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NEWS: Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Proxy Battle




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Dark Elf Warrior



Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Posts: 228
PostPosted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:15 pm Reply with quote
Barnes and Noble is being put up for sale? Does this mean it will still be a bookstore? And if so, will they still carry the Barnes and Noble Classics series? I shop at Borders too, but that doesn't mean I want anything to happen to Barnes and Noble either.
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Ashen Phoenix



Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 2940
PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:02 am Reply with quote
Dark Elf Warrior wrote:
Barnes and Noble is being put up for sale? Does this mean it will still be a bookstore? And if so, will they still carry the Barnes and Noble Classics series? I shop at Borders too, but that doesn't mean I want anything to happen to Barnes and Noble either.

Same here, comrade. Took the words right out of my mouth. Sad
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Baltimoron



Joined: 17 Sep 2009
Posts: 43
Location: Charm City
PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:57 am Reply with quote
Dark Elf Warrior wrote:
Barnes and Noble is being put up for sale? Does this mean it will still be a bookstore? And if so, will they still carry the Barnes and Noble Classics series? I shop at Borders too, but that doesn't mean I want anything to happen to Barnes and Noble either.


Yes and likely yes. All brick-and-mortar bookstores are currently suffering, but Barnes and Noble is still making money. The chain "putting itself up for sale" really means that a group of investors will take over controlling interest and then buy out every other shareholder. It's a move to save money by no longer having to pay out dividends. Nobody can predict the inventory changes the new management will affect, but it's a safe bet that the B&N Classics series will stick around. Printing titles that are in the public domain has been a money-making strategy for book publishers for decades.

The bad news for you is that Borders is hemorrhaging money and is quite possibly not long for this world. They've been announcing new rounds of lay-offs every few months and managers no longer appear to have the labor budgets required to replace workers who quit or provide incentives for employees to stay. Anecdotal, of course, but the Borders I frequent looks to have about half of the crew complement it was operating with two years ago.
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agila61



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 3213
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:22 pm Reply with quote
Rocket Bomber had an excellent post about this. Explains a lot, I reckon.
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PetrifiedJello



Joined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 3782
PostPosted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:32 pm Reply with quote
History does, indeed, repeat itself. It's like watching people fight over the ownership of record stores.

Quote:
...but that doesn't mean I want anything to happen to Barnes and Noble either.

I'm sure many feel this way, but one of them has to go. They're selling pretty much the same thing while competing with each other in a shrinking market.

The only thing missing is the "Bridge Out! Stop!" cartoon featuring two cars racing past the sign.
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