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The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

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Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#301

Post by knightofmars »

joekrill wrote: post #272
sametmax wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do understand why. You know that people won't work as much. Will disengage. Will cause trouble and cost you money, time, efforts. This is resources consumed. Some companies value saving resources over human decencies. This is magnified when there is crisis and resources are in shorter supply than before. There is no mystery to it, no complexity to it.

But I'm not suggesting they tell everyone the company is in dire straits and they are on the verge of getting fired. Just don't willfully lie to them on a daily basis and tell them that things are amazing and their jobs are totally secure. In my scenario, we weren't actively asking questions regularly. But they were offering the (mis)information on an almost daily basis.

The prior post called it out. It's people in the decision making chairs who are choosing short-term stability over long -term trust.

>You know that people won't work as much. Will disengage. Will cause trouble and cost you money, time, efforts.

It may be jaded of me but I believe it's rare to see a company with management that actually has the courage to be transparent and fully honest with its employees. I find that a good smoke test to see what type of management your own company has is probing what people in your company think about "transparent salaries" where everyone knows what everyone else makes. You'll see some enlightening responses if you're privy to the conversations.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#302

Post by jessaustin »

eludwig wrote: post #260
phil21 wrote: post #6

I was out shopping 3-4 days before Christmas this year, and happened to be near a Barnes and Noble so figured I'd grab a copy of a magazine I've been wanting to read for a while. Grabbed the magazine, wandered the aisles a bit and picked up another book then went to check out. Basically I was their marketing department's dream - walk-in traffic coming to buy something cheap and specific who made an impulse retail buy…

>>Two cashiers working out of 8 or so possible registers And the worst part about this is that each cashier seems determined to relentlessly pester me with annoying questions at the register! Did I want to join this loyalty program? Did I realize that I could save $5 by signing up for so and so. Do I want to get on the B&N mailing list? Really aggressive questioning. Oh my God. I realize that the cashiers have been o…

A couple of days ago I attempted to pay for snacks at a convenience store with cash. The clerk sheepishly directed me to answer a series of questions about discount cards via the pinpad! When I asked if this seemed like a good idea, she could only sigh and glance skyward.

Apparently the corporate morons have figured out how to pester the customer even against the better judgment of clerks. Fortunately I have a choice in which convenience store enjoys my custom.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#303

Post by mgkimsal »

awalton wrote: post #23
mistersquid wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes me wonder why physical retail stores don't follow Apple's approach by developing an app so shoppers can self-check out.

The app would likely be more expensive to develop and maintain than hiring a few seasonal part-timers per store (2000 people at, let's face it, minimum wage for a month is about $4M that immediately converts to sales numbers just by being conscious enough to operate a register - that's cheaper than ~10 software devs in America (at least two of which are specialists - iOS/Android devs), a manager, an office, their equ…

> that's cheaper than ~10 software devs in America (at least two of which are specialists - iOS/Android devs), a manager, an office, their equipment and their benefits packages that takes a year to 18-months to produce anything at all)

Really? It would take 10 people 18 months to produce some type of ecommerce app that would

a) allow people to bar code scan something

b) pay for it on their phone

??

Yes, certainly there would be more tie ins to do - tie the same in to existing POS system for inventory purposes (real time or nightly), for one.

But... 18 months? $4M?

Walmart and apparently target are working on or piloting same day pickup. I can order online and go pick up at the store right afterwards. Saves walking around the store (which might cut down impulse purchases, but hey... we'll get bombarded with upsells on the future purchases, no doubt). I might not actually want something on my doorstep the next day, but want it in my hand or car 90 minutes from now, while I'm passing the store on the way home, etc.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#305

Post by mgkimsal »

b1daly wrote: post #231
awalton wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app would likely be more expensive to develop and maintain than hiring a few seasonal part-timers per store (2000 people at, let's face it, minimum wage for a month is about $4M that immediately converts to sales numbers just by being conscious enough to operate a register - that's cheaper than ~10 software devs in America (at least two of which are specialists - iOS/Android devs), a manager, an office, their equ…

??? Amazon is not even close to Walmart in revenue or profit.

* 2017 Walmart revenue was $485B

* 2017 Amazon revenue was $178B

Profit would be a different story, of course, but you can go dig for that if you want. Certainly Walmart still has markedly higher revenue.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#306

Post by plasticchris »

macintux wrote: post #47
emodendroket wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of all the criticisms one might make of Walmart, being slow to check people out I'd say would be about last on my list.

Must depend on where you are, unless you’re making a broader point about their awfulness.

Definitely depends on where you are. In cities or in California in general they are terrible compared to the rural Midwest (where they started and land/labor is much cheaper).

