I very clearly remember the feeling of stepping into a Barnes & Noble bookstore with a feeling that I was certain to leave the store with at least four or five books in my arms. I remember just how much fun that was. The problem is I can't remember the last time it happened.
However, a quick look at Wikipedia tells me it was probably not too long after Elliott Management Corporation acquired the company for $683 million back in August 2019. B&N remains a wholly owned subsidiary of Elliott's to this day. Elliott also owns and runs the huge Waterstones Booksellers chain in the UK, and the problem is that the new owners decided to use the British bookselling model on Barnes & Noble rather than using the American model on Waterstones.
That means effectively that everything sold in either chain is priced at the recommended list price that the publisher chooses or it is put on sale in one of those "buy one at full price, get another at 50% off, schemes that I seldom use (in effect, that means paying 75% of list for each book). I lived for several years in London and frequented Waterstones because it seemed to be everywhere I went, but I probably didn't make that decision more than a half-dozen times in all those years because the "second book" part of the deal was limited to just a handful of books similar to the one I really wanted at the moment.
That used to be not such a big problem at B&N (even in London), though, because of the always-arbitrary selection of bestsellers that they chose to discount in both hardcover and softcover versions. Look at this picture:
Remember those fun displays of what I call "remainders" from major publishers that B&N used to place so prominently in their stores? Well, don't hold your breath until you pluck some current fiction or nonfiction from the chain's new, horrible Book Annex groupings. Clue: you're going to die first. Those displays are only made up now of stale, cheap reprint editions in the nonfiction area, and of classics in the fiction area. (That could very well be because publishers don't do the huge print runs like they used to - meaning that the remainders stock is limited from the source.)
I used to count on going into a B&N and walking out with five or six one-or-two-year-old previous bestsellers for about $40 and another two current books that I paid near full price for - along with a couple of magazines. All for about $80 or $90. And I did that every 60 days or so.
Now look at these photos from the store this morning near noon and ask yourself what is missing from each of them:
If you guessed "people," you win the prize. There were actually fewer people in this large store today than there were workers (I think I counted four other people plus about 4 small children).
Don't get me wrong; I want to see Barnes & Noble do well. They are, after having effectively run all of the other bookstore chains either completely out of business or out of my area, now the only major bookseller available to me. I hope that the B&N braintrust figures out that their new marketing strategy is not going to work...especially during a period of hyperinflation like the one we are experiencing right now. If they don't, they are doomed just the way they helped make sure that all the competition was doomed.
I have so much to say that I hardly know where to begin. I guess I'll start with You've Got Mail, which I watched again the other night on DVD. I just sat there shaking my head that there was the fictional name meaning B&N taking over every single wonderful NYC store, and here we are with it as the "little guy" because Amazon is such a behemoth.
ReplyDeleteAlso, many "little" stores seem to be thriving these days from what I hear, so neither of them took all of them over.
Pretty much any book shopping I do is online. Mostly at A, though I feel badly. So I went to B&N recently and found their presentation very lovely and bookish, and I was suggested some books that I bought and was very happy with. So the irony was not lost on me - that all these years later B&N is the softer, more bookish store.
Are there no smaller bookstores in your big, big town? We have one here, but it is more geared toward toys.
Back to my online shopping. I bought four or five books at B&N and then went back the other day to buy a couple, and I went over to A instead because I didn't have to pay postage.
It is enough to make one schizophrenic.
Really good to have you back. You always make me think about stuff.
I remember how that movie helped to change a lot of attitudes, Nan, about the way we were starting to shop for books. The big fish now is in danger of being gobbled up, as you say, by a whale and it doesn't appear to me to be capable anymore of swimming fast enough to escape the whale for more than another couple of years or so.
DeleteYou're right about little independents having made a nice comeback. I still do try to support those, but they will never possibly be able to offer me the large inventory of books under one roof that I so much enjoy leisurely browsing. That's the way I discovered a bunch of authors who later turned into decades-long favorites of mine. It's how I stumbled upon countless "small" books for the first time, books that exposed me to genres I would never have searched out on my own...and writers I probably would have purposely avoided for the rest of my life if I had not first picked up a copy of one of their books with my own hands.
B&N has some very good booksellers working for it, people who really love books and reading. That's easy for me to see if I take the time to engage them in conversation the way that I did today.
And most of the ones I speak with do not seem to be particularly happy working there anymore. I went there today with the intention of buying one book for sure, regardless of price, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Can you believe that they did not have a single copy of the current Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in that whole store? I hate their website, always have problems negotiating my way around it, and have given up on it now. I do hope to stop by the one little indie bookshop still within reasonable driving distance from me tomorrow to see if they have it. Otherwise, I will check my guilt at the door and order from Amazon.
