
As Barnes and Noble Struggles to Find Footing, Founder Takes Heat - SREinSF
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/12/business/media/barnes-noble-leonard-riggio.html
======
reaperducer
The big figure that stood out for me in this article was that the number of
independent bookstores in the United States has increased 30% in the last ten
years. And there's enough people who love brick-and-mortar shops and physical
books to warrant Indigo to expand into the U.S.

I think the article was spot-on about following the Waterstone model of making
it a chain of hyper-localized stores, instead of a homogenous behemoth trying
to be everything to the masses. Book readers are thinkers, and are turned off
by mass marketing.

It's like how local coffee shops continue to survive and thrive, in spite of
the ubiquitous presence of Starbucks. People like local, special things. What
people on 35th Street in Chicago want to read is not the same as what people
in Haight/Ashbury in San Francisco want to read.

If one wants to explore something from the other, there's always in-store
ordering, and online. Plus the more-popular-than-ever-in-spite-of-the-
zeitgeist libraries.

~~~
ksdale
Speaking of coffee shops, I can't for the life of me remember where I
heard/read this story, but there was a guy who owned a coffee shop who said
that they got a big boost in business when Starbucks opened across the street
from them. His claim was that Starbucks was approachable enough to turn more
people in the town into regular coffee drinkers, and once they became regular
coffee drinkers, they would often seek out something they liked better than
Starbucks and end up in his shop.

~~~
Pxl_Buzzard
My uncle in Kansas City runs a coffee shop that ran Starbucks of out
business[1]. Starbucks brought coffee shops to the masses, but once people get
hooked they generally like to support local craft shops that often taste
better and feel more personal.

1\.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/business/30sbux.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/business/30sbux.html)

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jameskilton
Hard to feel any sympathy for them when they've been doing stuff like this
(Feb 2018) [http://audreyii-fic.tumblr.com/post/170886347853/the-
entirel...](http://audreyii-fic.tumblr.com/post/170886347853/the-entirely-
unnecessary-demise-of-barnes-noble)

~~~
jimmy1
Yeah that was gut wrenching. I'll be a typical HN reader, however, and point
out this

> B&N is the last thing standing between Amazon and a total monopoly of the
> publishing industry

This is total hyperbole. There are plenty of publishers and book stores with
online store fronts. When you shop there instead of Amazon, a greater portion
of your contribution supports the authors and editors. And as always, once B&N
closes up for good, we will see a resurgence of local booksellers, anecdotally
I already see it happening in my town. In a lot of ways, your local
coffeeshops have also turned into mini bookstores as well, we could see this
niche expand.

~~~
jrs95
When you say you see it happening in your town, are you referring to an urban
or suburban area? Not trying to contradict you here, just legitimately
curious. I would think more of the local coffee shop customer would go to this
sort of place rather than a Starbucks customer, if I had to guess.

~~~
jimmy1
It's a fair question -- I live in a suburban town, but I spend a lot of time
in the urban center. Thinking of it from this perspective I would say the
local bookstore revival is coming to the suburbs, and the coffeeshop quasi
bookstore trend is more urban.

~~~
ethbro
If one were smart, that would be the obvious chink in Starbuck's business
model: create a chain of neighborhood-aware, individualized, community-focused
coffee shops / bookstores / office-lite / meeting place.

Essentially blend Starbucks, WeWork, Half-Priced Books, FedEx Print & Ship
with hyperlocal zine creation and publishing. Offer logistics support and
deals to franchisees, then let them be unique.

Starbucks wouldn't be able to compete, because they've essentially defined
themselves as "We're the same, wherever you go." Your moat would be the social
integration of place and community. And you'd actually be inspiring local
creation instead of corporate consumption.

Call it 'Nubucks', slap a shoe logo on there, and make a billion dollars and a
better country.

~~~
shanghaiaway
Something like that yes, but they would be high price because supporting
corporate overhead requires high margins

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inostia
Unfortunately, I have no sympathy for the company, as they recently laid off
much of their full-time, expert-level employees for a quick and dirty buck,
likely accelerating their demise. It is a shame, though, because in some
places - despite the rise of local bookstores - they are the only place left
to not only _buy_ books, but a place to "hang out" around books. They also
host readings for smaller writers. Yes, libraries also fulfill this function,
but where else can you bring your kids, buy a coffee, look at/buy some books
or magazines and then go to the nearby mall?

I've always been amazed at how well-stocked B&N stores are, even in small
towns like Fresno, CA. Likely one of the only places to buy a philosophy or
classic literature book in the whole town.

