Barnes & Noble will open 30 stores in 2023

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Most places don’t have any indies, or even a B&N. I’m thrilled to support my B&N, and frankly I don’t care that a hedge fund owns it. Hedge funds own many things.

I like all the changes I’ve seen so far.

[Anonymous]

For the person saying support indie book stores….I live in north bethesda—is my closest politics and prose (which has basically no parking)? If there’s one within a 15 minute drive with parking I’d go. The other issue is that they don’t have as many kids or mkddle grades books which is 80% of my book purchase.
I feel bad because I have a family member who is a novelist. I drove to politics and prose to get his. I also rearranged a B&N display a bit to make his a little more prominent.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I rotate my book orders between a few bookshops around the country that I like. Fountain Books in Richmond is the closest. When my favorite authors have books coming out, I look at their book tours and order a signed copy from one of the stores in the list.

Sometimes B&N has tip ins (when the author signs a piece of paper and it gets added to the book), but B&N has become soulless and I’m over it.

[Anonymous]

Loudoun location always feels busy. I’m happy to support B&N because having a physical location has saved me on several occasions when I needed a book and Amazon couldn’t deliver in time.

[Anonymous]

It's essentially the Toys R Us of bookstores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some good news to the bookstore lovers.

Expansion this size is possible because of a strengthened interest in books and reading that came as a result of the pandemic — more people read because they were stuck at home, and Barnes & Noble locations were able to improve stores while they were closed.

One of them is coming to Reston!

https://bookriot.com/barnes-noble-opening-30-stores-in-2023/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/barnes-noble-store-expansion-leads-big-box-real-estate-revival-in-2023-11671454054 (paywall)

Great! I spent many hours in their stores in my thirties and early fourties without or without my kids in tow. Borders, too. We have several independent bookstores walking distance from my home, but none are designed for more than one or two people to hangout reading for an hour or two. Their staff have to pleasantly push for a purchase.

Another issue is that B&N can just offer more titles than the independent sellers who tend to have less shelf space. I can go in and buy Christmas and Hanukah gifts for everyone on my long list at one place without needing to place special orders and make a return trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's essentially the Toys R Us of bookstores.

This is not a bad thing.

[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.

+1

You can get BOGO 50% off that make the prices comparable to Amazon. But ultimately I want to support a future that isn't dominated by Bezos so I avoid buying books from Amazon. (I did just buy a hand mixer from Amazon so I don't claim any kind of moral superiority)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the person saying support indie book stores….I live in north bethesda—is my closest politics and prose (which has basically no parking)? If there’s one within a 15 minute drive with parking I’d go. The other issue is that they don’t have as many kids or mkddle grades books which is 80% of my book purchase.
I feel bad because I have a family member who is a novelist. I drove to politics and prose to get his. I also rearranged a B&N display a bit to make his a little more prominent.

Ha you are awesome.

[Anonymous]

Where do you see the planned 2023 locations? I can’t find it in the articles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do you see the planned 2023 locations? I can’t find it in the articles.

I looked for other sources about the new locations, including the B&N site and couldn't find it either.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Why is 15 minutes too far to drive for a bookstore? You probably drive that much for lots of stores.

I drive 30 for a really fabulous indie bookshop that has signing events. the last time I went to B&N, there was a lot of empty shelving and multiple areas where piles upon piles of Lessons in Chemistry was being offered. They had to have 100 copies all over the store.

[Anonymous]

They are coming back to Bethesda!

[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.

Hell, most of Amazon is unprofitable. It is subsidized by aws.