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#307

Post by skywhopper »

eludwig wrote: post #260
phil21 wrote: post #6

I was out shopping 3-4 days before Christmas this year, and happened to be near a Barnes and Noble so figured I'd grab a copy of a magazine I've been wanting to read for a while. Grabbed the magazine, wandered the aisles a bit and picked up another book then went to check out. Basically I was their marketing department's dream - walk-in traffic coming to buy something cheap and specific who made an impulse retail buy…

>>Two cashiers working out of 8 or so possible registers And the worst part about this is that each cashier seems determined to relentlessly pester me with annoying questions at the register! Did I want to join this loyalty program? Did I realize that I could save $5 by signing up for so and so. Do I want to get on the B&N mailing list? Really aggressive questioning. Oh my God. I realize that the cashiers have been o…

Not only are they ordered to do it but corporate puts requirements on the store as to how many joins they are expected to get each day, and cashiers have their own individual quotas and they get chewed out if they don’t meet them by managers who get chewed out for not meeting them. The fact that this behavior reduces sales throughput, employee productivity, and customer satisfaction are not worked into the analysis that comes up with these programs or their growth targets. Upper management comes up with a target and they push their stores to meet it, because their CMO went to a conference where he was wined and dined by the company that sells the software to run the loyalty card system and believes their stats about how it saved company X and now that they’ve spent the money the ROI has to meet internal targets or risk embarrassing the CMO.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#308

Post by kamarg »

blhack wrote: post #39
rayiner wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the rest of the year, the stores are empty. Which validated the company's decision: why have a bunch of full time employees, when what it really needs is part time and flexible employees to handle holiday surges (probably caused by waiting for Amazon shipping to not be an option).

Not the one near me (in Phoenix, near Arizona State University). It's a major anchor in a shopping center, and is busy every time I'm ever in there. The employees are also really helpful. This Christmas, I was trying to find some books as a christmas gift, and the staff made a bunch of suggestions based on books that they had actually personally read. Sidenote: finding appropriate books for 8-14 year old girls is rea…

At the upper end of that age range, the Chronicles of Chaos (https://smile.amazon.com/Orphans-Chaos-Chronicles-John-Wrigh...) is an excellent trilogy. One of my favorite parts about the series is that each of the main characters has a very distinct way of looking at the world (logic, spirits, etc) that helps start conversations about understanding other peoples' point of view.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#309

Post by mgkimsal »

Bucephalus355 wrote: post #2

Barnes and Noble did some dumb things as this article points out, but they are NOWHERE near what the CEO of Sears is doing. That is corporate malpractice, gross negligence, and perhaps high treason all rolled into one. Literally look up anything online for “Sears CEO is terrible” and you will get links from NY Times, WaPo, etc. Also with BN, I mean they were going up against one of the biggest most powerful companies…

The Sears situation is just sad. I'm not sure why shareholders are putting up with it, except... most probably have just accepted the narrative that sears is dead, and are OK with the sell off and ... yeah, treason isn't a bad word. But... selling off assets you control to another company you also control would seem like... oh.. what's the term? Conflict of interest? I don't understand in the slightest why this has been allowed to go on. I can't imagine if, say, Target's CEO started cutting store budgets, then closing and selling the bad performing stores and real estate to another company the CEO owned, and then made a profit repurposing those stores to other companies. It's truly bizarre.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#310

Post by amygdyl »

rlonstein wrote: post #298
phil21 wrote: post #6

I was out shopping 3-4 days before Christmas this year, and happened to be near a Barnes and Noble so figured I'd grab a copy of a magazine I've been wanting to read for a while. Grabbed the magazine, wandered the aisles a bit and picked up another book then went to check out. Basically I was their marketing department's dream - walk-in traffic coming to buy something cheap and specific who made an impulse retail buy…

> The checkout line was at least 50 people long and probably estimated at over an hour. Two cashiers working out of 8 or so possible registers, and as far as I could tell a singular employee on the floor itself. This is a perfect instance for self-checkout kiosks. They're everywhere: big retailers like Target, chain groceries, national pharmacies, home improvement stores, and they're turning up in smaller places and…

Tesco stores in London are removing from self checkout kiosks cash payment. A middle size store in the City, two sides of a aisle, left accept cash, on the right the machines only accept cards. The card only kiosks were all vacant. On the left, backing up a frustrated queue tailing behind me another twenty people at least, were a dozen self checkout kiosks, all confounding anyone's ability to pay for any goods. With the random completion of the process, the queue for the cash kiosks became chaotic. It was about 11pm. The store was otherwise almost empty. In other words, people were able to"do all their shopping" quickly, and then spend considerably more time being pissed off, probably like me, also unable to price see several items before getting to the kiosk, which is not a uncertainty I much care for.

At the kiosk, I realized I needed a carrier bag, and asked for one, none being visible. "A ten pence one is fine!" I said hopefully, the mandatory five pence ones nowhere. "We've only those." He said, pointing to one pound fifty fancy bags. Off I went, my basket left behind me. No sale.

Last night. Another Tesco store. This one has had random kiosks changed to accept card only. So I asked, as I approached the head of the queue and was told... This store doesn't accept cash. Another abandoned basket.

I have been able to complete less than half of every attempt at shopping in the second of those two stores, walking out each time over two years. Sainsbury's stock was paying ten percent dividends,last I looked. I see a classic long - short position.

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