquire the mail order side of the business and the website, which has been accepted subject to contract and legal requirements. I sincerely hope they can keep the Murder One name alive and that you will be willing to continue doing business with them.
They will be contacting all existing and prospective customers soon with their plans.
It's been a great adventure. Thank you.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Murder One's Final Newsletter
The Murder One shop will be closing at the end of the month, sadly, but the mail-order side is set to continue. Here's the final newsletter:
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2 comments:
I walked past Murder One yesterday afternoon and almost went in but didn't quite have time, which I regret as the next time I am in London it won't be there. I always used to make a point of visiting when in the area and I remember a number of cross-London trips at lunchtime to meet authors at signings, including Harlan Coben and Michael Connelly.
But what I remember most was that when I first got into Myron Bolitar and the books were not published here, I found a couple in (very expensive) import hard cover and could not have been happier. I guess there are probably a dozen places online I could do something similar today, which is one of the reasons for this sad news.
Hope you will still visit sometimes, nevertheless, Karen! Do you have an email address for that newsletter? I'd quite like to sign up if it is going to continue.
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