Slashdot Mirror
The Slow Demise of Barnes & Noble (techcrunch.com)
John Biggs via TechCrunch reports of the slow demise of Barnes & Noble, which he has been chronicling for several years now. There have been many signs of trouble for the bookseller chain over the years, but none have been more apparent than the recent layoffs made earlier this week. From the report: On Monday the company laid off 1,800 people. This offered a cost savings of $40 million. [...] In fact, what B&N did was fire all full time employees at 781 stores. Further, the company laid off many shipping receivers around the holidays, resulting in bare shelves and a customer escape to Amazon. In December 2017, usually B&N's key month, sales dropped 6 percent to $953 million. Online sales fell 4.5 percent. It is important to note that when other big box retailers, namely Circuit City, went the route of firing all highly paid employees and bringing in minimum wage cashiers, stockers, and salespeople it signaled the beginning of the end.
I mean, who honestly thought putting the internet on dead trees would be something people would be interested in?
The expensive management that steered the ship into the rocks don't get cut: https://www1.salary.com/barnes...
I hate amazon. It's prevalence makes searching for other sellers harder. That said, B&N is no better.
Barnes and Nobles used to be the best book store. That is why it outlasted all the other big chains.
Now, when I go to a B&N, they give the same crappy service that the old chains do. They used to have a section for the new science fiction/fantasy books, not anymore. The new ones are shelved alphabetically. Same for Mysteries.
As for the Nook, they do stupid things like storing samples as if they were books. When you read a sample, no link to buy the book (let alone opening the new book to the end of the sample and deleting the sample).
Their service has gone down hill. They decided to try and out-cheap Amazon. They failed.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
People who deny the creative destruction feature of capitalism rail against Adam Smith as if they had read him. They are liars and they know it.
is it should have called its tablet the Nookie, with pr0n doors.
I thought they had saved themselves with the Nook (unlike Borders). But their business model is fundamentally flawed; you can't compete with Amazon prices while paying high-end department store lease costs! In December, it looked like they were trying to be a toy store to bring margins up, but that didn't work for them either (and Toy-R-Us is going out of business too.) Can anybody compete with Amazon?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
B&N sells the books for list price, which is typically 50% over Amazon. That’s too damn much, physical store or not.
And yet you don't see the irony as well as the flaw in blaming brick and mortar when you see Amazon jumping into the same.
As somebody in successful, growing retail, I'm shocked at how management at so many big retailers make such bad decisions. Almost universally, they react to increased competition by cutting costs. They make a short term gain at the expense of the company. Almost every major, national retailer has, or is in the process of doing this. We went the other way, and we're competing just fine.
I don't respond to AC's.
There is something pleasing about being able to walk into a Barnes and Noble and look through physical books. Pick them up, leaf through them and make a purchase decision. Back when it was a war between Borders and B&N, B&N won handily with its quieter, classier atmosphere. HOWEVER - their pricing model is all kinds of messed up. They will not honor their internet price at their stores for local pickup. In this day and age, that is ass-backwards. To maintain relevance, they absolutely need to maintain price competitiveness. If they lose the retail locations and become and online-only operation, they as a company are dead. Amazon will eat them alive.
There's so many books that they can only possibly stock a tiny percentage of them in the store. Unless I'm going to by some just out best-seller, it's unlikely the book I want is going to be there.
Sure I could order it, but then why not just order from Amazon? It takes the same amount of time to arrive at that point and I saved myself two trips to the mall.
If brick and mortar book stars were going to survive, the needed to switch over to some sort of print on demand system like the Espresso Book Machine that could spit out any book a customer might want in an hour.
Providing good books at very low prices makes for a boom. Providing good books for high prices ensures failure. This happens all across all elements of the economy. Inflation is one issue and greed is a real kicker. For example anyone that can make a really good mid size motorcycle will earn billions if the machine is $1500 new out the door. Build a similar machine at $18,000 and you will struggle to stay alive. Many items would be more of a profit if it were simply much less expensive.
Our local B&N has had really good customer service for years. It's a shame we wont see the same familiar faces anymore. The store has always been well kept with good and relevant displays. The kid programs and activities are always on point too.
