Magers & Quinn

Last updated
Magers & Quinn
Magers & Quinn
General information
TypeBookstore
OpenedAugust 1994
OwnerDenny Magers
Website
www.magersandquinn.com

Magers & Quinn (M&Q) is a bookstore located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States. It is the largest independent bookseller in the city.

Contents

History

The store was founded by Denny Magers, who already owned a small antiquarian bookstore in the city. Magers and Quinn became his second bookstore. The title of the store comes from his father and mother's last names. [1] The store opened in August 1994 during the Uptown Art Fair [2] in the Bryant Building, a 1922 structure which originally housed an automobile dealership. [3] Construction to expand the store was completed at a later date. [4]

M&Q started as a used bookstore, buying used books from the public and libraries and reselling them. A small percentage of sales came from the sale of rare books as well as new and used collectible books. [5] To confront the challenge posed by e-commerce (over 1,000 bookstores nationwide closed between 2000 and 2007 due to pressure from e-commerce), [6] M&Q began offering two new categories of books. The first was newly published works. The second was new books which are no longer available, such as out-of-print books. As of 2015, each category accounted for roughly a third of the store's income. [5]

M&Q also began to sell books online, and as of 2015 about 30 percent of total sales were online. The company maintains its own web site, but also partners with other online retailers such as Amazon.com. [5]

As of 2015, Magers and Quinn was Minneapolis' largest independent bookstore. [2] [7] The store has more than 8,000 square feet (740 m2) of sales space, [3] 10,000 square feet (930 m2) of storage space, and an inventory of roughly 250,000 books. [2] Denny Magers is the only owner the store has had. [1]

Literary events

M&Q hosts several author readings and literary events a year. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnes & Noble</span> American bookseller and retailer

Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of October 2023, the company operates 592 retail stores across all 50 U.S. states.

Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Waterstones shop sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tattered Cover</span> Independent bookstore chain in Colorado, United States

Tattered Cover is a bookstore chain in Denver, Colorado. It is one of the largest independent bookstores in the United States. Tattered Cover is open seven days a week at all branches, hosts prominent book signings, and is known for its customer service. Together, the stores maintain an inventory of over half a million books. Its LoDo store houses an events space that can seat over 250 persons, while its East Colfax store can seat around 100.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon Bookstore Cooperative</span> Feminist bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Amazon Bookstore Cooperative was a feminist bookstore located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that operated from 1970 to 2012. It was the only lesbian/feminist bookstore in the U.S.at some point, but certainly not at its beginning. The shop was named after the Amazons, a mythological tribe of fierce and independent women. In 1994 Amazon.com was founded and within a year, problems started for Amazon Bookstore. Terms of a lawsuit by Amazon bookstore resulted in a small settlement, and a requirement that Amazon Bookstore go by the name 'Amazon Bookstore Collective' to reduce confusion with Amazon.com.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kramers (bookstore)</span> Independent bookstore in Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C., United States

Kramers is an independent bookstore and cafe in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Since its founding in 1976 by Bill Kramer, Henry Posner, and David Tenney, Kramer's has become a local institution and meeting place for neighborhood residents, authors, and politicians. It was one of the first bookstores in the country to feature a cafe which influenced similar business models nationwide. Notable people that have visited Kramer's include Barack Obama, Andy Warhol, Maya Angelou, and Monica Lewinsky, whose purchases at the bookstore attracted national attention during the Lewinsky scandal investigation and led to a high-profile legal battle. Kramer's was sold in 2016 to Steve Salis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Independent bookstore</span> Retail bookstore which is independently owned

An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store. They may be structured as sole proprietorships, closely held corporations or partnerships, cooperatives, or nonprofits. Independent stores can be contrasted with chain bookstores, which have many locations and are owned by large corporations, which often have other divisions besides bookselling.

AbeBooks is an e-commerce global online marketplace with seven websites that offer books, fine art, and collectables from sellers in over 50 countries. Launched in 1996, it specialises in used, rare and out-of-print books. AbeBooks has been a subsidiary of Amazon since 2008.

