7 ms·

Ways to Save Barnes & Noble

32 points by replicatorblog 13y ago

aspensmonster 13y ago
How about: lower your prices. Seriously, have you been to a Barnes and Noble recently? If they have any hope of competing with Amazon, or even other local book stores, then the prices have to go down. Attempting to sell books at MSRP is a death sentence.
- UnoriginalGuy 13y ago
  That's a nice idea, but in reality a B&H branch has more overhead than an online bookstore. Rent, electricity, local taxes, cleaning, and even transport costs (e.g. moving books in and out of stores). So while I'm sure B&H could 1:1 match Amazon in prices, with Amazon's economies of scale, and the tax loopholes online retailers get, I highly doubt a B&H store could do it and still be profitable. So, yes, lower prices. Just give the books away. It will get people through the doors, no doubt, but they'll still go bankrupt.
  - nhangen 13y ago
    They'll need to do something. I typically go to B&N to beef up my Amazon wishlist. So they're paying all of that overhead to send customers to another marketplace.
  - chimeracoder 13y ago
    FYI, B&N is a bookstore - B&H is an electronics store run by Hasidic Jews: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%26H_Photo_Video http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%26H_Photo_Video :)
  - VLM 13y ago
    " more overhead than an online bookstore" So the TLDR is a B+M bookstore is fancier and more expensive than a typical amazon warehouse. I wonder if a "amazon warehouse"-like experience at a cheaper price would be workable for a bookseller. Probably still have some issues with lack of centralization. Oldest business trick in the book... instead of paying for labor, convince your customers its a privilege to donate their own labor... If you're telling yourself this sounds ridiculous, think about supermarkets and then consider Sams Club... Turns out lack of marble floor tiles is not much of an issue after all...
- kbd 13y ago
  Absolutely. Recently there was a book I wanted that a local Barnes & Noble actually had in stock. I was happy to go there to buy it, but not for a $15 premium verses Amazon (or bn.com!) That book was only $35 list price too. Being able to go and get something you want immediately – and happen to not want in eBook form – is worth some small premium, but not at nearly 100% markup vs your own online store.
ja27 13y ago
One that's not quite on their list is boardgames. B&N is pushing more of those for the higher margin, but they do little to nothing to get gamers into the store. They should be the ones partnering with Tabletop, not Target. Sponsor BoardGameGeek somehow. Host gaming meetup groups. Provide store copies of games for trial.
jinushaun 13y ago
These are awful tips and don't prevent the retail problem of showrooming. Even if BN is cheaper than Amazon, you can't beat the convenience of buying stuff from your laptop in bed. They need to draw people into their stores AND make them spend money. A lot of these tips are just about getting freeloader traffic.
- michaelfeathers 13y ago
  I think there is future in the showroom model, and not just for bookstores. To make it work, showrooms should rotate stock aggressively, to the point of moving in and out a tractor trailer a day. And, there should be dates on the displays to indicate how long they will be in the showroom. The stock would have to be compelling enough that you would tell your friends about it and they would visit. The showroom itself would have to be a spectacle. If anyone ever cracks same day delivery, it would align very well with this. Onsite fabrication would align well too.
VLM 13y ago
The only reason I currently go to B+N instead of paying much less for a better reviewed and larger selection of books on Amazon is I have no idea what to get someone as a gift. Other than gift shopping I have no idea why I'd sit in a car for 30 minutes when I can just open another webbrowser tab and get a better product, cheaper. The current organization by generic area of study does nothing for gift shopping. I need store categorization by stereotypical demographic group. "wife" or "tween boys" gift section. Maybe broken down by hobby, maybe not. Holiday and "event" selection. So... this is THE place to buy gifts made out of old fashioned ink and paper. Their biggest problem is lack of selection. Amazon is so much bigger, and about a half of the store floor space is already non-book (toys, board games, videos, CDs, coffee shop...) They may as well give it up and become a gift store for the small segment of the population which is not functionally illiterate. Coincidentally people who are literate tend to hang out with other people who are literate, and are usually in an economic class well above functional illiterates, so its probably a good demographic to market to. They can keep their chocolate bar selection, those are good gifts. Obviously the gift card and wrapping paper racks stay. Maybe old fashioned optical disks should be kept for awhile. The rest of the addon non-book stuff can be junked. Why would I want a coffee bar when I'm shopping for a kids b-day party gift? If you've ever been inside a "hallmark store" imagine that toned down a bit with a selection of "gift books". Bland generic popular inoffensive stuff for gifts; pretty much what they've already got. Another interesting idea is segmentation. So the general masses of the population have given up on physical trinkets and now go virtual. Selling physical CDs? In 2013? I haven't bought a physical CD at a retail store since the 90s. Well, that's OK. There's always going to be a small segment of the population who want physical stuff (aside from gifts, see above). They might increase profitability by intentionally shrinking, which is stereotypically unthinkable by the "drive it into the ground" types, but might be their best bet. As long as they don't make the big mistake of assuming 1:1 mapping between old people and luddites. The Venn diagram probably looks more like 100% of hoarders are physical buyers. Also probably lots of aspirational buyers; lots of travel guides sold, and "kids summer workbooks" and the like.
