Sunday, December 20, 2015

Big-Box Bookstores Don’t Have to Die

Slate: Big-Box Bookstores Don’t Have to Die

6 comments:

Jeff Meyerson said...

Great piece.

Of Barnes & Noble, which appears more and more like a cross between an airport gift shop and a toy store, he said, “My faculties just shut down when I go in there.”

Me too. Every time you walk into one and see the huge Nook displays don't you just shake your head in dismay? THE NOOK IS A DISASTER. Get rid of it.

Deb said...

The simple fact is how many of us can afford to pay 30, 40, even 50 percent more than we'd pay on Amazon for the pleasure of buying in a brick-and-mortar store? Even the guy who wrote the article freely admits he rarely purchased anything at Borders and never at B&N. It reminds me of people who inveigle against Walmart, complaining about how local places and Mom-and-Pop shops are being squeezed out but failing to understand that over the long haul people just can't afford to spend $100 more per month for the pleasure of buying their Tide and Folgers from a local business.

mybillcrider said...

And what a lot of writers know but don't say is that the big boxes and even the independents don't carry their current books, much less their backlist. Getting one of my books from Murder by the Book isn't likely. Getting one from Amazon is easy.

Todd Mason said...

B&N's stores rather famously (still) have been the profit center for the corporation for a while, and the "diversification" of the product beyond books and magazines and espresso has done as poorly as it did for Borders. The Nook is indeed a lost cause. But it was invented by the current management, and so therefore Must Be Perpetuated...the iron law of bureaucracy and failing empires. As I've noted, among others, before, Leonard Liggio keeps offering to buy the stores back from the present management. who won't bite. but, yes, in 1992, you went to B&N for a nice chair with your Starbuck's, and you went to Borders for your books...something the upper management chimps, after the Borders Bros. sod their interest, could never understand, as they immediately began paring the inventory.

Todd Mason said...

If it's actively unpleasant to shop WalMart, as they have been in my experience, it's easy to go to Wegman's (not a mom and pop but at least a union shop) for groceries instead. I do like to see what condition a book is in before buying...though under my current circumstances my buying is Way down. I'm mostly buying very cheap older books and some magazines and remainders.

Bud said...

Amen to Deb on all counts! Never cared for the "Big-Boxes" with or without Starbucks, but there are still a few small (even fewer large) indies around to find and loiter in. just went to one in Ft. Davis, TX: Bookfeller.