So sad.
...have libraries. Along with computers and scanners they will be able to preserve humankind's legacy.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
My son was looking for a new book, went in and got him Hitchhikers Guide. Brought it to the checkout, $16???? for a 150 page book?
Who go to the store, browse the stacks and find the book they want, then order it from Amazon.
These people are the reason B&N will go out of business. And when that happens, you bet that Jeff Bezos will immediately cancel most of the discounts on books, just like he did for music CDs after Tower Records and HMV shut down. Amazon is great competitor, but they are not anybody's friend.
Don't forget to say "vinyl is dead" while you have your crystal ball out.
Much like Sears, B&N has been a walking zombie for way too long.
- Prices too high
- Selection/choice too minimal
- Customer communication/experience continually degraded
- Not really that much faster than ordering books same-day/overnight, don't have to find book in store or wait in line
- Switch to online books was too little, too late
Could B&N have saved itself? Sure. But, they kept pigeon holing themselves as a retailer and not a solution provider. The only real reason to keep going to a physical bookstore is the experience. B&N needed to do more to partner with starbucks, libraries, post offices, etc to integrate themselves into town centers rather than stand-alone mall shops. They needed to be able to print out books onsite ondemand. They needed to have more staff with real knowledge about the books they sell. And, they needed to do more to make their customers feel special and stay in regular contact.
B&N thought they could survive by just being a low-cost retailer. That was always doomed to failure.
There is one near my work. I go there to browse at least once a week. If they all close it would suck.
First, they fired a whole bunch of the warehouse and delivery types, deliberately sinking the lucrative holiday season with empty shelves.
Then, "in response" to the massive loss of profit, they fire everyone making an actual - if meager - living from the stores.
Not only is this blatant sabotage, but chances are those responsible are giving themselves large bonuses for having successfully fucked over workers and communities.
How are these execs not impaled and on fire with their families for this? What the hell is wrong with us to simply let this shit go unpunished?
What is happening with retail outlets isn't a problem with online sellers, it is a problem with the profits being made by the real estate industry and commercial leasing. Lease costs should be GOING DOWN because demand is going down for commercial leases, but they aren't for big corporate chains like bookstores. Real estate owners don't want revenue to go down, so they put their head in the sand. What is going to happen with all that empty real estate? It is going to rot and fester -- the market can only support so many P. F. Chang's and other big restaurant experiences, because people can buy anything that isn't a service-oriented product online for a lower cost.
So what will happen when Amazon become a monopoly for manufactured products? It looks like a total market collapse.
Amazon is doing to Big Box what Big Box did to Mom & Pop. Funny; now Mom & Pops - with service - is on the rise. -T
I suggest B. Dalton or Waldenbooks. I hear Borders is alright, too.
.. but probably will.
Couple of points:
Independent book stores can do well, Amazon or not. They can do very well indeed if they serve the local community, if they are book lovers/book worms (at least to some reasonable degree) and not just mere brainless peddlers of books. You don't need a large inventory to make this a good experience. Provide a good user/customer experience, add value. Don't sell candles. I actually think good board games are ok, but then know your games, too.
Go, for example, to the Book People in Austin, Texas, in the U.S. (hey, this is slashdot, stop by when you go to SXS next time). It's actually a rather large store, by square footage, but the number of different books is not all that large by comparison. A fair percentage of the books there have been read by staff and they talk about these books. Lot's of hand-written cards telling you about the books, and all those books they recommend/have read are displayed with their front page, not their spines. In fact, I'd say that close to 1/2 their display space shows the fronts of books on the shelves, not their spines. Tells you how many fewer books per linear yard of shelf space they present. You'll find a good book every time you go. I do. (I don't live there, but I visit the store when I do go.). I know, this is Austin, and Austin is weird. Still, loose the pink hair and some of your tattoos/piercing, and this works wherever you want this to work.