cs702 13y ago
The best response to this is probably Larry the Liquidator's speech to shareholders of New England Wire & Cable, Inc., a fictional company in the movie "Other People's Money"[1]: Amen, and amen, and amen. You'll have to forgive me, I'm not familiar with the local custom. Where I come from, you always say 'Amen' after you hear a prayer. Because that's what you just heard - a prayer. Where I come from, that particular prayer is called 'The Prayer for the Dead.' You just heard The Prayer for the Dead, my fellow stockholders, and you didn't say, 'Amen.' This company is dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here. It's too late for prayers. For even if the prayers were answered, and a miracle occurred, and the yen did this, and the dollar did that, and the infrastructure did the other thing, we would still be dead! You know why? Fiber optics. New technologies. Obsolescence. We're dead, alright. We're just not broke. And do you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow, but sure. You know, at one time, there must've been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I'll bet the last company around was the one that made the best god-damn buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company? You invested in a business and this business is dead. Let's have the intelligence, let's have the decency to sign the death certificate, collect the insurance, and invest in something with a future. 'Ah, but we can't,' goes the prayer. 'We can't because we have responsibility, a responsibility to our employees, to our community. What will happen to them?' I got two words for that - 'Who cares?' Care about them? Why? They didn't care about you. They sucked you dry. You have no responsibility to them. For the last ten years, this company bled your money. Did this community ever say, 'We know times are tough. We'll lower taxes, reduce water and sewer.' Check it out: You're paying twice what you did ten years ago. And our devoted employees, who have taken no increases for the past three years, are still making twice what they made ten years ago. And our stock - one-sixth of what it was ten years ago. 'Who cares?' I'll tell ya -- Me. I'm not your best friend. I'm your only friend. I don't make anything. I'm makin' you money. And lest we forget, that's the only reason any of you became stockholders in the first place. You wanna make money! You don't care if they manufacture wire and cable, fried chicken, or grow tangerines! You wanna make money! I'm the only friend you've got. I'm makin' you money. Take the money. Invest it somewhere else. Maybe, maybe you'll get lucky and it'll be used productively. And if it is, you'll create new jobs and provide a service for the economy and, God forbid, even make a few bucks for yourselves. And if anybody asks, tell 'em ya gave at the plant. And by the way, it pleases me that I'm called 'Larry the Liquidator.' You know why, fellow stockholders? Because at my funeral, you'll leave with a smile on your face and a few bucks in your pocket. Now that's a funeral worth having! -- [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102609/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102609/ -- a clip of the speech is currently available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62kxPyNZF3Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62kxPyNZF3Q
logn 13y ago
I think they just need to be a better bookstore. Think of Powell's in Portland OR. It's my favorite thing to do in that city and I barely ever buy/read paper books. They also have a building nearby the main one that sells only technical books. The reason I like shopping and buying books there is the sheer selection. Of course, their footprint is much larger than BN. But BN could raise funds to expand their stores slowly and see if it works. Powell's has several floors of books and are probably larger than many large libraries in big cities. Next to each new book they also stock used books of similar or the same titles. I just really enjoy the act of flipping through an entire book and then buying it on the spot. I don't think paging through the ToC in PDF form a la Amazon is that nice and I hate waiting for shipping. Plus, if on a technical book I'm going to spend $100 then I need to make sure for myself it's a decent reference. It's been painful to see BN push the Nook. And to see them try to be a coffee shop. And CD store. etc etc. For the size of their store, they have a remarkably small selection of books, and they're all high-priced... and they complain they can't sell many books. Sorry, when I walk in to the store and see 4 crappy books on CSS, 10 on HTML, 5 on Windows, and a smattering of others, I'm not that inspired. But in Powell's technical bookstore, when there's a whole aisle on Javascript, I get excited.
- rdouble 13y ago
  Barnes and Noble is an inconsistent experience. For example, at the Roseville, MN store, the technical book section is usually on par with, or sometimes even better than Powell's. However, almost everywhere else, even at other locations in MN, the stores mostly suck. There used to be a couple of great Barnes and Noble stores in Manhattan, but they have closed.