~~~
Agustus
You have a fixed asset (facility) and variable assets (employees). If you are
trying to keep your failing company from hemorrhaging money, you can cut the
liquid assets, because you have to keep lights on.

The situation at Barnes and Noble is dire. Anyone of us in the same position
would have done the same thing, if you cannot admit this, then you need to
look at financial sheets and what it takes to run a business.

Bearing this in mind, a similar action was undertaken by Home Depot where they
cut their experienced staff loose to save monies, but were not in dire
straits, I was on the same bandwagon as you about the move.

~~~
greedo
Nonsense. If you can't properly staff a location, then you close that
location. What B&N has done is made a system-wide staffing reduction. So now
busy stores have fewer employees to help customers. This ends up hurting sales
in all stores, ending in a death spiral.

B&N management has been incompetent for the better part of a decade; Riggio is
mostly to blame since he can't seem to either delegate or let go.

~~~
jeremymcanally
Unless they targeted higher numbers of experienced staff at said slow stores
where their higher pay and experience didn't result in significantly higher
sales and largely left experienced staff at busy stores in place. I have no
clue if that's how it was done, but it isn't required to do this sort of
reduction evenly across the entire business.

~~~
greedo
The firing of the receiving managers and other positions were system-wide.
Didn't matter what the store sales were, they lost these positions. At the
store near where I live, they often have only 4 employees working at a time,
for a very busy location. One at the register, one at the Cafe, one manager,
and one bookseller. So good luck if you get a large group of customers who
don't want to wait 30 minutes to purchase their books, much less find them on
the shelves. It's a death spiral...

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LarryDarrell
Remember when we all hated B&N because they put all our local booksellers out
of business?

~~~
reaperducer
Yep. Amazon did to B&N what B&N did to local bookstores.

Just like China did to Mexico in the 2000's what Mexico did to American
factories in the 1990's.

(For those of you not old enough to remember, in the 1990's there was panic
over Mexican maquiladoras just across the borders, just the same way that
Americans today complain about Chinese factories.

And in the 1980's the same panic, but it was about the Japanese.

My prediction: East Africa will do to China what China did to Mexico.)

~~~
pc86
Does East Africa have the infrastructure and law enforcement necessary to
compete with China in manufacturing?

~~~
drharby
I thought china was bankrolling infra in east africa to kind of offshore their
manufacture even further

~~~
jonny_eh
Yup, manufacturing will move from China to Africa, and it'll be China reaping
the benefits.

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twblalock
The bottom line is that it's not possible to compete on price with Amazon.
Amazon does not need to operate storefronts (although ironically it is
starting to open them), has a massive selection, and offers very fast
shipping.

Amazon also does not need to deal with shoplifting, which is a huge problem
for bookstores. I worked at a Border's Books back in college and it was just
amazing how many DVDs were stolen. People would fill backpacks with them.

The only way to outcompete Amazon is by becoming a niche player, not by
becoming a worse version of Amazon, which is the outcome of the Barnes and
Noble strategy.

~~~
jeremymcanally
And those Amazon stores, ironically, are hyper-localized. The one in San Jose
has a bunch of "popular in your area" and "highly rated in your area" shelves,
and I'm guessing other purchasing decisions are influenced heavily by other
local data they have available. B&N aren't just playing against Amazon's
supply chain but also their insane data collection.

~~~
twblalock
Ironically the Amazon store in Santana Row is across the street from a former
Border's location that closed years ago.

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saluki
We've been trying to make all the purchases we can from our local B&N store to
try to keep them open as long as possible.

It's a small effort but if everyone does this maybe it will make a difference.

I love going by our local B&N to look at books, games and legos.

Hopefully they can fight this out and stay open.

~~~
bookmarkacc
Just curious. Why choose B&N over a local bookstore?

~~~
war1025
In many places I'd guess B&N is the only option. Having a chain bookstore is
significantly better than having no bookstore.

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xemdetia
I'm kind of surprised that they say they are still struggling. B&N in my area
is one of the few chain stores I go to where I am actually interested in their
inventory and often but things. I agree that the Nook seemed weird as it was a
lesser device to the Kindle at launch and never really differentiated. The
fact that they are my go-to shop for interesting gifts is an easy choice. They
are one of the few places I can reliably buy interesting Lego and other fun
junk. It's usually better selection and selection that seems to rotate
inventory than a target and walmart where the experience is static and feels
like it hasn't changed in a decade.

Do I buy books there? No, they usually struggle to have anything that meets my
interests or are appropriate for my level of expertise. But the fun junk? It's
my first stop as it doesn't have the home and house thing like a homegoods or
pier 1 style place or an accessory or clothing store. They have a place in the
neighborhood marketplace but I am wondering if the square footage is too high
per store to make a meaningful conversion. Americans really don't like empty
stores and empty shelves even if they have no interest in buying what's on it
ever. Once I saw them going the mid-upscale gift shop route I felt they nailed
it.

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mywittyname
I always enjoyed going to B&N to drink a coffee and read a magazine and have
thought that they should do something to capitalize on this. I wouldn't mind
being able to rent or check out magazines while I drink coffee, then give them
back when I leave.

I'm not sure if they can even turn a profit on this though.

