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A comment on The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble. Parent comment

Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by PaulHoule on Friday February 16, 2018 @09:22AM (#16392485)
When I've gone to Barnes and Noble recently, I've found editions of books in prominent places that were poorly printed. For instance, one hardcover with a fancy binding had very thin/transparent pages to the extent that the text was less legible. Don't get me started about the trade paperbacks that I suspect will have the binding break immediately.

I wonder if Barnes and Noble sells reduced quality books the same way that Wal*Mart gets brands to make cheaper but reduced quality versions of their products for their stores.

Either way it turns me off. They are pretty good at getting me into the store to use my laptop at the Starbucks or for when my son is doing a group project and the other students are meeting there -- only to immediately turn me off with inferior products.

As in the story above, bad experiences don't just cost a sale immediately, but they might cost all future sales from that customer.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by smelendez on Friday February 16, 2018 @11:26AM (#16393445)
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. I had the same experience and it made the store seem a bit scammy lately. A lot of the cheaply made books also seemed geared toward older people: they were either about the 1940s-1960s, or were the kinds of public domain classics a grandparent would buy a grandchild (Robinson Crusoe, The Arabian Knights) in outwardly fancy but actually poor quality editions.

It's especially a shame because Barnes & Noble classics editions from 10 or 15 years ago are actually very nice.

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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by smogcutter on Friday February 16, 2018 @12:45PM (#16394126)
Side note for those buying books for their grandchildren: Arabian Nights includes a great deal more sex than you might assume.
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Re:The unnecessary demise of Barnes and Noble by DaveWalk on Friday February 16, 2018 @04:15PM (#16396375)
Super interesting. For the bibliophiles out there, I wonder how bad this is getting industry-wide? Does it happen at indie book sellers, Wal Mart, and Amazon too?

Certainly I have put down books that were made way too cheaply, and I have impulse-purchased books that are exceptionally well-designed.

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