  - Refefer 13y ago
    I imagine that's greatly influenced by the purchasing habits of the local customers: in Gettysburg? Beef up the Historical section.
- SiVal 13y ago
  I remember when the Stanford Bookstore was the largest bookstore in the US west of the Mississippi by number of titles. It had a tremendous technical section, and all Silicon Valley engineers shopped there and at a few smaller technical bookstores like Stacey's. Stacey's and most of the others are gone, and Stanford gradually went from being a giant bookstore with a gifts nook to a giant gift shop with a book nook.
mratzloff 13y ago
I frequently shop at Barnes & Noble, and I have a membership. (There's one just down the street.) I like the experience of going to bookstores, so I consider whatever premium I pay a donation toward keeping that experience a few blocks away. In reality it is the equivalent of a small monthly fee.
- fargolime 13y ago
  Not to knock B&N but I figured they were on their last legs in my area when my public library started allowing coffee drinking. I have to pay the small monthly tax regardless, after all. I've had a good success rate finding current books I want at the library. When they don't have it I'll usually check the nearby B&N and pay the premium over Amazon.
chiph 13y ago
Why do I go to a B&N? Two reasons: I'm buying a gift and I want to browse the coffee-table books. Or I need something immediately for work or a project. So for me, #2 (tables, not shelves) and #7 (community franchising) would make the most sense.
mikeash 13y ago
These ideas are all contradictory. What a pointless article. Throw a bunch of random ideas in the air and see what sticks. If B&N fails, you can point to all the ideas they didn't follow and blame the failure on that. If B&N succeeds, you can point to the ideas they did follow (for these ideas cover the entire universe of possible action, so they will end up following some of them just by chance) and claim credit. Dumb.
- ExpiredLink 13y ago
  >These ideas are all contradictory. Yes. >What a pointless article. No, you missed the point.
  - mikeash 13y ago
    I don't suppose you'd care to tell me what point I supposedly missed? Because just telling me I missed the point without explaining is, well, pointless.
    - shirederby 13y ago
      > Over the past several days, commentators have burst forth with a cacophony of competing ideas for your revival. The following list contains some potentially promising options for you to consider:
      - mikeash 13y ago
        Which doesn't suddenly give it a point, that just shows they're aware of what they're doing. Spamming suggestions some of which they will fall into by chance is silly.
  - jessaustin 13y ago
    No, YOU missed the point: Throw a bunch of random ideas in the air and see what sticks. If B&N fails, you can point to all the ideas they didn't follow and blame the failure on that. That's all TFA is. Most of the "ideas" are so impractical they wouldn't work for a local mom-n-pop bookstore, let alone a giant chain like B&N. If any of these "experts" spent more than ten minutes on their idea I'll eat my hat.
Zigurd 13y ago
All retail faces this problem. B&N got their first, despite having diagnosed the problem early and made a try at a solution. They didn't execute that solution very well, which is why they still face the problem. The problem is: It's better to get almost anything delivered to you than to spend time and gas going to the store. On top of that the selection is better online. The pity is that bookstores have obvious attractions other than being a place to buy the fat end of the the very long tail of books. Nobodying is going to go to Sears to meet the washing machine designer, but they will go to B&N to meet an author. Nobody wants live music at the Home depot but at B&N, maybe. Nobody would go to a LAN party or board game night at the hardware store, but B&N? These might all fail, but B&N could have put up more of a fight: Kindle LAN party? Did they even try?
bruce511 13y ago
Is it only me that finds it deeply ironic that the company credited with closing a gazillion independent booksellers and round-the-corner bookshops, is currently at the receiving end of exactly the same market forces that it espoused during their demise? Perhaps the real question is not how to save Barnes and Noble, but rather why anyone wants to save them at all. I find it hard to see them cast as Meg Ryan opposite Amazonian Tom Hanks in the re-re-make of You've Got Mail. B&N were once fans of market forces, and the public's insatiable hunger for lower prices at any cost. Unfortunately, their discovering that economies Of scale are only on your side until someone else comes along who does it better. B&N are fundamentally Unsaveable. They contain neither the charm of the shop around the corner, nor the value of Amazon. I for one will shed no tears at the demise of this corporate monster.
- reustle 13y ago
  > Perhaps the real question is not how to save Barnes and Noble, but rather why anyone wants to save them at all. I really enjoy stopping by once in a while and checking out what computer books are on the shelf. Sure, I can "see" them on Amazon, but with minimal effort I can flip through the pages and read bits and pieces. I am obviously guilty of going home and buying it on Amazon, because the markup is just too much to ignore. I'll miss them, but I agree that they're unsaveable in their current form.
  - 001sky 13y ago
