The Barnes and Noble I used to go to all the time in Manhattan will be closing January 3rd. It's really sad. The economics are fairly straightforward: physica

The Barnes and Noble I used to go to all the time in Manhattan will be closing January 3rd. It's really sad. The economics are fairly straightforward: physical stores cannot compete with the internet for goods sold. However, I'd only buy something on perhaps one-fifth of my visits. What they really had was an atmosphere, and the coffeeshop / bookstore experience is something Amazon can never sell. They need to make a pivot into selling an experience, which is obviously harder to monetize than sold goods. But it's certainly possible (see: Starbucks) and it's something a lot of people are willing to pay for.