Tattered Cover Sold To Barnes & Noble

On July 31, 2024, Tattered Cover’s purchase by Barnes & Noble for a bid of $1.83 Million was finalized. This comes after multiple years of well-publicized bankruptcy issues that challenged the bookseller. Will this be the beginning of a corporate, charmless, era for Tattered Cover? Or, did Barnes & Noble just save a beloved Denver establishment? That remains to be seen.

Since the opening of the company’s Colfax location in 2006, Tattered Cover has been quintessential to East students. Just across the street, the location has been the premier spot to study, get lunch, pick up books, and more. Nowadays, taking a stroll through the iconic Denver establishment near school hours will leave one amongst hoards of teenagers looking for their assigned reading or cramming for their test next period. 

Tattered Cover has been around since 1971. Originally in Cherry Creek, the company has collected a variety of new locations over the years, including the Colfax location, which has become its flagship store. The company has changed hands before, however. After longtime owner Joyce Meskis sold it in 2015, Tattered Cover underwent two more leadership switches. The most recent switch was in 2020 to David Back and Kwame Spearman, the latter gaining recognition after his unsuccessful campaign for Denver mayor in 2023. Since then, their financial struggles have been no secret. They began to struggle during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and had to file for bankruptcy in October of 2023.

Now, big changes are coming to Tattered Cover. It was announced in July that Barnes and Noble had acquired the bookseller following an auction with bidders that included former CEO Kwame Spearman. This move prevents the store from being forced into shutdown, but it raises questions as to the future of Tattered Cover, and if the independent bookseller charm will remain. 

East Students are hopeful, however, and glad that their favorite bookstore will remain open. Senior Izzy Hillhouse says that the future of Tattered Cover is, “very bright now that there’s more money being put into it”. Though corporatization is still a concern, “that’s what it takes to keep them around. Small bookstores aren’t doing so well and if being bought out saves them from closing that’s better than closing”. 

It seems that this optimism is shared by the employees of Tattered Cover as well. Brandon Miller, who’s been an employee there for three years, states that “stability is a good word for [the future of the company], We’ve got more books on shelves than we’ve had since, like a year and a half ago.” Brandon also pointed out a new cardboard book display advertising a new release, a symbol of increased funding. “We’re all being really optimistic about it.”

In recent decades, we’ve seen the apparent decline of independent bookstores as they are frequently driven out of business or purchased by larger corporations like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The pandemic was particularly tough on booksellers. There was about a 10% decrease in the number of independent bookstores between 2019 and 2021 (American Booksellers Association).

Though the state of our beloved bookstore next door may trouble some students, Tattered Cover is not going anywhere. As of September 2024, the bookseller’s four Denver locations will all remain open. To the East layperson, their bookstore will remain for lunch, studying, book shopping, and more. Though Tattered Cover’s struggle in recent years is unfortunate to see, there’s hope for the future of our little neighborhood bookseller.