The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble

Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by emodendroket on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:08PM (#16389784)

You don't think there is space in the United States' market for even a single major brick-and-mortar retailer of books? I find that pretty hard to believe.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by sanderjd on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:20PM (#16389834)

I love wandering around in my local B&N and in my local independent bookstore, but I don't find it at all hard to believe that this sort of thing is a small niche that is not sustainable in the long run. I find it harder to believe that you find this hard to believe.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by Digory on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:30PM (#16389876)

If there is such space, it will have to be run by kiosk and a few minimum wage employees.

B&N's 'competitive advantage' today is not experienced staff. I can't ever recall an employee up-selling significant amounts of merchandise, or having a customer relationship that might move a needle.

Like Sears, it has real estate and a terrible retail position. If you treat the stores like mini-warehouses, with Amazon-warehouse-worker-hours, it might work. My guess is that failing to staff-up for the holidays was, seen charitably, a way to get the full-timers through the holidays.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by emodendroket on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:33PM (#16389884)

> If there is such space, it will have to be run by kiosk and a few minimum wage employees.

I don't think so. Outside of the airport that's not useful to anyone. At that rate you can just go to the section where they have bestsellers at Costco or Walmart. A bookstore with no selection is practically pointless.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by Digory on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:54PM (#16389968)

No, kiosk-based service, not kiosk-sized stores. You want a big selection, but software or other merchandising helping customers locate things and up-sell.

Target has more merchandise than B&N, but there's no career employee on the floor to suggest that you might like Mossimo if you bought Merona.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by ams6110 on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:18PM (#16389825)

Not really. Not for the long term. Certain independents and specialty shops -- sure. We still have record stores here and there, but the big chains are all gone.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by emodendroket on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:21PM (#16389837)

Fye is still around.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by ams6110 on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:32PM (#16389882)

Never heard of 'em. Where I live, we used to have Musicland - gone. Sam Goody - Gone. Tower - Gone. Several other smaller shops -- all closed years ago. There's only one record store here, an independent dealing mostly in new and used vinyl.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by emodendroket on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:37PM (#16389902)

https://stores.fye.com/index.html

There are also various regional retailers.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by caymanjim on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:26PM (#16389859)

Sure, there's room. Amazon just opened a giant store right here in Manhattan. You can even ship your Amazon packages there, or pay for books online and pick them up on your way home from work. Plan on seeing more Amazon stores. They'll probably buy up a few B&N spaces.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by seanmcdirmid on Thursday February 15, 2018 @11:41PM (#16389917)

Many amazon stores are B. Dalton mall store sized, not B&N super store sized. It’s weird, because we are basically back to where we were before the super book stores.

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