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Forum - View topicNEWS: Barnes & Noble CEO Resigns
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GeorgeC
Posts: 795 |
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... And the second quarter of the beginning of the end of Barnes & Noble commences.
Gee, it's beginning to sound an awful lot like the Borders story, isn't it? I give it 5 years, tops... Maybe as little as 2 or 3 years before B & N is totally cooked. The era of large megabookstore chains has been officially over for a while now. Too bad that the megastores (Barnes & Noble, Borders) and Amazon.com have decimated the traditional bookstore and smaller chains like Waldenbooks and B. Dalton. Smaller outlets and mall bookstores just don't exist anymore. Pretty soon, there'll just be a very few independent bookstores and large numbers of used bookstores and specialty secondhand/overstock stores like Half-Price Books. The market for new books that aren't on the New York Times bestseller list is getting smaller. I don't buy books like I used to and pretty much borrow from the library for most genres or do the e-Book loan route... A lot more people who still read are doing that, too. I somehow don't think we'll see a resurgence of books... Maybe limited releases like vinyl records but that's about it. The market for collectible limited edition books isn't going to disappear with the capacity for such huge profit margin. Beats me how very many people are going to make a good living off writing books anymore unless they have a captive audience (writing expensive, required textbooks for college courses) or are celebrities with fans that will buy just about anything they write. How they're going to get established without bookstores, a blazing loud website and some free samples I dunno. |
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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George, you're such an optimist. I think we are well into the end game for B&N. We have been since way before Borders went under. My wife was lamenting the absence of a in mall bookstore at the Florida Mall this past weekend. If there is a demand for such a store then eventually we will see something created to meet that demand. It won't look like a traditional book store, like as not a very limited stock of physical books and maybe a set of kiosks where you can buy & download eBooks. Low overhead and ease of use. Some chains like Books a Million, Hastings and Half Price Books will likely remain, possibly alongside a very much downsized B&N. For the record, the freestanding B&N at the Florida Mall has a Real Estate Leasing Agent sign in front of it advertising several thousands of square feet space available. I suspect that very busy location is due to close. Interesting times. Mark Gosdin |
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supercreep
 Posts: 526 |
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I expect the smaller Barnes and Noble stores to close up, but the larger ones to remain open. The one located in Union Square in NYC is always crowded, so I don't see that particular store going down unless they absolutely have to. I am an avid read, and I buy my books. I do, however, have a Kindle, and I buy the majority of my books for it.
I also love Barnes and Noble, and I do purchase things there from time to time. I hope that they're able to work something out to stay in operation, but my hopes aren't high. |
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Altacia
Posts: 286 |
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This makes me sad, I really love my B&N. *sighs* There's a group of regulars there that are nice to talk... For the past few months I've been expecting to see a "Store Closing" sign on the Hurstbourne location. Hasn't happened yet but... yea... 
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ZeetherKID77
 Posts: 982 |
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So this means we're going to lose more manga companies since Barnes & Noble is going to die? I don't want Kodansha or Yen or Seven Seas to get killed off because of yet another book chain being killed and their source of sales being cut off.
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mike.motaku
 Posts: 160 Location: Indiana |
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Couple this with Amazon announcing they are cutting discounts on books from some publishers and you begin to see the endgame of Amazon's strategy: eliminate the competition and then get rid of the discounts that put you on top.
Good times. The chain stores effectively killed independents by offering discounts the mom & pop stores could never compete with. Which got the independents labeled by some as rip-off artists trying to steal from their customers who could never see the difference between a multi-billion dollar chain store and one owned by a retiree getting by on a pension. Retail cost is how owners pay rent and their employees but that was never as important to the customer who wanted to pay $10 for a $35 book that cost the independent $20 to stock. |
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MrXarnus
Posts: 79 |
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Most of the losses were because of the Nook segment of the company, the bookstores and college stores were profitable.
The CEO is resigning because of the low Nook sales. (Source: IcV2) |
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TsukasaElkKite
 Posts: 4015 |
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Well ****.
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Tenbyakugon
 Posts: 797 Location: Ohio, United States |
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BAM's where it's at. Bye-bye B&N.
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victor viper
 Posts: 630 Location: The deep south |
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Well, that's not good.
I've said it before, but it bears repeating. For the life of me, I can't understand why BN has been so reluctant to change their business model. They're not going to stand toe to toe with Amazon and stay afloat by hoping enough people wander into the stores willing to pay full publisher price. If I were the new CEO, my plan for the company would be to do whatever it takes to get people in the door. Why not let customers order in stock items online (for the online price plus a nominal "picking fee" to reserve the items, say $1 or $1.50 per item), get them in store, and then offer a 15% discount on anything else they happen to buy in-store? Rain down coupons on the customers once you get them in-store to get them to return. Forget about this discount club nonsense; for people like me who are close to the breakeven point for the discount club, the uncertainty over whether your membership will be worthless when the store closes makes it a no-go. Like Books-A-Million has done with their 2nd and Charles stores, start offering a selection of used books in store; the margins are better, and not knowing what you might find used gets people in the store. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8501 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Call me a Luddite, but I blame digital "books", of which I have almost zero interest in. Either read a book or don't, a book has pages, a spine, the smell of fresh ink when you first open it, the feel of the paper stock, the heft. It's a tactile experience we're giving up for expedience. A book isn't just some 1s and 0s.
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Juno016
 Posts: 2425 |
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GUYS, GUYS, GUYS!!! HOLD UP!!! (and girls... sorry)
I was talking to the manager of the B&N closest to my house today. She said that the actual reason behind this is because, specifically, the production of Nooks is way too expensive and is a failed competition to the iPad and such, so the intent is for them to minimize losses by giving up on independent production of the Nooks and trying to maximize gains on actual purchases through the Nooks. The physical selling of books was profitable this past fiscal year and we don't need to worry at the moment about losing the physical book stores. It's not exactly great news, but at least those of us worried about physical books (and thus, the manga industry in the West) don't have to worry as much about it. Yet. |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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You know I still really like the physical bookstores and used to go to the few B&N stores around here, almost always ordering some Starbucks coffee while I browse the aisles. But I've stopped, because selection is limited and in-store prices suck.
Nook is a tough nut. It has advantage of being more open and their market policies uniquely non-restrictive regarding content, but it's hard to argue for a dedicated device at this point, with large smartphones and tablets. |
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phia_one
Posts: 1661 Location: Pennsylvania |
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I definitely agree with this. I can understand if someone is interested in an E-reader to save physical space but still... A few years ago, I would spend $100 almost every time I went to B&N. However, once I found Rightstuf, my manga purchases at B&N stopped. Not only that, but I don't feel inclined to read very many new releases that reviews gush over. The last few I read, I ended up returning because they just weren't very good. |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2034 |
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The economy is probably the biggest factor to blame, and also Amazon.com. While digital books will certainly be a factor in the future in some aspects (Magazines, maybe), it will never completely replace real, actual BOOKS that we've had for centuries and centuries. Count me in the group that strongly feels that you're not truly reading a book unless you're actually reading a book (where you have to open it, turn pages, and mark your place with a bookmark).
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