181–190 of 197 posts
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For some kinds of retail businesses I do expect one price independent of the location within the country. Not for groceries, of course, but I do expect consistent pricing in Zara or Ikea.
I see no reason to expect people in lower cost locales to subsidize people in higher cost locales.
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I see no reason to expect people in lower cost locales to subsidize people in higher cost locales.
Companies that apply a nation-wide pricing scheme do see a reason, I guess.
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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.
That used to be more of a thing in the 1990s. The big chains used to have lots of seating, even sofas, and as a fast reader who can read a typical 300 page book in a couple of hours, I used to spend most of my weekends reading books for free in big bookstores. They've wised up. There isn't a lot of seating these days.
Edit: I guess I should also mention that ours was a Borders and then after they went out of business it reopened as a Books-A-Million maybe a year later. I think it was something else before it was Borders, but that was before my time.
I bought a lot of books from fictonwise because it was only store that sold them to Brazilians. BN then bought them and put a rule where you can only download those books, even though you bought them, of you are physically inside USA
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probably spent $2 in gas too... but sometimes it's just principles.
Sunk cost fallacy? At the very least he learned to not bother going to that bookstore for future purchases.
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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.
https://help.barnesandnoble.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3265...
Beyond that, the in-store price is considered to be the “normal” pricing. You are getting a discount on the website.
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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.
They made it a little too comfortable. I'd remember their cafe would have students sitting there studying or reading store books for hours. Meanwhile customers ordering food would have no space to sit down and eat. At some point they sold those cafe to a third party which modified the layout so tables were tall and narrow so less comfortable for studying.
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…
>I suspect they will switch over to a more curated model (like AmazonBooks) - basically only new and select books. Smaller store, less footprint, and less product to buy and eat costs on. And then they can compete on costs more. That's understandable, but a bit of a bummer. Part of the joy of B&N is being able to just go and browse --finding something you didn't know you were looking for. With it downsized, I imagine…
I feel this is less likely to be a valid business strategy since 2013.
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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.
This common prediction has not at all been borne out by facts. Physical books still remain popular -- maybe not as popular as thirty years ago, but there's a lot of reasons why that would be the case (general availability of entertainment from competing media). Most importantly, there was a 2017 study that showed that young children prefer reading physical books to reading books electronically. Physical books have be…
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> It's important to remember that independent bookstores are doing great! The independent stores that you think are doing great are not what many fans of independent bookshops are thinking of by the words “independent bookstores”. I fondly look back on certain 1990s independent bookshops that had enormous stock, and books were all they sold. But these days, many independent bookshops have trimmed their book inventori…
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,…