PhantomStranger

If Amazon wanted a cozy chain of bookstores and trinkets, they could do worse than purchase B&N. I'm not sure anyone else wants in that market at the current cost. But they have key locations across the country that could be exploited.

Red Hood

I still don't understand why B&N still sells at full retail price or why they limit their coupons to a one-time use. Both of these practices drive customers away since they can get anything sold at B&N at a cheaper price at Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart, etc and their limiting coupons to one item/ purchase for a one time use basically takes away from people purchasing more/multiple times at the store.

DJariya

Probably because of the high overhead operating their own brick and mortar stores. The spaces are huge. Rent can’t be cheap.

Would not surprise me if more of their B&M’s shut down. I haven’t been in one in ages. N

Red Hood

They made cuts though. Last year, they fired almost all their personnel that had 5 or more years in the company. This included district managers, store managers, retail specialists and baristas. I feel they need to cut on their e-book tablet. They lost ground completely to Amazon, Apple and Samsung. They need to cut on collectibles. They have an excess of Funko POPs, statues and other toys that they are trying to push at retail and they are just collecting dust in the store until they are put on the clearance aisle. They need to promote more in-store events with writers and artists and become part of book tours that a lot of celebrities do. It seems those type of events have now been reserved to only the biggest cities (NYC, LA, Chicago and Miami).

kd5

An example of what I was saying before about their prices: Got a 15% Off store coupon in my email, decided to take a look. Ant Man & The Wasp is $22.99 everywhere. At B&N it's $35.99, $30.59 after 15% Off applied. And I would buy that at B&N.....why? I'm a penny-pinching SOB 99.9% of the time, paying a higher price at B&N "to support them" does not qualify for that other .1%

EdTheRipper

I have a B&N on the same stretch of road that I do all of my weekly errands on. I tend to stop in occasionally. 99% of the times that I do, I end up walking out empty handed. Last week, I found a book about Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs. I figured my son would enjoy it. Saw the MSRP of $35 and put it back on the shelf. I checked on Amazon, and it was only $23. Needless to say, I ordered it from them instead. $12 is too big of a price difference to pass up.

With the relaunch of Fangoria magazine, I didn't want to purchase a subscription sight unseen. I was hoping to find the first issue at B&N, but they're not carrying it. I'm really running out of reasons to keep stopping there at all.

rduncan

I think I'm in the same camp as others posted above. I like strolling around B&N but other than clearance books, find nothing I want. I'm not sure when was the last time I actually purchased anything there. Do they till have some sort of Membership club thing they push at check-out? Yep, I just checked. Even with Coupons they mention I won't drop $25 on it.

jpcamb

the last time I shopped B&N they had moved the clearance books from by the checkout counter to up stairs about as far from the register as possible. Its like they want to fail.... why have impulse buys near the register, nah that might help sales....

JoeySeven

This might not be the right thread.But I do not feel like starting a new one.

so out shopping today.Had to pick up a few books I ordered online for store pick up before my bonus GC expired.
I'm surprise they do not price match their own website.The other book my son wanted was cheaper at B@N online.
And I thought they would match their online prices.I guess this has been B@N policy for awhile.

To get that price I would have to order online for store pick up.So I just ordered from Target online when we got home for a lot cheaper
and free home delivery scheduled to arrive on Thursday.
Besides their Criterion sales,they kind of blow and over priced. Okay just my little rant.

https://goodereader.com/blog/booksel...-dysfunctional

Also we stop by Fry's .Only one aisle left for movie media.
Costco is the devil.No one of my favor stores.I just almost always drop at least 2 bills every visit.

rjh_54

Their lack of a price match policy is absolutely mind-blowing. You'd think they would want to be competitive, but I guess since they're the only major B&M bookstore left I guess they don't feel the need to do that, which is part of the reason why I don't shop there very often. I can't tell you the last time I actually bought a book from Barnes & Noble. I usually order off Amazon or go to Target.

I did used to go in to BN all the time, their CD section used to be enormous and the best in my area, good for older catalogue titles, and their $5 CD section was pretty massive. They more or less got rid of all of their physical media and now I only really shop there when they have exclusive vinyl that I'm interested in (and even then I usually order online since I know I won't find anything of interest in store).

DeanoBKN

A fairly large B&N is in walking distance from my job so I do visit fairly often. One in a while I'll pick up something in their clearance section, but until they offer a proper price matching policy, it's just a place I browse for books before ordering them on eBay or Amazon.