    BN is a great showroom. But agree, their assets are mainly the real estate. The inventory is just a commodity, and a depreciating one at that. On the other side of the Eq, B+N have had major impacts on the publishing side. The vaccuum that would be created there--in terms of losing the 800# gorilla on the buy side for trad. publishers-- is interesting to think about.
- cgag 13y ago
  B&N was the shop around in the various suburbs I grew up in.
- acabal 13y ago
pnathan 13y ago
Physical markets absolutely do have a great quality of discovery and discoverability that online markets simply don't have. Further, I'm one of the (rare?) techies who prefers paper books. If there are enough people who like discovering books (like me), then brick & mortar bookstores have a future.
- kvb 13y ago
  This is only true to the extent that they can monetize that discoverability. The problem is that Amazon can freeload by offering a lower price without facing the high costs of retail real estate, etc. and people will discover books at B&N but buy them on Amazon.
rak 13y ago
There was not much of a fuss made when large national chain book stores killed off numerous local, community offerings. Why should I care about the death of another invasive species? All kidding aside I really do miss the local shops that did not survive. I just don't feel the same about big national bookstores.
speeder 13y ago
I think the best idea would be STOP refusing to sell! Yay! You know, I am fan of a certain niche sci-fi series. Buying physical books is hell expensive (shipping get outrageous), so I buy e-books! Except, this niche sci-fi series was only available at Fictionwise to me (it was in B&N, I tried to buy there, it made me fill lots of forms, and then install a local Nook software, and do some other annoying things, and THEN finally it told me they don't sell it outside the US... why the hell it allowed me to register as Brazillian then? fuck you B&N). Fictionwise was great, it allowed me to get the book in multiple formats, make backups without DRM, and lots of other nifty stuff! Then comes again B&N to ruin my party, they buy Fictionwise, and send a message stating that all Fictionwise books will only be available in Nook format, and you must download them from the US... I even went into their FAQ site to be sure... "Q: If I have a Fictionwise book and a Nook, and I want download it but I live outside the US, what can I do? A: You can go to the US, then connect in a network there, download your book, and go back home." OMG FUCK YOU AGAIN B&N!!!!! By the way, if someone know someone that replaces Fictionwise I would be REALLY HAPPY to know (you know, I still want those books, and I won't visit US only to buy those books...)
- hobs 13y ago
  Well, not that I endorse fictionwise or whatever that service is, but if you want that content you can likely just proxy your traffic into the usa with a VPN or similar.
  - speeder 13y ago
    I don't have a Nook anyway. And you cannot buy from outside the US even with a proxy (you need proof that you have a house, or a bank account, or something like that in the US).
FrankenPC 13y ago
At some point a decade or so ago, they could have been relevant to me by increasing the size of their science & engineering book selection. Instead, they increased the "holistic healing" and "better dieting through fantasy" sections while shrinking science & engineering books to a few tiny feet of shelf space. They made their bed.
- textminer 13y ago
  I've noticed that to correlate with local population. E.g., University towns having plenty of great Dover prints on Algebraic Topology versus my mid-Michigan industrial boomtown mostly having a huge Spiritual/Christianity section.
javajosh 13y ago
The only bookstores I want to save are the ones that closed 15 years ago.
greedo 13y ago
I have a family member who has worked at B&N for 16 years, and is continually worried about the health of the company. Some of the big issues are: 1. Employee pay and retention. Retail always pays shit, but if you want good employees, you have to pay them. 2. Re-zoning continually. B&N spends an inordinate amount of labor re-organizing and shuffling books from one area to the other. This make work makes it hard for customers to find books, makes it hard for associates to know where a book is, and is just shuffling deck chairs. 3. Pricing. BN.com is cheaper than B&N stores. Customers don't understand this, causing huge amounts of irritation. Plus, B&N is just charging too much. 4. Delivery/inventory. Order a book from Amazon, you can have it tomorrow. Order it from B&N or bn.com, and it might take a week. All deliveries are made from central warehouses, instead of leveraging the store's own inventory. A smart fix for this would be to have the delivery manager able to deliver books from his inventory overnight to the customer. If you're in San Jose, a San Jose B&N would fulfill your order, (assuming the book is in stock), otherwise the closest warehouse or store would. Naturally, Amazon is the exemplar when it comes to order fulfillment, but at least try and close the gap. Cut some of the deadweight management. A district manager who only shows up in your store once or twice a quarter is of no use to the company. Fire them or make them perform.
engrsrce 13y ago
Having worked as a consultant about 3 years ago in the NYC B&N.com office across from Chelsea Market I can attest to the following: Most of the developers are at best mediocre. The IT managers are clueless. They reside in the same building as Google and are unable to attract NYC talent. Every time I see the stock climb above 17 or 18 I have a strong urge to sell it short.
- nukerhazz 13y ago
  Interesting. I did a bit of work in that office too. I was treated quite well, but did not interact with enough of the organization to say much beyond that.

