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.
A scrip is any substitute for legal tender. It is often a form of credit. Scrips have been created and used for a variety of reasons, including exploitative payment of employees under truck systems; or for use in local commerce at times when regular currency was unavailable, for example in remote coal towns, military bases, ships on long voyages, or occupied countries in wartime. Besides company scrip, other forms of scrip include land scrip, vouchers, token coins such as subway tokens, IOUs, arcade tokens and tickets, and points on some credit cards.
A gift card, also known as a gift certificate in North America, or gift voucher or gift token in the UK, is a prepaid stored-value money card, usually issued by a retailer or bank, to be used as an alternative to cash for purchases within a particular store or related businesses. Gift cards are also given out by employers or organizations as rewards or gifts. They may also be distributed by retailers and marketers as part of a promotion strategy, to entice the recipient to come in or return to the store, and at times such cards are called cash cards. Gift cards are generally redeemable only for purchases at the relevant retail premises and cannot be cashed out, and in some situations may be subject to an expiry date or fees. American Express, MasterCard, and Visa offer generic gift cards which need not be redeemed at particular stores, and which are widely used for cashback marketing strategies. A feature of these cards is that they are generally anonymous and are disposed of when the stored value on a card is exhausted.
The William Hill Sports Book of the Year is an annual British sports writing award sponsored by bookmaker William Hill. It was first presented in 1989, and was conceived by Graham Sharpe of William Hill, and John Gaustad, founder of the Sports Pages bookshop. As of 2020, the remuneration is £30,000, and a leather-bound copy of their book. Each of the shortlisted authors receives £3,000.
A book token is a type of gift voucher redeemable in hundreds of participating bookshops as an alternative to cash.
Tesco Clubcard is the loyalty card of British supermarket chain Tesco. It was introduced to Tesco customers in 1995, where it has since gained over 20 million users as of 2021. The card works on a point-based system, where holders receive points based on money spent. The amount of points earned depends on what type of item is bought, and from where.
The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) promotes the interests of booksellers in Australia. The association has its origins in state associations formed early in the 20th century, which later amalgamated into a federal association.
World Book Day is a charity event held annually in the United Kingdom and Ireland on the first Thursday in March. On World Book Day, every child in full-time education in the UK and the Republic of Ireland is provided with a voucher to be spent on books; the event was first celebrated in the United Kingdom in 1998.
Facebook Credits was a virtual currency that enabled people to purchase items in games and non-gaming applications on the Facebook Platform. One U.S. dollar was the equivalent of 10 Facebook Credits. Facebook Credits were available in 15 currencies including U.S. dollars, pound sterling, euros, and Danish kroner. Facebook was hoping eventually to expand Credits into a micropayment system open to any Facebook application, whether a game or a media company application. Facebook deprecated Credits in favour of users' local currencies.
Borders was a US-based bookseller, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia that also specialized in CDs, DVDs, calendars, stationery, gift packs and related merchandising in the Pacific area of Asia and Australasia. It had stores internationally in New Zealand and Australia. All of the stores also were fitted with Gloria Jeans Coffees cafés. The company was the Asia-pacific franchisee of the US bookseller of the same name, but was sold off in 2007 and licensed the Borders brandname for its remaining years.
TheWorks.co.uk PLC, trading as The Works, is a discount retailer based in the United Kingdom selling books, art and craft materials, gifts, toys, games and stationery. It has more than 500 stores across the UK and Ireland as of December 2024.
The Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland (BA) is a trade body founded to promote retail bookselling in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It operates the National Book Token scheme in the UK and sponsors the Whitbread Award The BA represents 95% of British retail booksellers. The BA operates the Batch payments system, an electronic purchasing interface for independent bookshops.
Unity Books is an independent New Zealand bookseller. It has a flagship store in Wellington, and a location in Auckland with separate adult and children's bookshops.
Jerusalem Ablaze: Stories of Love and Other Obsessions is a debut collection of thirteen short stories written by Orlando Ortega-Medina. Ortega-Medina was born in California and his stories originate from his time spent living in the United States, Israel, Japan, and Quebec.
James Heneage is a British writer, and literary festival entrepreneur. He was the co-founder of the Ottakar’s bookshop chain, the Chalke Valley History Festival and the Kardamyli Festival in the Greek Peloponnese.
Thomas Peter Usborne was a British publisher. In the early 1960s, Usborne co-founded the satirical magazine Private Eye. In 1973 he founded the children's book publisher Usborne Publishing.
The Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards are annual literary awards presented by the Booksellers Association in the UK and Ireland since 2016. They are sponsored by National Book Tokens.
Holly Bourne is a British author of young adult fiction. She is the author of best-selling novel Am I Normal Yet? and several other critically acclaimed books. She also writes online on feminist issues and writes for The Mix, a charity-run advice website for under-25s.
Max Porter is an English writer, formerly a bookseller and editor, best known for his debut novel Grief Is the Thing with Feathers.
Housmans is a bookshop in London, England, and is one of the longest-running radical bookshops in the United Kingdom. The shop was founded by a collective of pacifists in 1945 and has been based in Kings Cross, since 1959. Various grassroots organisations have operated from its address, including the Gay Liberation Front, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and London Greenpeace. Housmans shares its building with its sister organisation Peace News.