I agree with your thoughts about B&N, I want book stores to be successful and stay open. The lack of customers is a worry, as are the corporate poor decisions. I have no chain book store in my town, and the independent book store pushes an agenda with their books that I don't find appealing. I do shop there but have to look long and hard to find books to buy. And re your comment on my blog, wow, roofs are expensive.
ReplyDeleteI manage to avoid independent bookshops that insist on picking a political fight with half their potential customers. At least so far. I hate it when they obviously choose either Left or Right and only carry books that agree with their sentiments; I just find them boring, I guess, and always think that anyone choosing that kind of a business plan is too stupid to deal with. It's kind of a shame that's the only choice you have around you.
DeleteHi Sam, I have a Barnes and Noble near me but ashamed to say I rarely use it because I read most of my books on kindle. I'm not young and kindle is easier on the eyes. Also Amazon has a better selection of books. But I too want B&N to survive. Look at what happened to the malls. I used to love going to the mall because each one had a bookstore and a food court. For me it was heaven. But now the bookstores are gone.
ReplyDeleteKathy, I'm lucky to live almost in the center of to B&N locations; I'm about 7 miles from one and 10 from another. The second location is a huge two-story standalone just outside the main mall in the area. That makes paring relatively simple, and I prefer the location despite it having way more traffic to deal with. Because it's a two-story building, the inventory is much, much larger, including the magazines. But they still follow the same pricing/remainder plan, so I way more often walk out with empty arms than carrying a shopping bag filled with books.
DeleteI think a lot about the days I could go to the mall with my wife and we could both enjoy browsing the shops. This same mall used to have another chain bookstore inside and three different music stores I would happily spend time in. Now, if I go inside the mall at all, it's to pick up something I specifically need, and I'm out of there. No strolling, no browsing, and a whole lot less business for the mall.
I used to love Barnes and Noble... even worked there for 5 years part time after retiring. Loved working with the books and the people. But they changed. Got rid of the comfy chairs where people could sit and read, added more merchandise (not books), etc. Still a bookstore (thank goodness - don't want them to disappear completely), but different. I still go there, but not often. Do use kindle (but prefer to have a real book in my hand) and Amazon. But the old small bookstores like in London and the New Orleans French Quarter have disappeared. They had their own charm.
ReplyDeleteThat's something I failed to mention, Rian...those benches and chairs they unceremoniously yanked out of the stores (never saw one in Waterstones in the UK either, so that's probably why). I was going to mention that because I now suffer from neuropathy in both feet that I find it difficult to stand in one place for more than just a few minutes, very few in fact. If there had been a few strategically placed benches or chairs in the store, I know I would have spent way more time inside - and likely would have ended up spending more money there, at least on those nowadays outrageously priced magazines they carry.
DeleteI do use a Kindle out of convenience quite a bit for the usual reasons. I got into the habit when publishers started preferring that review copies be sent as e-books. I've owned several of them now, and the older I get, the more reading I do on a Kindle.
Hey, thanks for taking the time to comment.
I am always disappointed when I go to Barnes and Noble these days, too. Not that I go very much. Mostly because they never have the books I'm looking for. I miss good bookstores! I miss wandering the shelves and finding new books to try and favorite authors, too. We used to have so many bookstores near me, all different kinds, and now there's just Barnes and Noble and one or two used bookstores that have very limited selections. It's sad.
ReplyDeleteI went to a used-book bookstore this morning in a little section of the area I live in called Old Town Spring that's only about four miles from me. Very nice, quaint little building housing it, but all of maybe 125 books in the whole store. The woman running it also sells bookish stuff like tee-shirts, mugs, bookmarks, etc. and I can only assume that she makes a nice profit from that kind of thing. Otherwise, I don't see how she can possibly cover her expenses. And all of the books were common junk, half of them the small size paperback type, and all of them priced at about twice what I would ever pay for one.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I worry about...the only remaining indies within easy driving distance or run by people who don't know a whole lot about the market or the kind of shopper they should be trying to attract.
In Santa Barbara, we don't even have a Barnes and Noble anymore. I want them to do well too because there should be more book stores. It is sad to see those photos of Barnes and Noble with no people looking at books.
ReplyDeleteWe do have one wonderful independent bookstore and some good used bookstores.
I think it was the empty aisles that made me saddest, Tracy...for both the chain and for readers. Their new business plan is obviously a dud for them, and I can't imagine why they don't do something to get more people in the store who can actually afford to buy books than to try to sell ALL of them at full list price.
DeleteI'm really surprised that a city the size of Santa Barbara doesn't have a B&N anymore. Thank goodness for the indies you have there.
Sad. I've never been big on shopping in new bookstores- I much prefer the price point and thrill of discovery in browsing used bookstores- but I still find this very sad. Those shelves look lonely!
ReplyDeleteI was almost embarrassed for the store manager, a very nice lady who always makes it a point to speak at me somewhere on the floor when we run into each other.
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