yes most likely...of course maybe the Nook is part of the problem? BN is also suffering with those prime lease locations...I bet their landlords are taking a beating right now, as well.....
The ebook business, last I knew, had lousy margins for etailers. The publishers are the folks making money there. And the superstore model for bookstores is nuts.
Barnes and Noble is the Best Buy of bookstores. I won’t shed a tear if they get what’s coming to them.
I used to get great deals at Borders with the coupons they always gave out. I still miss them.
I hope this last brick and mortar makes it. Why would they have such a hard time? The stores are always bustling, and seem to do more business than the other big stores next to them (PetSmart, Kohl's, Dick's Sporting Goods)?
It’s not an exact analogy but I see ebooks as the natural sequel to old fashioned books just as cars replaced horses.
Doesn’t mean old fashioned books are going to vanish entirely just as horses haven’t vanished entirely.
But they will be more specialty items and sentimental items, where it will just make more sense to grab the ebook when all you want to do is to read the darn thing.
If this analysis is correct, it’s sure to have far reaching effects of the business of selling books - there just won’t be a need for as many book stores or for elaborate mega bookstores. It will inevitably move to a more specialty business.
And even without that B&N still has to compete with Amazon on old fashioned books so they have both headwinds to face - that of ebooks and that of Amazon selling conventional books.
B&N has the same problem Borders did. They cater to a very liberal crowd who comes in, buys a latte and reads for free all day.
Not a very good business model.
Barnes & Noble is an unethical company.
They practice “bait and switch” scams.
Find a book on their website at a particular advertised price, go the the brick and mortar store, and they refuse to sell it to you at the price advertised on their website.
I tried that a few days ago, and they told me that they don’t “price-match.” WITH THEIR OWN WEBSITE! This is the book I tried to buy at the website-advertised price: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pioneer-woman-cooks-ree-drummond/1101968872
Let them fade away.
My son works for their college division—Told me over Christmas that B&N was looking to Nook sales to keep the whole operation afloat for the next couple of years. If that’s indeed true, this “news story” makes no sense.
I went into 3 Barnes and Noble locations this week after not being inside for about a year. The first thing I noticed was a discernible reduction in inventory - actual racks being removed. At least 20% of the shelves were gone, replaced with open space, maybe a third.
I remarked to my wife “It looks like they’re getting ready to close stores” as we worked through our remaining gift card balances.
I firmly believe that the mass-retail bookstore model is dead. B&N appears to have come to the same conclusion - divesting of inventory and diversifying into toys, gifts and electronic publishing.
They could effectively run the same operations out of 1/3 or 1/4 the footprint and have been closing stores. One in Lansing closed before Christmas.
2 years tops, and they’re gone.
I buy a lot of books but stopped buying at B&N when they were hiding conservative books in the back of the store. I decided they wanted only liberal customers. I am not a liberal. Like every other business or profession liberals take over, they fail.
That is a hint for investment purposes. Those businesses and professions in bed with Obama/DNC will be going under. It’s guarenteed by the anti-free market and humanist ideology of their fascist leaders.
The banksters fell and brought property owners and investors down with them when they went to bed with Clinton. The media and hollywood...the private schools and universities, government motors and government electric, alternative energy companies, health care providers... Bail out of them because they all took the poison pill that will kill them in the not so distant future.
Is it gonna be called NookInc?