POPULAR affordable bookstore chain, Booksale, denied rumors that it will be closing or has been sold to another company.
"Booksale is alive and well and is committed to its corporate mission of making reading affordable as it has done the past 35 years... Booksale is not closing nor has the company been sold," Visual Mix, Inc. and Booksale Cebu Inc., the management of Booksale, said in a statement posted on their official Facebook page on Tuesday, April 3.
The statement was signed by Visual Mix, Inc. president Emmanuel S. Sison and Booksale Cebu, Inc. president Ambrosio Lucilo Jr.
This developed after rumors circulated on social media and the book industry that they are closing shop or Booksale have been sold to another company.
"This, we categorically deny. While the economy and the business environment in which Booksale operates has dramatically changed in the past 20 years, we are facing these changes confidently and unwaveringly to sustain our mission of providing affordable reading for you," the company said.
It added that some of the challenges they are facing right now are store rental rates, salaries, and operating costs, which they observed have tripled or quadrupled in the past 20 years. The peso's depreciation versus the US dollar is also another challenge the company is facing.
"But we just could not raise our prices proportionately or we'll be remiss in our corporate mission," the company said. Booksale's corporate mission is to make reading affordable.
The company said instead of raising the prices of their books, they are optimizing their operations, searching better suppliers, and talking to other parties here and abroad about just and mutually synergistic arrangements.