How about: lower your prices. Seriously, have you been to a Barnes and Noble recently? If they have any hope of competing with Amazon, or even other local book stores, then the prices have to go down. Attempting to sell books at MSRP is a death sentence.

UnoriginalGuy 13y ago
That's a nice idea, but in reality a B&H branch has more overhead than an online bookstore. Rent, electricity, local taxes, cleaning, and even transport costs (e.g. moving books in and out of stores). So while I'm sure B&H could 1:1 match Amazon in prices, with Amazon's economies of scale, and the tax loopholes online retailers get, I highly doubt a B&H store could do it and still be profitable. So, yes, lower prices. Just give the books away. It will get people through the doors, no doubt, but they'll still go bankrupt.
- nhangen 13y ago
  They'll need to do something. I typically go to B&N to beef up my Amazon wishlist. So they're paying all of that overhead to send customers to another marketplace.
- chimeracoder 13y ago
  FYI, B&N is a bookstore - B&H is an electronics store run by Hasidic Jews: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%26H_Photo_Video http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%26H_Photo_Video :)
- VLM 13y ago
  " more overhead than an online bookstore" So the TLDR is a B+M bookstore is fancier and more expensive than a typical amazon warehouse. I wonder if a "amazon warehouse"-like experience at a cheaper price would be workable for a bookseller. Probably still have some issues with lack of centralization. Oldest business trick in the book... instead of paying for labor, convince your customers its a privilege to donate their own labor... If you're telling yourself this sounds ridiculous, think about supermarkets and then consider Sams Club... Turns out lack of marble floor tiles is not much of an issue after all...
kbd 13y ago
Absolutely. Recently there was a book I wanted that a local Barnes & Noble actually had in stock. I was happy to go there to buy it, but not for a $15 premium verses Amazon (or bn.com!) That book was only $35 list price too. Being able to go and get something you want immediately – and happen to not want in eBook form – is worth some small premium, but not at nearly 100% markup vs your own online store.

ja27 13y ago

One that's not quite on their list is boardgames. B&N is pushing more of those for the higher margin, but they do little to nothing to get gamers into the store. They should be the ones partnering with Tabletop, not Target. Sponsor BoardGameGeek somehow. Host gaming meetup groups. Provide store copies of games for trial.

jinushaun 13y ago

These are awful tips and don't prevent the retail problem of showrooming. Even if BN is cheaper than Amazon, you can't beat the convenience of buying stuff from your laptop in bed. They need to draw people into their stores AND make them spend money. A lot of these tips are just about getting freeloader traffic.

michaelfeathers 13y ago
I think there is future in the showroom model, and not just for bookstores. To make it work, showrooms should rotate stock aggressively, to the point of moving in and out a tractor trailer a day. And, there should be dates on the displays to indicate how long they will be in the showroom. The stock would have to be compelling enough that you would tell your friends about it and they would visit. The showroom itself would have to be a spectacle. If anyone ever cracks same day delivery, it would align very well with this. Onsite fabrication would align well too.

VLM 13y ago

The only reason I currently go to B+N instead of paying much less for a better reviewed and larger selection of books on Amazon is I have no idea what to get someone as a gift. Other than gift shopping I have no idea why I'd sit in a car for 30 minutes when I can just open another webbrowser tab and get a better product, cheaper. The current organization by generic area of study does nothing for gift shopping. I need store categorization by stereotypical demographic group. "wife" or "tween boys" gift section. Maybe broken down by hobby, maybe not. Holiday and "event" selection. So... this is THE place to buy gifts made out of old fashioned ink and paper. Their biggest problem is lack of selection. Amazon is so much bigger, and about a half of the store floor space is already non-book (toys, board games, videos, CDs, coffee shop...) They may as well give it up and become a gift store for the small segment of the population which is not functionally illiterate. Coincidentally people who are literate tend to hang out with other people who are literate, and are usually in an economic class well above functional illiterates, so its probably a good demographic to market to. They can keep their chocolate bar selection, those are good gifts. Obviously the gift card and wrapping paper racks stay. Maybe old fashioned optical disks should be kept for awhile. The rest of the addon non-book stuff can be junked. Why would I want a coffee bar when I'm shopping for a kids b-day party gift? If you've ever been inside a "hallmark store" imagine that toned down a bit with a selection of "gift books". Bland generic popular inoffensive stuff for gifts; pretty much what they've already got. Another interesting idea is segmentation. So the general masses of the population have given up on physical trinkets and now go virtual. Selling physical CDs? In 2013? I haven't bought a physical CD at a retail store since the 90s. Well, that's OK. There's always going to be a small segment of the population who want physical stuff (aside from gifts, see above). They might increase profitability by intentionally shrinking, which is stereotypically unthinkable by the "drive it into the ground" types, but might be their best bet. As long as they don't make the big mistake of assuming 1:1 mapping between old people and luddites. The Venn diagram probably looks more like 100% of hoarders are physical buyers. Also probably lots of aspirational buyers; lots of travel guides sold, and "kids summer workbooks" and the like.

