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

Post by TheOtherHobbes » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:29 AM UTC

kabdib wrote: post #122

drewg123 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same experience. One of the main reasons I went to B&N was to look at the new books. Now that they are hidden, there is little point to going in there. I asked a manager about it, and they told me it was a corporate directive.

Borders did the same re-arrangement about a year before they went under. There used to be a half-bookshelf or so of "released this week" titles where any regular customer could walk in and immediately see and grab a new book by a favorite author, or maybe a new book by an unfamiliar author. Nope, you had to search the whole section. I really wonder if these corporate directives are made by people who like bookstores,…

Post by kgwgk » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:55 AM UTC

jschwartzi wrote: post #108

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…

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.…

Post by aasasd » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 9:08 AM UTC

omnimus wrote: post #150

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Selling books for half does not sound lik "decent" markup lol.

Post by mikestew » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 9:49 AM UTC

MR4D wrote: post #10

Thank god. Their website is so bad that it’s almost like they are trying not to sells books. Last week I had a gift card for BN that I needed to use, and tried to buy an audiobook on bn.com from my iPhone. It was damn near impossible to find anything and I still don’t know how to search for an audiobook. Such a shame, as I used to love their physical stores. Hopefully these folks will do a much better job.

Post by kortilla » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 9:54 AM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #79

dymk wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually not - if a competitor thinks it can sell more widgets at a lower price and make it up in the increase volume, they will lower the price. If that's the price which maximizes revenue for them, they'll leave it. It's straight forward supply and demand.

I agree it’s anti-consumer in some significant ways. I think of it as not competing as vigorously as you could on price, by publicizing that for the consumers who are willing to do extra work, that you’ll eventually honor the best price they found at a qualifying competitor, but that you’re not going to be the one who initiates the first salvo in the price war.