41–50 of 58 posts
In the movies, the (thinly veiled) B&N is the big bad and it examines just why that is and sort of why people were so against it for what now seems like stupid reasons:
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is true for you and other discerning readers. A lot of people just want the new Jack Reacher. I doubt there is enough volume or profitability here but who knows. Interestingly, the only department to actually make money in B&N in the last few years, is the board game section. I think this is how they win. Being more of a general edutainment destination and focusing on kids stuff. 6 page kids picture books cost $…
> This is true for you and other discerning readers. A lot of people just want the new Jack Reacher. I don't know what the experience is in the US, but in the UK, Waterstones' insight has been that it's not worth competing for those customers. They'll just buy the new Jack Reacher from a supermarket or, at best, WH Smiths (the stationery store). To be price-competitive with the supermarkets, you have to discount so h…
The latest episode of the "Decoder Ring" podcast is about the rise and fall of indie booksellers + Barnes and Noble in NYC through the lens of "The Shop Around the Corner" and "You've Got Mail". In the movies, the (thinly veiled) B&N is the big bad and it examines just why that is and sort of why people were so against it for what now seems like stupid reasons: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decoder-ring/
https://slate.com/podcasts/decoder-ring/2020/03/youve-got-ma...
The key is curation. Walk into a book store and look around. From different points in the bookstore count how many titles you can see. Which titles can you see entirely and which can you only see the spine of? Count them. Now go to Amazon.com and perform the same experience. Count how many titles you can view at any given time. 10? I buy and read a lot of books. What makes a good bookstore stand out is its selection.…
When I lend or trade a book with a friend, it's a transaction using those same fragments of our souls and we grow slightly closer. We now have a shared experience in those books and each understand each other's view of the world a little better.
Reading might be a largely solitary experience, but the passing of a book from one pair of hands to another achieves a communication far beyond reading a review or even a personal recommendation. Somehow the mass of the book itself carries with it a greater weight to the recommendation.
The key is curation. Walk into a book store and look around. From different points in the bookstore count how many titles you can see. Which titles can you see entirely and which can you only see the spine of? Count them. Now go to Amazon.com and perform the same experience. Count how many titles you can view at any given time. 10? I buy and read a lot of books. What makes a good bookstore stand out is its selection.…
Maybe, Amazon is better at it than you may think, and you are in fact, judging books by their cover.
Along the same lines, app icons are a fantastic way of judging whether an app is worth downloading from the the play store. Crappy icons pretty much always indicate a crappy app, in my experience, and can immediately be rejected. A polished icon doesn't necessarily mean the app is good though, just that it's worth taking a closer look at.
We have one large B&N in town - diverse selection of books and mags, clean, and a sizable quasi-Starbucks cafe with tons of power outlets. I really enjoy it, and frankly compared to our indie bookshops, I prefer it - its volume, sterility, service and anonymity combined with familiarity and an unpretentious attitude. I don't need to see the same homely indie bookmonger making eye contact with me every time I walk in…
> with their expectations and shawls This is the most beautiful neutral-yet-poignant description of a bookstore clerk I have ever read. I'm still laughing about it.
In the last year or two I've decided B&N is done (caveat, sample size of one). Watching it through the years it has been clear that it was on a downward descent, but lately it looks like they've given up, again maybe only my location. 20-25 years ago, B&N was packed end to end with books. Books were spine out unless they were popular and trying to draw someone in. Coffee table books were limited to a rack or two of s…
Once they fired most of their experienced help, the experience went downhill. Including bad placement of books, empty shelves, squandered opportunities to turn the ex-nook section into a showcase etc. When you get rid of your enthusiastic, experienced employees and go to minimum-wage 'whatever' employees, that happens.
I know carrying inventory is expensive. But old inventory in a bookstore should almost be considered a marketing/advertising cost. There will be a reason to browse and stay. The store will smell like a bookstore.
The discovery process at B&N is minimal and sometimes worse than Amazon. At least with Amazon, I get the "people who bought this also bought this". Especially when dealing with a series, it makes a lot of sense. The "people who looked at this also looked at that" suggestions are great when comparing which book of non-fiction to get.
Going to B&N and trying to buy a specific book in a series is pure frustration. More people read the first book, so it's commonly not in stock. Or the series isn't popular enough and the subsequent volumes aren't available.
Really, I want them to do well. I tell my kids about the golden age of big bookstores where there were books and books and books. I try to buy things where I discover them, even if that makes them more expensive because I want the ability to discover things to stick around.
I don't get the point of book stores when there's libraries. My local library let's me reserve books online, and if they don't have a book, they usually have it at another library in the county and will ship it to my local library and hold it for me. And this all costs me $0 (yeah, okay, taxes, but you know what I mean)
If there were no outlet to purchase books, very few people would want to write books because libraries couldn't replace the revenue stream from booksellers.
Libraries benefit from booksellers and vice versa.
background: I'm the partner of a librarian who's also a writer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is true for you and other discerning readers. A lot of people just want the new Jack Reacher. I doubt there is enough volume or profitability here but who knows. Interestingly, the only department to actually make money in B&N in the last few years, is the board game section. I think this is how they win. Being more of a general edutainment destination and focusing on kids stuff. 6 page kids picture books cost $…
Very interesting point about board games. Thanks. I worked at Starbucks in Store Planning while they were trying to figure out how to makes their stores be a "third place" (early 1990s). Small stages for unplugged sets. Fire places. Big tables for study groups. I'm just a computer guy, but I always felt Starbuck's merchandising strategy sabotaged those efforts. WotC had great success for a short while as board gaming…
It's a bit like that with my favorite indie bookstore, too. It's a haul for me to get there, but still occasionally schlep myself over there when I have an afternoon to myself, because I enjoy the experience of buying a new book and then sitting down to start reading it over a glass of wine in their café.
B&N could be that now, but they would need to spruce up their café. As it is, it's like an airport coffee shop, only even more unpleasant.