cs702 13y ago

The best response to this is probably Larry the Liquidator's speech to shareholders of New England Wire & Cable, Inc., a fictional company in the movie "Other People's Money"[1]: Amen, and amen, and amen. You'll have to forgive me, I'm not familiar with the local custom. Where I come from, you always say 'Amen' after you hear a prayer. Because that's what you just heard - a prayer. Where I come from, that particular prayer is called 'The Prayer for the Dead.' You just heard The Prayer for the Dead, my fellow stockholders, and you didn't say, 'Amen.' This company is dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here. It's too late for prayers. For even if the prayers were answered, and a miracle occurred, and the yen did this, and the dollar did that, and the infrastructure did the other thing, we would still be dead! You know why? Fiber optics. New technologies. Obsolescence. We're dead, alright. We're just not broke. And do you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow, but sure. You know, at one time, there must've been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I'll bet the last company around was the one that made the best god-damn buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company? You invested in a business and this business is dead. Let's have the intelligence, let's have the decency to sign the death certificate, collect the insurance, and invest in something with a future. 'Ah, but we can't,' goes the prayer. 'We can't because we have responsibility, a responsibility to our employees, to our community. What will happen to them?' I got two words for that - 'Who cares?' Care about them? Why? They didn't care about you. They sucked you dry. You have no responsibility to them. For the last ten years, this company bled your money. Did this community ever say, 'We know times are tough. We'll lower taxes, reduce water and sewer.' Check it out: You're paying twice what you did ten years ago. And our devoted employees, who have taken no increases for the past three years, are still making twice what they made ten years ago. And our stock - one-sixth of what it was ten years ago. 'Who cares?' I'll tell ya -- Me. I'm not your best friend. I'm your only friend. I don't make anything. I'm makin' you money. And lest we forget, that's the only reason any of you became stockholders in the first place. You wanna make money! You don't care if they manufacture wire and cable, fried chicken, or grow tangerines! You wanna make money! I'm the only friend you've got. I'm makin' you money. Take the money. Invest it somewhere else. Maybe, maybe you'll get lucky and it'll be used productively. And if it is, you'll create new jobs and provide a service for the economy and, God forbid, even make a few bucks for yourselves. And if anybody asks, tell 'em ya gave at the plant. And by the way, it pleases me that I'm called 'Larry the Liquidator.' You know why, fellow stockholders? Because at my funeral, you'll leave with a smile on your face and a few bucks in your pocket. Now that's a funeral worth having! -- [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102609/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102609/ -- a clip of the speech is currently available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62kxPyNZF3Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62kxPyNZF3Q

logn 13y ago

I think they just need to be a better bookstore. Think of Powell's in Portland OR. It's my favorite thing to do in that city and I barely ever buy/read paper books. They also have a building nearby the main one that sells only technical books. The reason I like shopping and buying books there is the sheer selection. Of course, their footprint is much larger than BN. But BN could raise funds to expand their stores slowly and see if it works. Powell's has several floors of books and are probably larger than many large libraries in big cities. Next to each new book they also stock used books of similar or the same titles. I just really enjoy the act of flipping through an entire book and then buying it on the spot. I don't think paging through the ToC in PDF form a la Amazon is that nice and I hate waiting for shipping. Plus, if on a technical book I'm going to spend $100 then I need to make sure for myself it's a decent reference. It's been painful to see BN push the Nook. And to see them try to be a coffee shop. And CD store. etc etc. For the size of their store, they have a remarkably small selection of books, and they're all high-priced... and they complain they can't sell many books. Sorry, when I walk in to the store and see 4 crappy books on CSS, 10 on HTML, 5 on Windows, and a smattering of others, I'm not that inspired. But in Powell's technical bookstore, when there's a whole aisle on Javascript, I get excited.

rdouble 13y ago
Barnes and Noble is an inconsistent experience. For example, at the Roseville, MN store, the technical book section is usually on par with, or sometimes even better than Powell's. However, almost everywhere else, even at other locations in MN, the stores mostly suck. There used to be a couple of great Barnes and Noble stores in Manhattan, but they have closed.
- Refefer 13y ago
  I imagine that's greatly influenced by the purchasing habits of the local customers: in Gettysburg? Beef up the Historical section.
SiVal 13y ago
I remember when the Stanford Bookstore was the largest bookstore in the US west of the Mississippi by number of titles. It had a tremendous technical section, and all Silicon Valley engineers shopped there and at a few smaller technical bookstores like Stacey's. Stacey's and most of the others are gone, and Stanford gradually went from being a giant bookstore with a gifts nook to a giant gift shop with a book nook.

