Win a trip to Copenhagen during November

Win a trip for two to Copenhagen in conjunction with hummel and bookvouchers.co.uk

Founded in 1923 Danish sportswear brand hummel was most famously seen when the Danish national football team won the European championship in a kit featuring it's famous chevron branding.
To celebrate the arrival of the retro inspired hummel collection in a few selected JD stores and online we have a fantastic JD Exclusive online competition. One lucky winner will win a weekend trip for two to the Copenhagen, capital city of Denmark, the home of Hans Christian Anderson and Carlsberg!!
This amazing prize includes flights and two nights in a top hotel.
There are three runners up prizes; £200 worth of hummel products, £150 worth of hummel products, or £100 worth of hummel products.

Copenhagen competition closes 30TH NOVEMBER 2006.

To enter this competition and access our unique voucher service, post free within the UK with same day dispatch, go to : http://www.firstbookshop.com/serv05.htm

TOKEN HOUSE WAS FIRST AND IS TODAY FOREMOST FOR NATIONAL BOOK TOKENS ONLINE

http://www.tokenhouse.net

TESTIMONIALS

Hello First Bookshop,
I received my Book and Theatre vouchers this morning - wow, express service indeed! I just felt I wanted to tell you that before I submitted my order to you I did check out the competition and must say you have NO competition really as I got from you my next day delivery FREE. Voucher Express, whom I have used in the past, wanted to charge me £6.50 to send me Theatre Tokens and the company Book Tokens Ltd wanted to charge me £4.95 to send me Book Tokens. By my calculations I have just saved £11.45 on an order for £35. Long may you reign supreme!!

Andrea Sanderson - Hull

(6th October 2007)

See all our testimonials by clicking here 'VOUCHER SERVICE TESTIMONIALS'

Book Token Blog

Every year, the Autumn months always see a dramatic increase in our sales of Book Tokens, due mainly to the start of the new academic terms i.e Back To School and Back To College.

THE FIRST EVER GIFT VOUCHERS - LAUNCHED IN 1932 - STILL SELLING VOLUMES TODAY.

National Book Tokens can be redeemed at over 3,000 UK Nationwide Booksellers. Ideal as 'achievement awards' as well as for many other occasions - with not being store specific the recipient can use them at their favourite local Bookshop, big or small! Official Book Tokens have NO 'Expiry Date' So Are Valid Forever.

SPENDING YOUR VOUCHERS: The official NATIONAL BOOK TOKEN can be exchanged at ALL major UK High Street Booksellers including: Borders, Blackwells, Foyles, WH Smith, Waterstones / Ottakers & The Works. Also welcome at most of the smaller independent book retailers in the UK, making an impressive total of well over 3,000 outlets. The original and most flexible book voucher, never accept a substitute from elsewhere, always insist on the genuine article! We are proud have been the very first to offer BOOK TOKENS ONLINE also offering you a facility to redeem these vouchers via links on our site, still today the ONLY bookseller in the world that is prepared to do this online (correct at the time this Book Token Blog was published)

INTERESTING FACT: 72% of children asked, aged 7-16 claimed to want a National Book Token as a present!

To access our unique service, post free within the UK and with same day dispatch, go to : http://www.firstbookshop.com/serv05.htm

ORDERS FOR VOUCHERS CAN ALSO BE SENT ABROAD - INSURED POSTAGE CHARGED TO YOU AT COST.

The best place to see all our BOOKS is at : http://www.bookpage.co.uk

Borders Wins The Booby Prize?

Further to last months posting, it seems that BORDERS BOOKS & MUSIC is the weakest link! This has been announced today:

'Borders books £9.75m loss. Book chain Borders said today that it had plunged to a near-£10 million loss over the second quarter as sales dipped four per cent to £453m.
The group, booked a loss of £9.75m, which was in line with analysts' expectations but was a major reversal from the £688,778 surplus it scored over the same quarter the year before. Like-for-like sales at its Borders superstores fell 5.3 per cent'

By comparison, current turnover at First Bookshop is up in excess of 50% compared to the same period last year.

UPDATE.....UPDATE.....UPDATE : 22nd March 2007
Due to continuing mounting losses, Borders have announced they are to pull out of the UK
Total losses for 2006 amounted to $150m - losses during the last quarter alone stood at $73m
They hope that a sale of the UK stores for around £50m should help to keep the business afloat in the US

Weak Waterstones?

Waterstone’s like-for-like sales fell 6.1% for the nine weeks to 1st July 2006, as “trading conditions in the first few weeks of the new financial year have remained difficult,” parent company HMV said today. The decline follows a 5.8% like-for-like decrease in the year to 29th April 2006, which the company described as a “very poor trading performance”. The chain’s total sales fell by 4.8% to £418.7m in the year. Waterstone’s has initiated a £10m integration programme for Ottakar’s, closing its offices in Salisbury, Clapham and London Bridge with 114 people at risk of redundancy. Ottakar's 142 stores will be rebranded as Waterstone's by Christmas, with no store closures immediately planned. Can 142 'new stores' stimulate an increase in sales? We tend to think not, as the stores involved will loose their unique identity overnight, causing loyal customers to 'jump ship'. Perhaps their salvation will be the launch later this year of a proper Waterstones website, then again perhaps not - think they have well and truly missed the boat on that one!
Waterstone's main high street competitor BORDERS has just announced that their losses in the second-quarter, ending 29th July '06, will be greater than expected.
Just WHO IS going to be the weakest link...the race is on.

Bridlington Town Gets Its First Shopping Site!

LAUNCHED TODAY: www.bridnet.co.uk
The 1st genuine Bridlington shopping site: BRIDNET.
Signed up for launch day of June 1st 2006 are:
B&Q - Burtons - Chiltern Mills - Currys - Garlands - JD Sports - Tesco - The Original Factory Shop - The Post Office - Woolworths.
Many more in the process of signing up.
For retail therapy - Bridlington style - visit: www.bridnet.co.uk NOW!

Blackwells Hit Rock Bottom

Just announced - Blackwell Ltd, the academic bookselling and library supply business, made an operating loss of £10.1m in the year to 2nd July 2005. The loss, up from £6.6m the previous year, came on total sales of £158.5m, down from £186m. By comparison profits remain healthy at FirstBookshop.com - the year just completed, ending March '06, saw sales up by over 113%. A considerable number of First Bookshop's customers are ex AUSTICKS book shoppers - the firm that Blackwell's bought out in Leeds a number of years back and then irrationally shut down all stores bar one - an out of town campus shop, one that the average Leeds consumer would never go to. Fortunately their loss is our gain :)