Reader: Here’s to Tattered Cover Starting a Successful New Chapter!

This past week, Tattered Cover closed three stores as part of an aggressive bankruptcy organization that is already putting more books on the shelves of the four remaining locations and looking forward to a lucrative holiday season.

On its website, Tattered Cover is offering updates on the action. But in the meantime, Teague Bohlen offered up ten ways the company can help improve its position, including buffing up the flagship location at the Lowenstein. And readers offer plenty of other ideas in their comments on the Westword Facebook page. Says Kim:

Hopefully, someone reads these suggestions. I definitely miss the LoDo location.

Suggests Sam:  

Differentiation from the masses. Adopt the old-world charm as suggested and make it inviting. Definitely miss the old Cherry Creek location.

Adds Christine:

Hire better money managers that want to cut costs rather than expand and go into debt. Really a shame this business was so mismanaged.

Counters Whitney:

These are some very bad takes. Should Tattered Cover offer to pick people up and drive them to the store themselves while they’re at it? Better inventory, respect for employee feedback, avoiding irresponsible growth – all good things, and certainly contributors to their current situation. But magazines? Who reads physical magazines in the year 2023. And you want them to have magazines and cozy nooks for you to read them and then NOT buy them? Pardon? How about they pull some money out of the register and give it to you, too? Also, walk ten paces to the cafes in every store where there is SEATING. They have a local author section, they have bargain books (maybe just not the exact titles you would like to see), and they also have used sections, where I find gems for a steal every time I shop there. This person is lazy, cheap, perhaps hasn’t stepped foot in The Tattered Cover in a while, or all of the above. All of those changes are not going to alter the fact that as a collective, people are opting for the convenience and lower ticket price of Amazon. If you have disposable income, spend it wisely. That’s how you save a local icon.

Replies Steven: 

Magazines have a place in bookstores. I still purchase many niche magazines.Tattered Cover expanded way too fast the last few years at the expense of their flagship locations. The fact that publishers wouldn’t ship out to Tattered Cover because of money owed to them shows how poorly the stores were being run. Have a clearance sale and start over from scratch. The owners who revamped the brand a few years ago are to blame…unhappy employees, no books on shelves, no magazines, It has gotten as bad as it could possibly get.

I do cherish the store and do wish the best for the future of Tattered Cover. I’m just angry over the way it has been run for the last few years.

Concludes Joe: 

Here’s to Tattered Cover starting a successful new chapter!

What would you like to see Tattered Cover do? Post a comment or share your thoughts at editorial@westword.com.