mratzloff 13y ago

I frequently shop at Barnes & Noble, and I have a membership. (There's one just down the street.) I like the experience of going to bookstores, so I consider whatever premium I pay a donation toward keeping that experience a few blocks away. In reality it is the equivalent of a small monthly fee.

fargolime 13y ago
Not to knock B&N but I figured they were on their last legs in my area when my public library started allowing coffee drinking. I have to pay the small monthly tax regardless, after all. I've had a good success rate finding current books I want at the library. When they don't have it I'll usually check the nearby B&N and pay the premium over Amazon.

chiph 13y ago

Why do I go to a B&N? Two reasons: I'm buying a gift and I want to browse the coffee-table books. Or I need something immediately for work or a project. So for me, #2 (tables, not shelves) and #7 (community franchising) would make the most sense.

mikeash 13y ago

These ideas are all contradictory. What a pointless article. Throw a bunch of random ideas in the air and see what sticks. If B&N fails, you can point to all the ideas they didn't follow and blame the failure on that. If B&N succeeds, you can point to the ideas they did follow (for these ideas cover the entire universe of possible action, so they will end up following some of them just by chance) and claim credit. Dumb.

ExpiredLink 13y ago
>These ideas are all contradictory. Yes. >What a pointless article. No, you missed the point.
- mikeash 13y ago
  I don't suppose you'd care to tell me what point I supposedly missed? Because just telling me I missed the point without explaining is, well, pointless.
  - shirederby 13y ago
    > Over the past several days, commentators have burst forth with a cacophony of competing ideas for your revival. The following list contains some potentially promising options for you to consider:
    - mikeash 13y ago
      Which doesn't suddenly give it a point, that just shows they're aware of what they're doing. Spamming suggestions some of which they will fall into by chance is silly.
- jessaustin 13y ago
  No, YOU missed the point: Throw a bunch of random ideas in the air and see what sticks. If B&N fails, you can point to all the ideas they didn't follow and blame the failure on that. That's all TFA is. Most of the "ideas" are so impractical they wouldn't work for a local mom-n-pop bookstore, let alone a giant chain like B&N. If any of these "experts" spent more than ten minutes on their idea I'll eat my hat.

Zigurd 13y ago

All retail faces this problem. B&N got their first, despite having diagnosed the problem early and made a try at a solution. They didn't execute that solution very well, which is why they still face the problem. The problem is: It's better to get almost anything delivered to you than to spend time and gas going to the store. On top of that the selection is better online. The pity is that bookstores have obvious attractions other than being a place to buy the fat end of the the very long tail of books. Nobodying is going to go to Sears to meet the washing machine designer, but they will go to B&N to meet an author. Nobody wants live music at the Home depot but at B&N, maybe. Nobody would go to a LAN party or board game night at the hardware store, but B&N? These might all fail, but B&N could have put up more of a fight: Kindle LAN party? Did they even try?

bruce511 13y ago

Is it only me that finds it deeply ironic that the company credited with closing a gazillion independent booksellers and round-the-corner bookshops, is currently at the receiving end of exactly the same market forces that it espoused during their demise? Perhaps the real question is not how to save Barnes and Noble, but rather why anyone wants to save them at all. I find it hard to see them cast as Meg Ryan opposite Amazonian Tom Hanks in the re-re-make of You've Got Mail. B&N were once fans of market forces, and the public's insatiable hunger for lower prices at any cost. Unfortunately, their discovering that economies Of scale are only on your side until someone else comes along who does it better. B&N are fundamentally Unsaveable. They contain neither the charm of the shop around the corner, nor the value of Amazon. I for one will shed no tears at the demise of this corporate monster.

reustle 13y ago
> Perhaps the real question is not how to save Barnes and Noble, but rather why anyone wants to save them at all. I really enjoy stopping by once in a while and checking out what computer books are on the shelf. Sure, I can "see" them on Amazon, but with minimal effort I can flip through the pages and read bits and pieces. I am obviously guilty of going home and buying it on Amazon, because the markup is just too much to ignore. I'll miss them, but I agree that they're unsaveable in their current form.
- 001sky 13y ago
  BN is a great showroom. But agree, their assets are mainly the real estate. The inventory is just a commodity, and a depreciating one at that. On the other side of the Eq, B+N have had major impacts on the publishing side. The vaccuum that would be created there--in terms of losing the 800# gorilla on the buy side for trad. publishers-- is interesting to think about.
cgag 13y ago
B&N was the shop around in the various suburbs I grew up in.
acabal 13y ago

pnathan 13y ago

Physical markets absolutely do have a great quality of discovery and discoverability that online markets simply don't have. Further, I'm one of the (rare?) techies who prefers paper books. If there are enough people who like discovering books (like me), then brick & mortar bookstores have a future.

