What Happened to A Common Reader?
January 17, 2006 9:36 AM   Subscribe

Ack! My favorite bookseller, A Common Reader, seems to have vanished. The web page is blank, and calls to the 800 number are unanswered. Has anyone out there heard anything? How do you go about finding out if a company has gone under and what the heck happened?
posted by JanetLand to Shopping (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: Hmmm, meant to post the link, sorry.
posted by JanetLand at 9:40 AM on January 17, 2006


Check the whois info for the domain, and try calling the phone number listed there, or drop a line to the email address shown.
posted by Gator at 9:41 AM on January 17, 2006


Response by poster: Okay, I've emailed -- we'll see if that works.
posted by JanetLand at 9:49 AM on January 17, 2006


That would be terrible! I just got a catalog from them a couple of months ago!
posted by small_ruminant at 9:58 AM on January 17, 2006


Please post the answer here; I'd like to know too.
posted by languagehat at 12:57 PM on January 17, 2006


In the interim, you might try Bas Bleu. (Assuming you haven't already.)

Bad news if gone forever. There's a reason to not divert all money to Amazon.
posted by IndigoJones at 2:08 PM on January 17, 2006


This is what I've found so far: A Common Reader was founded by the Akadine Press, whose website also shows a blank page. Further Googling indicates that Akadine is headquartered in Westchester County, NY, which is currently in the midst of a cold snap that has left thousands without power for the last couple of days. I haven't been able to find any news stories suggesting Akadine has stopped trading, so my best guess is that their web server and phone lines are somehow temporarily out of commission. I'd welcome any better information, though. . . .
posted by muhonnin at 2:10 PM on January 17, 2006


Best answer: My wife received a letter in the mail today informing her that A Common Reader has declared bankruptcy and that she may be a creditor (she purchased a gift certificate that hasn't been spent).

It looks like we've seen the last issue of our favorite catalog.
posted by lewistate at 8:29 PM on January 17, 2006


Response by poster: Damn. Thank you lewistate.
posted by JanetLand at 5:28 AM on January 18, 2006


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