“The traditional heavy-hitters of book distribution have been joined — seemingly overnight — by a new mammoth competitor,” observes Ed Christman. In an in-depth report for The Book Standard, he profiles Source Interlink, “which has been transforming itself from a traditional magazine distributor, supplying publications to specialty chains such as Borders and Barnes & Noble, to a full-service wholesaler and rackjobbing operation that can also offer music, movies, and — yes — books to a growing customer base that includes grocery, drug, and discount department stores.” As Christman notes, the company can’t wholesale books to independent stores as does industry heavyweights Baker & Taylor and Ingram, but “Source Interlink can now compete with B&T and Ingram in supplying books to general merchandise accounts.” For example, Source Interlink “controls the checkout area in 70,000 supermarket and drug stores, with a total of about 250,000 racks, which up until recently were stocked only with magazines. But with its extended product line, Source Interlink executives say they plan on cross-selling all of their products to all of their accounts.”