What a relief that HMV are now gone from W. Lets hope the new MD Daunt does what he says and listen to the staff. There is a lot of potential from the staff. They are on the front row and they are the people who will be able to turn rounf the damage that HMV have done to W and Ottakars.

James Listen to your staff - from the smallest store to the largest, these people are the people who run the empire that you now sit on top.

once this initial euphoria has dispersed the down-trodden and bullied staff have a very long climb out of the pit of doom if they want to be as good as the Chain Bookseller of the Year 2011 - Sainsbury's.

Holland added: “There is something deeply sensory about Daunt's bookshops. They are the literary equivalent of walking into a delicious bakery. That's something he can bring to Waterstone's which can't be replicated online."

Hmm, so, to fit out 300 stores like a delicious bakery would cost £300 million. Maybe it's better to deal with what you've got instead of comparing apples and oranges.

Unless you take a leaf out of the grocer's book and start pumping the smell of fresh bread through the shops?

I am rather surprised that just about every serious commentator in this thread assumes that all the problems of this chain have suddenly disappeared in a bright new morning, glistening in the largesse of Mr Mamut's cash dispensed with Mr Daunt's wisdom. What is more, each contributor reads into the future their own solutions, ranging from discarding pink t-shirts to the restoration of literary palaces which will bring throngs of learned and committed book-buyers rushing back to Waterstones eager to part with fifty pound notes. Let me underline the reality: the problem is not Waterstones, it is the business context. A return to the well-stocked high end literary salon model of the 1990s golden years staffed by enthusiastic arts graduates is not an option and would simply compound the decline of footfall and turnover. One wonders whether any owner will have unlimited patience with unlimited red ink, however committed to books they are. A merciless strategy will be needed to dispose of the poor performers in the estate. Publishers can expect some very hard demands for yet greater margin, which will have to be taken seriously as this really is the last, last chance saloon for their major high street showcase for books. They know how close the chain came to closure in the past few months. The new management will quickly have to put in place exciting, integrated and credible strategies for e-books and internet selling, as they are all but too late to make up the vast ground lost over many years to Amazon, Apple, Google, Tesco and Sainsburys as well confronting the time drift of book readers to new media. All this in a long retail recession while trying to understand and attract customers in hundreds of locations with different socio-economic and demographic profiles who are today familiar with a promiscuous approach to media, often for no charge. It is a list which will demand innovative and radical new strategies in marketing, supply chain, IT, personnel, locations, operations and digital strategy: in short a complete makeover of nearly every aspect of the chain. If I may pun, these are daunting challenges and no one should be under any illusions. Tough decisions will have to be taken speedily. So, a modestly warm welcome but don't crack open the Bolly just yet...

You are all forgetting that Mamut has already had two book ventures, both of which went under fairly quickly and he still has the pressures that the rest of the book trade faces and loss making shops are still loss making shops.

This is good news and a move in the right direction but a magic bullet it is not.

Celebrate yes but let's not get carried away.

yawn...let's wait and see. Could go either way.

Hmm, he did say he didn't want to close stores, but it doesn't mean that he doesn't realise he may have to...in fact I think it's naive to think there won't be closures. What we're hoping is that he also realises that there are plenty of people in the branches who know what they're talking about and can help start to get the money back through local initiatives, our own bestsellers on the shelves, and a realisation that sad and insulting little quick fix measures like purple t-shirts won't cut it...our customers aren't as sheeplike and dim as our own H/O seem to think they are. Why we're happy is we think we've got someone who'll treat us with respect and has some knowledge about books, which up till now has been a bit lacking. Good luck Dominic, you did get us back on to the road, and now the best of luck and support to James.

The Comet boys are moving on slowly. The CIO is leaving the sinking HMV ship to go to a Bus Company in Digbeth, Birmingham - has anyone been there recently, it the pits. How the mighty fall !!

Great news about W's - the brand will be around for years with some decent investment, but probably cannot sustain the number of stores it has. W's are specialists in the market, book selling is the passion not what Phoenix or HO dictate.

Interesting how Dominic has a 'role' in HMV and has already departed.

Still, W's are free now, not sure what the future holds but wishing everyone at the sharp end well.

TTFN

I welcome the arrival of James Daunt but he is already making promises that he cannot keep. If he keeps all the branches open this new dawn will not last very long.

Dear James Daunt - please get rid of these artificially created, totally unnecessary layers and layers of managers. Many are brainless robots brought up on the mantra business psychobabble. NOBODY, but nobody needs them. Lots of savings on salaries - any proper bookseller knows how to present/sell books for their branch.

Also please chuck out anything that is NON books. To stock cups and tea towels is a total waste of money; there are a zillion shops on every corner selling that. It's not what people come into a bookshop for. By putting that stuff to the front of house you're actually diverting sales away from books. Who has ever heard of a customer being persuaded to buy a book if you make them buy an apron, a cup or a tea towel?? Or even - would someone buy a book if you offer them a free tea towel? Perhaps a cookbook, but they would need to want the cookbook first.

More savings could be made by getting rid of some regional managers, (or Little Adolf as we call ours)who are rude to staff on the shop floor, manage to lose most of their store managers when taking over and who prevent local store managers from choosing their own staff or staff recommended by existing experienced booksellers. How much better would the shops be without those bullies who are constantly creating targets, inspecting whether the piles are high enough and whether staff are wearing the right t-shirt for that week. All they do is justify their existence - and their salaries. The booksellers, on £6 an hour/£12,000 a year, know more than the current regional managers about how to sell books.
'I interfere, I bully, therefore I am' is their motto when it comes to staff appointments too. There is more to building a team in which people trust - and dare I say - like each other - than the box tickers that apply via the net, or the regional managers favourite brown-noser being forced on people as a 'tool'. Nuff said