Collins opens company-owned store at Sydney hospital; further hospital stores planned
Collins Booksellers has opened a new company-owned bookstore at the Royal North Shore Hospital in St Leonards, Sydney.
The store officially opened on 12 December to coincide with the official opening of the redeveloped hospital. The New South Wales government has spent approximately $1.13 billion on the hospital’s redevelopment.
Collins Booksellers CEO Daniel Jordon said in a statement that the new store is ‘the first location that will operate under the Collins group as a company store as opposed to a franchise store’. Company-owned bookstores were previously part of the Collins network prior to the franchise buy-out in 2005.
The store also represents the company’s ‘first move into major hospital developments’, said Jordon. Jordon told Bookseller+Publisher that Collins plans to open more stores in hospitals around the country over the next three years. He said some of the stores will be part of new developments, while others will be located at existing hospitals.
The Royal North Shore store is approximately 138 sqm in size and has a staff of six, led by store manager Lauren Maule, who is new to bookselling. The store features a Kobo kiosk, which Collins said is designed to ‘showcase the full range of Kobo ereaders and accessories’. The kiosks will be rolled out to all Collins stores from January 2013.
Jordon said the new store will also be trialling an ereader rental service in 2013, which will allow patients at the hospital to rent a Kobo device during their hospital stay. Jordon said the ereaders will be included as an entertainment option offered to patients when they are admitted to the hospital. Patients who choose to hire one of the ereaders will be required to set up a Kobo account, which will allow them to continue to access the ebooks they purchase after they leave the hospital. Patients will also be given an incentive to purchase a new device when they leave the hospital.
Collins chairman Duncan Johnson said that the Collins group is ‘seeking new opportunities in the marketplace [and] major hospital developments of this type provide significant commercial opportunities for the company’.
Royal North Shore Hospital general manager Sue Shilbury said in the same statement that the hospital’s staff and patients are already ‘making the most of having a real bookstore right in the main foyer’ of the hospital, with the store opening for business several weeks ahead of its official launch. ‘Coming to hospital can be stressful and its comforting to be able to buy a book, rent an ereader, or just spend time browsing in the store,’ she said.
Tags: retail
Category: Local news