~~~
kinos
You invented a library. This is what a library is. Visit your local library.

~~~
mywittyname
My local libraries don't have cafes. And my local coffee shops don't have good
reading material.

~~~
dragontamer
I've been to libraries with cafes in them.

Alternatively, I've also been to urban libraries where cafes were within
walking distance of the library. Less than a block even, closer than a bus
stop.

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sjg007
Smaller stores in higher traffic areas, a few bigger stores that serve a
larger suburban metro, and they need some exclusives and maybe a paid
membership program.

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supernovae
What should B&N do???

Support the efforts of reading epub's in browsers, get rid of "an app for
that" and simply have Edge/Chrome/Firefox be your front end for reading as
well as a limited selection of nook branded tablet devices included 1-2 7"
tablets and 1-2 paper white devices. your part time sales can't be good at
selling 4-5 different devices you have now. Make your ebooks universally
readable without the expense of "an app for that". Have a simple discovery
service that is http so it works on anythimg/everything as store front.

work with indy publishers and such to fast-track publication of books to nook
devices - promotion at stores, promotion on wifi login - allow people to buy
this space and self-service taking advantage of online and offline premium
presence.

maybe ditch printed magazines entirely and push electronic delivery and have
ipads or samsung galaxies at stores with read at store capability and a simple
way to buy and subscribe and deliver - save the retail/stocking space of
magaines - maybe even offer something like "subscribe to 5 magazines, get 7"
nook for free" \- offer this approach to bloggers who write good blogs/online
magazines so you can help indy publishers and indy content.

Make the B&N discount program universal - apply to all purchases at B&N - jack
up the price if need be.

Follow amazon's footprints - if you're a B&N member have consistent pricing
online & offline - monopolize on 600+ locations. Who cares if they buy on or
offline, make pricing the same.

keep the cafe's up and the service up. Make sure wifi doesn't suck ass like it
does at a lot of stores supplied by shitty ATT service. Just like you allow
Nooks to read at the store, allow anyone with a browser to read at the store.
Instead of copying the mile long receipts of CVS, use wifi login to make it
stupid easy to purchase/have a coupon or funnel customers to an experience
that builds a sales funnel.

Fix the "pickup at store" to be stupid easy rather than painful process.

Work with favor or city delivery services to offer B&N "now" in major cities
for ~ 2-hour delivery service and use this to incentivize purchasing and sales
funnel - no need to do your own delivery, capitalize on other services. Offer
this as a discount to B&N members so they choose you for fast books even if
they can't make it to a store or don't want 3-5 day delivery from website.

Update the 7" nook asap - keep using android, make it known it can use any
ebook service out there too even if its not yours - add 512MB of ram (1.5gb
total or so), increase CPU speed slightly - fix the local storage to be faster
and 16gb - the current 8gb model requires massive nerding to be useful by any
means - if your customer is older people who read tons of books - make it
stupid easy for them to do so with nook / B&N branding all over the place -
even if they're reading google books or amazon books or microsoft books -
having a Nook that can easily read all of that means you own the fucking start
page to reading. Hell, hack the price up to 69 bucks to make the 7" nook just
that much better - if you had iterated on it i'm sure the nook experience
would be killing it rather than festering.

help monetize podcasts - just like blog/magazine content above - use your
branded nook devices to offer a simple channel - it can't cost much to acquire
and develop a simple solution that could be built into a web service and
branded on nook devices. allow podcasters to join in with monetization to
allow you to fill these with pre-roll commercials or "supported by" and allow
others to buy these spots just like web presence, end caps. learn to grow your
digital market not just in commissions but in creating a person two person
market - get out of the way of defining the product but allow people to create
products that you have experiences to sell.

hire me. :)

~~~
fencepost
More than beefing up their current small tablet lineup I'd love to see a well-
supported large screen reading device. I know I can get a 10 inch tablet from
whoever, but a decent e- ink option would be an amazing thing for both large
format books and aging populations.

