Barnes & Noble will open 30 stores in 2023

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really want to support them but when I recently took my daughter there, almost every book she picked was about $5 more in store (prices were ~$13 in store vs $8 on Amazon)…. I just couldn’t justify buying more than a few locally and ordered the rest online. But glad they are having success, reading is great.

It's called inflation. It affects more than just groceries and car prices. You don't have to spend money but it's not unreasonable for books to cost more now than when we were kids.

As for books being cheaper on Amazon, sometimes. That's been the Amazon model for decades - undercut competitors and put them out of business. So supporting predatory pricing is a benefit for you. For a while.

You cant have it both ways unfortunately. Low prices come with no store for browsing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really want to support them but when I recently took my daughter there, almost every book she picked was about $5 more in store (prices were ~$13 in store vs $8 on Amazon)…. I just couldn’t justify buying more than a few locally and ordered the rest online. But glad they are having success, reading is great.

It's called inflation. It affects more than just groceries and car prices. You don't have to spend money but it's not unreasonable for books to cost more now than when we were kids.

As for books being cheaper on Amazon, sometimes. That's been the Amazon model for decades - undercut competitors and put them out of business. So supporting predatory pricing is a benefit for you. For a while.

This. Amazon cross-subsidizes some products with profits from other products. That's been disastrous for all bookstores, not just Barnes and Noble. Also, the way cross-subsidizing works is that the it's done to drive competitors out of business and then the cross-subsidizer will raise its prices back up to cover costs again. It's predatory, as pp says.

[Anonymous]

This feels like banks opening physical branches.

Dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This feels like banks opening physical branches.

Dumb.

Since we can read and listen books via OverDrive should we just close libraries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This feels like banks opening physical branches.

Dumb.

Since we can read and listen books via OverDrive should we just close libraries?

Yes. That is exactly the same. Bravo. Well done.

[Anonymous]

Actually, independent booksellers have been mostly doing really well the last five years or so.

Not surprised B&N has been getting rid of giant stores and opening up smaller ones that look more like independent bookstores.

[Anonymous]

If you think this is good news, you aren’t paying much attention to bookstores or publishing news.

The hedge fund that took over Waterstones (UK bookstore chain) own B&N now. They’ve made HORRIBLE decisions this year about stocking books. Like they’ll only stock hardcover middle grade books (basically more expensive books by already-famous authors get the shelf space). There was a huge controversy because they weren’t giving prime space to the sequel to Ledgendborn, which was a wildly popular YA book. People were posting themselves literally hunting for the book in B&N stores.

If you care about books, you should care about how B&N is operating.

We have AMAZING indie bookstores in the DC metro. They will bend over backwards for your business and treat you like a valued member of their community if you frequent them.

[Anonymous]

Waterstones told locations to attempt to look like the indies in their neighborhoods. It’s no surprise B&N is trying to look more indie.

These places are owned by investment groups that don’t care about books, just profits. Shop the indies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Waterstones told locations to attempt to look like the indies in their neighborhoods. It’s no surprise B&N is trying to look more indie.

These places are owned by investment groups that don’t care about books, just profits. Shop the indies.

what is an indie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This feels like banks opening physical branches.

Dumb.

Since we can read and listen books via OverDrive should we just close libraries?

Yes. That is exactly the same. Bravo. Well done.

Yesss! Thank you! Let’s close all the grocery stores and movie theaters! Bravo to you too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope they will open the traditional stores again. I hate the new minimal design like the one in Rockville because it is soulless like the now-defunct Amazon books.

I spread buying between indy stores, Amazon, and B&N. $ at indy stores helps local economies and authors. Amazon helps more authors because I can buy more books. B&N is important because they carry (or used to) so many specialty books that have trouble getting traction online because you have no way of knowing about them.

IMO they all have different values.

I hate the design of the Rockville location. Soulless. The Rio location is so much more inviting.

Know what I miss? B. Dalton and Waldenbooks. If B&N wants smaller stores, I wish they would follow that format instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Waterstones told locations to attempt to look like the indies in their neighborhoods. It’s no surprise B&N is trying to look more indie.

These places are owned by investment groups that don’t care about books, just profits. Shop the indies.

what is an indie?

I think you have got to know?

https://www.indiebound.org/

https://bookriot.com/indie-bookstores-that-ship/amp/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really want to support them but when I recently took my daughter there, almost every book she picked was about $5 more in store (prices were ~$13 in store vs $8 on Amazon)…. I just couldn’t justify buying more than a few locally and ordered the rest online. But glad they are having success, reading is great.

It's called inflation. It affects more than just groceries and car prices. You don't have to spend money but it's not unreasonable for books to cost more now than when we were kids.

As for books being cheaper on Amazon, sometimes. That's been the Amazon model for decades - undercut competitors and put them out of business. So supporting predatory pricing is a benefit for you. For a while.

This. Amazon cross-subsidizes some products with profits from other products. That's been disastrous for all bookstores, not just Barnes and Noble. Also, the way cross-subsidizing works is that the it's done to drive competitors out of business and then the cross-subsidizer will raise its prices back up to cover costs again. It's predatory, as pp says.

Amazon was obviously taking notes while Barnes and Nobles used similar practices decades ago — loss leaders until the independent booksellers folded, then most of the discounts disappeared. I lived on the UWS in NYC — and I’m still bitter, even though in other cities the Barnes and Nobles is often the best option.

[Anonymous]

For what it’s worth, there’s still a major paper shortage. I do a lot of big print jobs and my printing house needs longer lead times to acquire the paper for our projects and the cost of the paper is higher.

I prefer the local bookshops anyway. Easier to get signed books and they’ll order anything I want. I haven’t shopped on Amazon since the H2 scam (all the incentives, half the project?) they pulled here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really want to support them but when I recently took my daughter there, almost every book she picked was about $5 more in store (prices were ~$13 in store vs $8 on Amazon)…. I just couldn’t justify buying more than a few locally and ordered the rest online. But glad they are having success, reading is great.

Why can’t you justify it? I find it easy to justify -
Just $5 more
Supports a brick & mortar store
Happy not to give Amazon all my money
I can spend $5 (or $15) less somewhere else