kvb 13y ago
This is only true to the extent that they can monetize that discoverability. The problem is that Amazon can freeload by offering a lower price without facing the high costs of retail real estate, etc. and people will discover books at B&N but buy them on Amazon.

rak 13y ago

There was not much of a fuss made when large national chain book stores killed off numerous local, community offerings. Why should I care about the death of another invasive species? All kidding aside I really do miss the local shops that did not survive. I just don't feel the same about big national bookstores.

speeder 13y ago

I think the best idea would be STOP refusing to sell! Yay! You know, I am fan of a certain niche sci-fi series. Buying physical books is hell expensive (shipping get outrageous), so I buy e-books! Except, this niche sci-fi series was only available at Fictionwise to me (it was in B&N, I tried to buy there, it made me fill lots of forms, and then install a local Nook software, and do some other annoying things, and THEN finally it told me they don't sell it outside the US... why the hell it allowed me to register as Brazillian then? fuck you B&N). Fictionwise was great, it allowed me to get the book in multiple formats, make backups without DRM, and lots of other nifty stuff! Then comes again B&N to ruin my party, they buy Fictionwise, and send a message stating that all Fictionwise books will only be available in Nook format, and you must download them from the US... I even went into their FAQ site to be sure... "Q: If I have a Fictionwise book and a Nook, and I want download it but I live outside the US, what can I do? A: You can go to the US, then connect in a network there, download your book, and go back home." OMG FUCK YOU AGAIN B&N!!!!! By the way, if someone know someone that replaces Fictionwise I would be REALLY HAPPY to know (you know, I still want those books, and I won't visit US only to buy those books...)

hobs 13y ago
Well, not that I endorse fictionwise or whatever that service is, but if you want that content you can likely just proxy your traffic into the usa with a VPN or similar.
- speeder 13y ago
  I don't have a Nook anyway. And you cannot buy from outside the US even with a proxy (you need proof that you have a house, or a bank account, or something like that in the US).

FrankenPC 13y ago

At some point a decade or so ago, they could have been relevant to me by increasing the size of their science & engineering book selection. Instead, they increased the "holistic healing" and "better dieting through fantasy" sections while shrinking science & engineering books to a few tiny feet of shelf space. They made their bed.

textminer 13y ago
I've noticed that to correlate with local population. E.g., University towns having plenty of great Dover prints on Algebraic Topology versus my mid-Michigan industrial boomtown mostly having a huge Spiritual/Christianity section.

javajosh 13y ago

The only bookstores I want to save are the ones that closed 15 years ago.

greedo 13y ago

I have a family member who has worked at B&N for 16 years, and is continually worried about the health of the company. Some of the big issues are: 1. Employee pay and retention. Retail always pays shit, but if you want good employees, you have to pay them. 2. Re-zoning continually. B&N spends an inordinate amount of labor re-organizing and shuffling books from one area to the other. This make work makes it hard for customers to find books, makes it hard for associates to know where a book is, and is just shuffling deck chairs. 3. Pricing. BN.com is cheaper than B&N stores. Customers don't understand this, causing huge amounts of irritation. Plus, B&N is just charging too much. 4. Delivery/inventory. Order a book from Amazon, you can have it tomorrow. Order it from B&N or bn.com, and it might take a week. All deliveries are made from central warehouses, instead of leveraging the store's own inventory. A smart fix for this would be to have the delivery manager able to deliver books from his inventory overnight to the customer. If you're in San Jose, a San Jose B&N would fulfill your order, (assuming the book is in stock), otherwise the closest warehouse or store would. Naturally, Amazon is the exemplar when it comes to order fulfillment, but at least try and close the gap. Cut some of the deadweight management. A district manager who only shows up in your store once or twice a quarter is of no use to the company. Fire them or make them perform.

engrsrce 13y ago

Having worked as a consultant about 3 years ago in the NYC B&N.com office across from Chelsea Market I can attest to the following: Most of the developers are at best mediocre. The IT managers are clueless. They reside in the same building as Google and are unable to attract NYC talent. Every time I see the stock climb above 17 or 18 I have a strong urge to sell it short.

nukerhazz 13y ago
Interesting. I did a bit of work in that office too. I was treated quite well, but did not interact with enough of the organization to say much beyond that.