The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble • Hacker News Board

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#391

Post by Wohlf » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:44 PM UTC

visarga wrote: post #149

ivraatiems wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It sucks, but I'm not sure there's a better option. Maybe the best we can do is try and structure a society where getting laid off from a decent job isn't so damaging and scary on a personal level. Maybe we need to acknowledge that we're moving towards having a society where "everyone has a job that earns them their living" is untenable, because there will be less work for humans to do than humans to do it, and we…

> Maybe we need to acknowledge that we're moving towards having a society where "everyone has a job that earns them their living" is untenable No, we need a society that guarantees everyone a job, a job that will generate the income necessary for survival. We shouldn't give up agency and become simple wards of the state, waiting hand stretched ahead for the UBI to fall from the crumblings at the tech billionaires tab…

We could give everyone in the world a job right now by banning construction equipment, computers, cars, assembly lines, or any form of automation really.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#392

Post by smogcutter » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:45 PM UTC

smelendez wrote: post #346

PaulHoule wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I've gone to Barnes and Noble recently, I've found editions of books in prominent places that were poorly printed. For instance, one hardcover with a fancy binding had very thin/transparent pages to the extent that the text was less legible. Don't get me started about the trade paperbacks that I suspect will have the binding break immediately. I wonder if Barnes and Noble sells reduced quality books the same way…

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. I had the same experience and it made the store seem a bit scammy lately. A lot of the cheaply made books also seemed geared toward older people: they were either about the 1940s-1960s, or were the kinds of public domain classics a grandparent would buy a grandchild (Robinson Crusoe, The Arabian Knights) in outwardly fancy but actually poor quality editions. It's especi…

Side note for those buying books for their grandchildren: Arabian Nights includes a great deal more sex than you might assume.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#393

Post by mixmastamyk » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:46 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #177

Kluny wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patricia C Wrede, Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Ursula K Le Guin, Judy Blume and Anne McCaffrey are some authors who have outstanding books for girls in that age range, in case you find yourself with the same problem again.

Thank you! Any specific stories you recommend? The problem I was having with the things I was looking at were that a lot of them seemed to be basically romance novels for kids.

Check with library and schools.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#394

Post by FLUX-YOU » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:46 PM UTC

phxrsg wrote: post #357

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I put my selections back and walked out the door. Granted it was near peak shopping season - but that was inexcusable. Scaling retail is hard. Especially if you're against "be on call 24/7 for minimum wage without additional on call compensation". They could buy self-checkout terminals, though, but I imagine they don't want assets like that and would rather let the business fail. That's the writing on the wall (if n…

Scaling retail is hard to get perfect to the same precision of auto-scaling AWS, maybe, but scaling to an acceptable (measured in profit and customer satisfaction) level really isn't. Or rather, the solution is known. Especially in December - during prime holiday shopping hours - you staff up. It's more profitable to have a little bit of employee slack time than to have customer satisfaction way down and customers wa…

>It's more profitable to have a little bit of employee slack time than to have customer satisfaction way down and customers walking out without buying things.

For big box stores, but B&N are on the decline, while real estate and lease prices have likely risen.

"you staff up" works when you can actually pay for the excess, but B&N clearly don't want to. But you missed the point of my take in that they aren't willing to invest in assets for customer satisfaction. They're on the way out, so why would they care to staff up for holidays either?

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#395

Post by wccrawford » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:52 PM UTC

frogpelt wrote: post #380

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…

Imagine if stores had a way for you to pay for your physical stuff on your phone without waiting in a physical line. 1. Use their app to scan the bar code 2. Pay with a card 3. A self-service printer prints a receipt/confirmation of purchase. 4. Show it to an employee on your way out the door. Might be an inventory nightmare, but it could be done.

By "inventory nightmare" you mean "theft", right? Because that's the real problem. There are already self-serve lines in many stores, but they still have to watch people to try to prevent theft. And it turns out people are really, really slow if they aren't trained as a cashier.

Sure, the cellphone eliminates the slowdown, but it also eliminates the primary way they currently prevent theft.

Amazon is working on a store that works a lot like you said, with your cellphone, but doesn't rely on the customer doing anything other than logging in. After that, tons of cameras take care of the rest.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#396

Post by madengr » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:54 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #255

The real tragedy here is that US has laws which allow employers to fire someone on the spot. What a travesty - 20 years at work and they can get rid of you in a day? Just wow.

Legally, there is a difference between layoff and fire. Depends on the state, but employers of a certain size have to give warning that a layoff is coming. The article says they were given notice their positions were going away; that is probably legally enough. Even firing requires documented poor behavior.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#397

Post by tnzn » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:55 PM UTC

nkrisc wrote: post #361

pboutros wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming the executive here makes sense. But saying the "company deserves to fail" ignores the livelihoods of everyone below that person in the hierarchy, who gets fired because mgmt has different incentives than the workers.

Perhaps if those lower in the hierarchy and society as a whole are constantly burned by businesses failing due to incompetent leadership, they might start to expect or demand something different. Socialism? Anarchy? Some kind of socially conscious capitalism? I don't know what form it will take, but it might be something different than what we have now.

Isn't "conscious capitalism" what's being sold to us since the 70's, through the "new spirit of capitalism" ?

Anyways props to ur comment hah

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#398

Post by yock » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:57 PM UTC

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #141

zipwitch wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are making the completely unwarranted (and demonstrated false by modern history) assumption that decisions coming from capitalism are made objectively and rationally.

"Capitalism" doesn't make any decisions. It's emergent behavior. People make all kinds of decisions and bets and tradeoffs, some of which work better than others and "win". That doesn't mean we always like those outcomes, hence the need for regulations, social safety net, etc. Overall, it's a pretty shitty system, since it means that some people are always losing, but it also seems to be the best we've got.

> "Capitalism" doesn't make any decisions. It's _emergent behavior_. People make all kinds of decisions and bets and tradeoffs, some of which work better than others and "win". > Overall, it's a pretty shitty _system_, since it means that some people are always losing, but it also seems to be the best we've got.

_Emphasis mine_.

Is it a system or emergent behavior? I'd argue that these are mutually exclusive and that capitalism falls squarely in the latter category. It is the result of individuals being free to exchange whatever they find valuable.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#399

Post by heedlessly2 » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 5:59 PM UTC

frogpelt wrote: post #380

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…

Imagine if stores had a way for you to pay for your physical stuff on your phone without waiting in a physical line. 1. Use their app to scan the bar code 2. Pay with a card 3. A self-service printer prints a receipt/confirmation of purchase. 4. Show it to an employee on your way out the door. Might be an inventory nightmare, but it could be done.

more self-service kiosks would be an easier solution rather than building an entire new system.

If you used your phone, then it would easy to shoplift. Buy 7 items, but "forget" to scan the last two. Self-service kiosks at least prevents this with weight sensors, cameras, and a human kiosk manager.

Re: The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

#400

Post by jroseattle » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 6:05 PM UTC

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…

With all due respect, this is only a strategy to prolong eventual death. Counting on survival by hoping there's a backlash against Amazon is folly.

B&N needs leadership to offer product and services that can compete, period. Need to cutback? Sure. But where's the business plan?

That's call this what it is -- poor execution by leadership.