Bookstores facing bankruptcy changes
by Chris Taylor, editor-in-chief

    TCC Bookstores are undergoing changes.

    Wallace’s, which has operated the bookstores since June, apparently will no longer manage the stores.

    Wallace’s filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy March 1 and is currently reorganizing its business.

    The company had asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William S. Howard for permission to cancel contracts to operate seven college bookstores in six states in the Northeast.

    Tim Robinson, attorney for Wallace’s, told the Lexington-Herald Leader, “The company wanted out of the bookstore agreements for a number of different reasons.”

    Some of the stores were unprofitable, and others are too far from Lexington, Ky., to be well-managed.

Richard Inman, TCC director of business services, said that there is a “transitioning taking place with Wallace’s.”

    Inman said students and faculty will not have to worry about not having a campus bookstore.

    “The college is looking at all sorts of possibilities. We are working hard to make sure that there will be an operating bookstore on each campus,” he said.

    “We are trying to prevent any hardships on students and faculty at all costs,” he said.

    He also explained that book buybacks should not be affected and the transitional process should be completed by May, which is when the buy-back program starts.

    The campus bookstores’ futures are currently in doubt, but there are several possible outcomes. A new company could take over the stores or TCC could operate the stores again, much like it did before Wallace’s.

    Inman said that the college is working to prevent the Wallace’s situation from affecting students and faculty.

    But there are “a lot of legal issues to be worked out,” he said.

    Wallace’s signed a five-year contract and took over operation of the stores last summer with promises of Internet book purchasing available in a year.

    Wallace’s also promised that all bookstore employees would retain their jobs for one year after the takeover.

    Wallace G. Wilkinson, former CEO of Wallace’s, disclosed $418.4 million in debt.

    Wallace’s creditors are attempting to learn what happened to the money.