It was good news to hear that Whitcoulls Bookstores have a new owner. 57 Whitcoulls stores and 5 Borders stores – owned by the same company – were in financial trouble in February. The new owners are the Norman family who own Farmers department stores and a number of jewellery businesses in Australia and New Zealand. This is good news because the new owners may save the jobs of 900 people.
The history of Whitcoulls goes back a long way. It began in Cashel St, Christchurch in 1882 when a teacher, George Whitcombe, and a printer George Tombs, joined together to publish and sell books. They called the business Whitcombe and Tombs. It kept this name until 1971 when the company joined with another company and changed its name to Whitcoulls.
Whitcombe and Tombs wrote and published “Whitcombe’s Progressive Readers” for children to learn to read at school. They also published story books. These were so popular that between the years of 1908 and 1962, they sold 12 million copies. George Whitcombe retired in 1963.
In recent years, competition from internet sales of books has made it more difficult for bookstores.
Whitcoulls bookstores have been a part of New Zealand for nearly 130 years and it would be sad if they closed.
Vocabulary
Progressive means to move from easy to more difficult. The noun is “progress”.
Questions
1. Is there a future for bookstores when it is often cheaper to buy books on the internet?
2. Is there a future for electronic books? Whitcoulls sell the kobo e-reader which is a reader for electronic books. It is different from the kindle. You cannot read kobo books on a kindle.
Listen to E-books for more about electronic book readers.
3. Nostalgia means wanting to remember the good things in the past. Is it nostalgia to want Whitcoulls bookstores to survive?