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Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

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Re: Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

#81

Post by dragonwriter »

ilamont wrote: post #72

Indie publisher here. I deal with B&N through several programs they offer. They have real market power in areas like college bookstores and sales to schools. I think it's possible to view the website and its ebook platforms as brimming with a lot of untapped opportunity. And while they sometimes have some fantastic initiatives, they really struggle with execution, such as the launch of their self-serve ad platform in…

> They have real market power in areas like college bookstores and sales to schools.

They used to, but Barnes and Noble (ticket: BKS) (the firm being discussed here) does not, AFAIK, any more, because Barnes and Noble Education (ticker: BNED) was spun off in 2015, and is a separate public company.

Re: Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

#82

Post by Glyptodon »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #60
tnorthcutt wrote: post #33

Last year I wanted to buy Thinking in Bets (great book, btw). I was feeling impatient, so I looked it up on Barnes and Noble's website, and saw that a store where I was had it in stock. I went in to purchase it, and the price in store was a couple bucks higher than the listed price online. I asked the clerk about it, and he kind of shrugged and said he couldn't do anything about it. I walked out without the book and…

I can’t fathom the decision-making that led to spending the time to go down to the store for some instant gratification and then leaving over a $2 difference.

Because you don't want to reward bald-faced manipulation. It's not about saving two dollars.

Re: Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

#83

Post by fencepost »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #58
abdullahkhalids wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely does. The experience of going to a bookstore, browsing through the shelves, perhaps reading a few pages while sitting on a comfortable couches, perhaps talking to a knowledgeable salesperson about books (or life or anything), definitely has value. And I believe that value is greater than the convenience of ordering books online and then having to wait a 1-14 days for the book to deliver.

> perhaps talking to a knowledgeable salesperson about books You aren’t likely to talk to a knowledgeable salesperson at a chain bookseller, as generally they are not big book fans. They just needed a job, and these chains will hire just about anyone who can competently work their POS systems. I can understand certain independent bookshops having great additional value to customers because their proprietors and the o…

Barnes & Noble actually used to have pretty knowledgeable and devoted booksellers at least in some areas and despite pretty crappy pay. Those were the people who just love books and they were willing to take the low pay for a job in an industry that they were attached to. From a business standpoint though that meant that you had people who would stay at the store for much longer than is common in a lot of retail settings.

That really changed after a disappointing 2017 holiday season when they laid off close to 2000 mostly long term employees in February 2018. They basically dumped a lot of long-term employees and hired much less experienced basic retail workers if they hired anyone at all. There was actually a fair amount of angst about it at the time particularly among bibliophiles.

A trenchant but insightful review of events from the time: https://audreyii-fic.tumblr.com/post/170886347853/the-entire...

Re: Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

#85

Post by throwaway_bn »

I hope they don't kill B&N. I dropped out of college while pursuing a Physics degree. After which I didn't have much in terms of career prospects. There was a B&N near my apartment and I bought a lot of CS and programming books and went on to get jobs at FAANGish companies. I think I've spent about $30,000 at B&N over a 15 year period. I mostly buy from Amazon now but still go to B&N to be able to quickly physically browse through various categories of books.

Re: Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

#86

Post by lostcolony »

tnorthcutt wrote: post #33

Last year I wanted to buy Thinking in Bets (great book, btw). I was feeling impatient, so I looked it up on Barnes and Noble's website, and saw that a store where I was had it in stock. I went in to purchase it, and the price in store was a couple bucks higher than the listed price online. I asked the clerk about it, and he kind of shrugged and said he couldn't do anything about it. I walked out without the book and…

I had the exact same thing with a D&D book. I don't remember which (it was 5th ed, so fairly recent), but online it was equal to the Amazon price. In person it was like $10-20 more, and yeah, wouldn't price match.

Taught me to never look at B&N for a book I wanted again. I only ever go in there now when I happen to pass one with time to kill and just want to browse.

Re: Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

#87

Post by dragonwriter »

tnorthcutt wrote: post #33

Last year I wanted to buy Thinking in Bets (great book, btw). I was feeling impatient, so I looked it up on Barnes and Noble's website, and saw that a store where I was had it in stock. I went in to purchase it, and the price in store was a couple bucks higher than the listed price online. I asked the clerk about it, and he kind of shrugged and said he couldn't do anything about it. I walked out without the book and…

> Last year I wanted to buy Thinking in Bets (great book, btw). I was feeling impatient, so I looked it up on Barnes and Noble's website, and saw that a store where I was had it in stock.

> I went in to purchase it, and the price in store was a couple bucks higher than the listed price online.

If you looked at in on the web and saw that it was in stock, it also had a “buy online and pick up at X store” button on the results page online, which is both more convenient and avoids the problem you relate (they've had that feature for years, and I just tested and it's still there now.)

The in store price is probably higher because people coming in, going through the stacks and de-merchandising books, asking questions, etc., cost more to service, and would be even more unsustainably unprofitable if online prices, which are for sales that don't have those costs associated were charged (meanwhile, online sales would be uncompetitive if in-store prices were charged.)

Re: Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

#88

Post by seanmcdirmid »

Donald wrote: post #18
whalesalad wrote: post #7

TIL Barnes and Noble still exists. I haven't seen one in what feels like a decade.

B&N is surprisingly one of the few private establishments available in the US for the simple pleasure of going in for a nice sit without feeling an obligation to purchase something. Would be a shame to see them go.

Amazon's smaller mall bookstores feel the same way if you have kids. Heck, they even have less toys, which is useful when kid wrangling (the last time I went to B&N, I couldn't get my toddler out of hte book section).

Re: Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

#89

Post by dragonwriter »

midnightclubbed wrote: post #45
abdullahkhalids wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's confusing? Shipping a book from a warehouse is cheaper and maintaining a website is cheaper than setting up and selling from a physical store. If I order a book online, I don't want to subsidize the walk in customers.

What makes it confusing is that you can check local store inventory online, order online at the online price and pickup in an hour from the store. However if you grab the book yourself from the physical store and save them a step, they absolutely won’t honor the online price. You have to order online and wait an hour while they take the book off the shelf for you. Or you get exasperated with the ridiculousness of the…

> However if you grab the book yourself from the physical store and save them a step

The average customer gettibg the book themselves rather than ordering it and picking up at the counter is imposing more cost (and that's even more true of the average in-store customer, who probably hasn't searched online for a particular title and checked inventory and then decided not to do online purchase and pickup; by doing that you are making yourself indistinguishable, from a pricing policy perspective, from a much more expensive to serve class of customer.)

Re: Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

#90

Post by saalweachter »

vkou wrote: post #16
garren wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the very least, maybe it turns back into a bookstore rather than a cafe/book/music/board game/toy store. It's the board games, comic/anime figurines, and kitchy junk (e.g., polaroid cameras, overpriced drawing and writing kits, etc.) that make me feel like they've kind of lost their way.

The board games, figurines, and the kitchy, disposable crap is what keeps them in business. The margins on those items are much higher then on books, and they sell faster than any random book on their shelves. Source: My wife worked at Half-Price Books (Which is doing a bit better than B&N atm) for a few years. It also had multiple shelves of disposable crap, that made them a lot of money.

Frankly B&N is one of the better toy stores in some areas.
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