In Germany one of the most well-known chains (Hugendubel) went almost bankrupt when they went the way of B&N (or more precisely, Borders). The next generation took over the leadership of the chain, and it now looks like they will actually make it and do well again. Why? Store respond to the local needs, stores got more independence, they started selling books knowledgeably again, in fact, they make their new stores smaller again (you guessed it, fewer candles, cards and videos), etc. etc. Yes, they all have a café now (why not??), which they own and operate (no chain Joe there).
Same with Blackwell in the UK. Although the Oxford store is crazy large and friggin' amazing ... Same problems here not too long ago, and a very similar solution. Amazon does not need to kill your business. But you *do* need to adapt.
But people are right: if management sucks, they will take the business down sooner or later. Which is why B&N may well die –or rediscover its roots in NYC. We shall see, I wish them luck. I hope they reinvent themselves, which they can if they fire management and hire people who really *want* to sell books the right way.
BTW, I always laugh at all the comments about Amazon. Don't get me wrong, they are too large, the know too much, they suck in many parts, yada yada yada. All true. Nonetheless, we buy a lot at Amazon. When do we do it? The price has to be right, it has to be much easier than to drive around town to get the item I need, and there is no need whatsoever that I inspect/try on/evaluate the item in person before I buy it. Which is one of the reasons why I basically stopped buying books at Amazon. They treat books like crap. Books arrive damaged so often that it is not funny. On top of that, Amazon has stopped being all that cheap to begin with. No books, no electronics, no clothing (God no!), no groceries (sorry, that's just plain silly), and many others. Nice to have Amazon if you break a leg, though. I often wind up at specialty retailers (brick and mortar or online) instead. I go window shopping at Amazon a lot and then buy elsewhere (the reverse of what many stores complain about ...). And yes, you can do this anonymously if you care to, even if that means you get a different price than the next Jane doing it – but that is true no matter what you do. Amazon games us. Game back as much as you can.
On a side: if Amazon deploys high end AI to make shopping recommendations to me, I'd rather rely on the stray cat my partner feeds outside at the moment. Can't be worse than what the cat picks. Amazon's recommendations are just so utterly, utterly useless.
If you are a nerd/engineer, it *is* fun to see the tech of their delivery chain in the warehouses.
Do your own thing. And overdo it!
Last December, shortly before Christmas, I tried to negotiate a large (in-store) book purchase at my local Barnes & Noble. (I live in Huntsville, Alabama USA.) This is what happened.
Tonight I was in my local Barnes & Noble store redeeming another discount store coupon. I asked to speak with the store manager. I told him I currently have ten books on my "To Buy Next" list which (I estimated) would cost in the neighborhood of $175 to $200 - if I paid full price for all ten books. I asked the manager: "What kind of discount could you give me if I agreed to buy all ten books simultaneously?" I was expecting him to say something along the lines of: "We can give you a 20 percent discount - if you agree to buy all ten." (I would follow that up by replying: "OK, that sounds good. Will you also waive shipping costs?") To my utter amazement the store manager replied: "We can't do that." Brief pause ... "If you were buying 50 copies of the same book, we could give you a discount, but not for ten different books." And that was that. Realizing that the store manager's hands were tied - such decisions are probably made at the highest levels of Barnes & Noble management up in New York - I shrugged my shoulders and walked away.
I'm going to contact Amazon.com and make them the same offer. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Bezos recognizes my offer as an opportunity to excel.
Post Script: Jeff Bezos did excel. When I emailed a copy of the above to Amazon.com customer assistance - I've had an account with Amazon since 1998 - they responded with an immediate (substantial) "purchase incentive" on my next order. I placed an immediate order and will be placing another [large] order, (i.e. 10-20 books), in the next few weeks.
I'm really not much of a book buyer or reader, so I guess you could say I'm not the B&N target market anyway. Except I've had occasion to go in there for various things, including buying childrens' books as gifts for an employee's baby shower and a search, a while back, for what I thought was a real simple item; a loop to stick on a surface to act as a pen-holder.
