Archive: Around Town

Last Friday at 11pm wizards, witches, and other magical creatures invaded Borders for the Grand Hallows Ball at The Shops at Ithaca Mall, and when the witching hour struck they lined up to purchase the first copies of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.'  The seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series attracted 800,000 enthusiastic fans at Borders' US stores.  "We never did a count in our store, but I can tell you it was packed," says Patrice Jennings, General Manager of the Lansing store.  "We definitely had a bigger crowd than we did two years ago.  I think we were all out of here by 2 o'clock two years ago, and this time they weren't out the door until 3:30."

Book stores around the world held parties to celebrate the release of the 784 page book by J.K. Rowling.  Ithaca's Barnes & Noble started celebrating at 8pm, and the Tompkins County Library had a party the next morning, with 28 copies of the book available to check out.  The Lansing Community Library Center had two copies that were both checked out Saturday morning.

Stores broke record sales, as lines at the checkout counters burgeoned.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows broke first-day sales records for Borders, selling approximately 350,000 more books than when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released in 2005.  "'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' set sales records for Borders, selling approximately 1.2 million copies at Borders and Waldonbooks stores around the world," says Borders CEO George Jones.  "More than 800,000 Harry Potter fans attended Grand Hallows Ball celebrations in our U.S. stores, lasting until the early morning hours. Every store crowned a king and queen of the Ball who were rewarded for having the best costumes. Prizes were awarded for the winners of the Harry Potter Spelling Bee and the Great Snape Debate. The most coveted awards at Borders stores were a giant poster of the cover art for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, signed by artist Mary Grand Pr