Half Price Books, Records, Magazines, Incorporated is a chain of new and used bookstores in the United States. The company's original motto is "We buy and sell anything printed or recorded except yesterday's newspaper", and many of the used books, music, and movies for sale in each location are purchased from local residents. The corporate office is located in the flagship Northwest Highway location in Dallas, Texas. Half Price Books now operates more than 120 stores in 19 states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bookselling</span> Business of selling and dealing with books

Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brentano's</span> American bookstore chain

Brentano's was an American bookstore chain with numerous locations in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B. Dalton</span> American retail bookstore chain

B. Dalton Bookseller was an American retail bookstore chain founded in 1966 by Bruce Dayton, a member of the same family that operated the Dayton's department store chain. B. Dalton expanded to become the largest retailer of hardcover books in the United States, with 779 stores at the peak of the chain's success. Located mainly at indoor shopping malls, B. Dalton competed primarily with Waldenbooks. Barnes & Noble acquired the chain from Dayton's in 1987 and continued to operate it until a late 2009 announcement that the last 50 stores would be liquidated by January 2010. B. Dalton was later revived by rebranding a Barnes & Noble location in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prairie Lights</span>

Prairie Lights is an independent bookstore in downtown Iowa City, Iowa, founded in 1978, by Jim Harris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Levine Books and Judaica</span>

J. Levine Books and Judaica is an independent bookstore located in Midtown Manhattan. J. Levine is a fifth-generation family business and one of the oldest standing Judaica stores in United States since it opened in 1905.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mayday Books</span>

Mayday Books is a volunteer-run, non-profit collective bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Established in 1975, its organizational mission is to provide leftist political books and magazines and a space for political organizing for the Minneapolis/Saint Paul metropolitan area. Mayday Books carries a selection of new and used political books, magazines, zines, T-shirts, postcards, and select CDs and DVDs.

Abdallah Candies is a fifth-generation, family-owned chocolatier and confectionery in Apple Valley, Minnesota. It was established as the Calhoun Candy Depot in Minneapolis in 1909 by Lebanese immigrant Albert Abdallah and his wife of Swedish descent, Helen Trovall. The company was renamed Abdallah Candy Company in 1916.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Play Books</span> Digital distribution service for ebooks

Google Play Books, formerly Google eBooks, is an ebook digital distribution service operated by Google, part of its Google Play product line. Users can purchase and download ebooks and audiobooks from Google Play, which offers over five million titles, with Google claiming it to be the "largest ebooks collection in the world". Books can be read on a dedicated Books section on the Google Play website, through the use of a mobile app available for Android and iOS, through the use of select e-readers that offer support for Adobe Digital Editions, through a web browser and reading via Google Home. Users may also upload up to 2,000 ebooks in the PDF or EPUB file formats. Google Play Books is available in 75 countries.

The Minnesota Spokesman–Recorder is an African-American, English-language newspaper headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota and serves readers in the Twin Cities. Founded in 1934 by Cecil Earle Newman, it is the oldest continuously operated black newspaper and longest-lived black-owned business in Minnesota. The current CEO of the paper is Newman's granddaughter, Tracey Williams-Dillard. The current editor is Mel Reeves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Garnet Books</span> Bookstore in Minnesota

Black Garnet Books is a bookstore in Minnesota. The only Black-owned, brick and mortar bookstore in the state, it operated as a pop-up for a year before receiving a grant from the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, to open a physical location.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DreamHaven Books</span>

DreamHaven Books & Comics, established 1977 by Greg Ketter, is a Minneapolis, Minnesota independent bookstore specializing in science fiction, fantasy and horror.

References

  1. 1 2 "Interview with a Bookstore: Magers & Quinn". LitHub.com. August 31, 2015. Archived from the original on December 7, 2016. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Wiley, Megan (August 26, 2015). "How Magers & Quinn Outlasts Other Booksellers". Twin Cities Business. Archived from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Dewink, Gina (February 3, 2015). "10 Independent Bookstores To Get Cozy With This Winter". The Line. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
  4. "About Us". Magers & Quinn. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 Wiley, Megan (September 8, 2015). "How one Minneapolis bookstore continues to thrive". Minnesota Post. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
  6. Mumford, Tracy (May 1, 2015). "The rebound of the indie bookstore". Minnesota Public Radio. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
  7. Smith, Terri Peterson (2013). Off the Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs, and Girls on Getaways. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. p. 132. ISBN   9781613744260. Archived from the original on 2024-02-26. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  8. "Magers & Quinn Booksellers". Poets & Writers. 2017. Archived from the original on August 2, 2015. Retrieved July 9, 2017.

44°56′50″N93°17′56″W / 44.9471°N 93.2988°W / 44.9471; -93.2988