That pen-holder search was a huge fiasco.... Found the product I wanted on the B&N web site and it indicated my local store had it in stock. So I walked down there on my lunch break. Couldn't find it anyplace in the store, since small "odds and ends" like that were just randomly scattered throughout the store, positioned here and there between rows of books on shelves. I asked for assistance, and was first told they didn't have the item in stock at all. I pulled out my phone and showed them their own web page that said they did. Then I was told to come back in a couple hours, because they'd need some time to locate it for me.
At this point, I started regretting not just ordering one off Amazon to ship to me .... But I did go back hours later, to find they simply said they "had one someplace, but couldn't find it for me". I wound up getting one at an Office Depot store that weekend.
That's generally been my B&N experience. Stores are set up so they're enjoyable to browse around at random, but terrible if you go there on a mission to buy something specific (unless it's a book they're featuring prominently at that point in time).
Cross-posting from SoylentNews: https://soylentnews.org/commen... Hope someone will take these ideas up.
Physical bookstores are not innovating enough to compete with Amazon and subsidiaries (Audible, The Book Depository, etc). I worry sometimes - I like wandering in secondhand bookshops, and don't like how few there are left. I speak to people working in bookstores and there's really nothing planned, except for spinning up a website.
That won't work.
Amazon started with books because books are the ultimate fungible commodity. Each has an ISBN (instantly identifiable), each is equivalent to the other (unlike, say, fruit), there's little scope for fakes or adulteration (unlike jewellery), and the price points are right for moving significant volumes at low-risk. Selling on the web also adds value: a book is freeze-dried information anyway, so it's a natural fit for meta-information like reviews and recommendations. Putting a massive catalog online does not cost much in inventory, but it taps into a long, fat tail of all sorts of interests -- from game developers, to philosophers, to philosophical game developers -- all willing to wait a few days after purchase (or a few seconds, if using Kindle).
Physical bookstores must compete in cyberspace. However, cloning Amazon's infrastructure is the wrong approach. Instead, they must blend physical and virtual presence, so customers still find value in a physical store.
One way to do this is by turning stores into a federated hybrid marketplace.
Imagine this:
I walk into a book store. There's a book and a DVD box set tucked under my arm -- I bought these weeks or months ago and want to get rid of them. I walk up to an automated kiosk (in a low-tech scenario, I go to the cashier). It's something that resembles a reverse vending machine. and I scan my items. This machine has me quickly flip pages in my book to check its condition. It also has me insert the DVDs into a reader slot. Then it robot-wraps the products (shrink wrap, or cardboard mailer) and slots them into inventory. I walk away with a few dollars instantly available in my account. I'll be credited more 'on consignment', when the items sell.
I turn into the main store and walk the aisles. A book interests me in the Business section. I start browsing. I whip out my mobile and an app recognises the book, providing recommendations and reviews. A 'What's Related' gallery pops up related books. These are from the bookseller's extended catalog and the catalog of other booksellers this bookseller federates with. Now a different book has caught my fancy. This seems to cover the topic better. It has better, more passionate reviews. And there's a really good deal on a second-hand copy somebody deposited five minutes ago on the other side of the continent. Satisfied, I place the order. There's a bit of automated-haggling as my app negotiates the price range set by the seller, and with stores on both side of the continent. A couple of seconds, and the transaction closes successfully. My preferences request delivery to this store. I come here on weekends anyway; I'll pick it up when I'm in next, sit down on the sofa and have a read.
The cashier gives me a friendly wave. He saw the transaction go through -- I've known him a few years and my browse/buy settings are open to him. He'll probably be handing me the parcel next week (if I'm in during business hours; otherwise, it'll be the vending dispenser). We chat a bit -- turns out he's interested in the same topic. As I chat, I notice a pencil loop [amazon.com]. That'd be great for the notebook I always carry around. I purchase it and affix it to my notebook.
It's been a good day. I quite enjoyed that.
A decade ago B&N marketed an eReader that was ahead of anything else on the market. Amazon was a year away from anything close to competitive to the inexpensive almost tablet that was the Nook Color. But what did B&N management do; they locked it into only doing business with the "Nook Store" and prevented installing standard Android Apps. Sorry bubba, walled gardens get neglected and turn into weed lots. I did a lot of business with B&N until they became the more expensive with less service store.
NRRPT/RCT