Yeah that was gut wrenching. I'll be a typical HN reader, however, and point out this

> B&N is the last thing standing between Amazon and a total monopoly of the publishing industry

This is total hyperbole. There are plenty of publishers and book stores with online store fronts. When you shop there instead of Amazon, a greater portion of your contribution supports the authors and editors. And as always, once B&N closes up for good, we will see a resurgence of local booksellers, anecdotally I already see it happening in my town. In a lot of ways, your local coffeeshops have also turned into mini bookstores as well, we could see this niche expand.

When you say you see it happening in your town, are you referring to an urban or suburban area? Not trying to contradict you here, just legitimately curious. I would think more of the local coffee shop customer would go to this sort of place rather than a Starbucks customer, if I had to guess.

It's a fair question -- I live in a suburban town, but I spend a lot of time in the urban center. Thinking of it from this perspective I would say the local bookstore revival is coming to the suburbs, and the coffeeshop quasi bookstore trend is more urban.

If one were smart, that would be the obvious chink in Starbuck's business model: create a chain of neighborhood-aware, individualized, community-focused coffee shops / bookstores / office-lite / meeting place.

Essentially blend Starbucks, WeWork, Half-Priced Books, FedEx Print & Ship with hyperlocal zine creation and publishing. Offer logistics support and deals to franchisees, then let them be unique.

Starbucks wouldn't be able to compete, because they've essentially defined themselves as "We're the same, wherever you go." Your moat would be the social integration of place and community. And you'd actually be inspiring local creation instead of corporate consumption.

Call it 'Nubucks', slap a shoe logo on there, and make a billion dollars and a better country.

Something like that yes, but they would be high price because supporting corporate overhead requires high margins

Holy moly! Well, that's a different narrative than I suspected...

Thanks for sharing this. Definitely the glimpse you don't see in the business section, but the result of corporations that solely answer to shareholders.

Yup, they're starting to kill off the CBDM positions as well. No severance either...