141–150 of 197 posts
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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.
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…
People are usually prepared to pay a bit more to get something right away vs. in a few days. It works out great (usually) for the impatient, but terribly for the patient that are aware of their options.
It's not like you're going to die if you don't get the book you want in 2 days, or even 3-7 business days. (Not that I buy physical books anymore typically, but it applies to other items)
People have just grown very impatient over time. I found myself getting annoyed that I wasn't receiving some items in 1 day (in Korea), until I reflected on what I actually was getting annoyed over.
Personally I find myself buying things on amazon or gmarket simply to avoid having to drive to the store.
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…
It actually costs them a ton of money to physically label the prices on each book. B&N adds their own sticker over the top of the MSRP when they receive the book. Changing the sticker every time the online price is changed would cost them a small fortune. If you're ever wondering why the online price differs from the in-store price by a significant amount, usually it's not because the retailer is trying to gouge you.…
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Crazy idea in alternate universe... Turn all Barnes & Nobles into libraries.
Actual idea: Treat your local bookstore like a library. They don't care if you read their books as long as you stay in store and are respectful. Plus they have actual up to date selection with no waiting list for new releases. And spending money at the cafe is probably higher margin for them anyway.
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This depresses me. One of the reasons I don't like B&N is because I feel it's a store no longer dedicated to books. They have books, but it's also a gift store, a toy store, and a stationery store. From just my estimate, I feel about 40 percent of its floor-space is for non-book items. Another book chain in Canada, Indigo Books, operates similarly. I think the last bastions for book-lovers are used bookstores. Also,…
I once went to Dussmann in Berlin ( https://www.kulturkaufhaus.de ). IMO, this is what a modern bookstore should be like.
That said, I still loved the incredible bookstore, and the co-located English store. Not to mention the huge vertical garden, with some 600 plant species. Definitely worth visiting, whether you're a bibliophile, or not.
TIL Barnes and Noble still exists. I haven't seen one in what feels like a decade.
They are pretty big stores, on par with anchor department stores.
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Because you don't want to reward bald-faced manipulation. It's not about saving two dollars.
What do you call the manipulation that amazon does then?
I don’t like a company that sometimes squeezes and sometimes caresses.
So, before we doom and gloom about B&N, it's important to remember that independent bookstores are doing great! https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/why-independent-bookstores-haved-... So why is Barnes and Nobles struggling? A couple of important points: Their inventory and footprint IS HUGE. Large inventory with low turnover is a margin-killer in retail. And I doubt they make much money off the books in their shelves - real…
In the long run, most book stores are doomed. There's no way around it no matter how nostalgic some are for physical books - the medium is an obsolete novelty with the advent of smartphones/tablets. Some book stores will remain but it'll be a niche thing like vinyl records and horseback riding.
Physical books have been with us much longer, culturally speaking, than vinyl records were. We're talking millennia. It's going to take much more than the iPad to kill them off.
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I once went to Dussmann in Berlin ( https://www.kulturkaufhaus.de ). IMO, this is what a modern bookstore should be like.
C'mon, that's too high a bar. I was there a few months ago (went twice in a week and spent some non-trivial time). While, Dussman has unparalleled selection of books (it's a 4-storied bookstore after all), they are also a gargantuan gift store (the 5th floor, and throughout the other floors). They have a dizzying array of expensive crap to lure consumers. I was there in November, and by Jove , was it teeming with sho…
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It actually costs them a ton of money to physically label the prices on each book. B&N adds their own sticker over the top of the MSRP when they receive the book. Changing the sticker every time the online price is changed would cost them a small fortune. If you're ever wondering why the online price differs from the in-store price by a significant amount, usually it's not because the retailer is trying to gouge you.…
Half price books has solved this in a rather ingenious way: they just sell the book for half of what the MSRP is on the cover. No need to tag anything, decent markup, and the price data is already there/doesn’t need to be created. It’s little efficiencies like this that make HPB one of the most successful brick and mortar bookstores out there.