# I Went to Barnes & Noble to Kill Some Time and This is What I Found... Sad.



## GaryCecil (Jan 5, 2014)

*Barnes & Noble Storefronts are Disappearing *

I was in town (Gainesville, FL) the other day to pick up Titanfall (amazing game, by the way) from Best Buy. I arrived a few minutes early, so I decided to head over to Barnes & Noble, which was just across the plaza, and I simply cannot resist a chance to find a new book. A front parking space was open, and I squeezed into it as fast as I could. Everything was business as usual. I checked my phone, and still had ten minutes until Best Buy opened. But then I got out of the car. Much to my surprise, the picture below stood before me.

​*Barnes & Noble Gainesville, FL location closed.	*

All I could do was stand there. When did this happen? I was just here in December, buying Christmas gifts. And twenty other random thoughts went through my mind. The last thought stayed: Everything is changing, and fast.

For the full article, read, comment, and share here - http://www.garycecil.com/2014/03/barnes-noble-closures-and-digital-era.html

I'm interested in what you have to say about these bookstores closing.


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## Jena H (Oct 2, 2011)

I haven't been to my local B&N lately (it's been a few months, maybe over the holidays), but every time I'm there, it's always quite busy and crowded.  I have no idea what everyone is doing or buying, but there are definitely bodies in the store.


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## I Give Up (Jan 27, 2014)

I know the feeling. Several years ago I worked as a bridal consultant in the Providence Place mall. I got an hour lunch and I would go to Borders, grab a book, and eat a pastry in the cafe. Highlight of my day. Now, every time I go into DSW, I stare at the little corner with the clearance shoes and the discount purses, and remember where my little cafe used to be.

I think the reason things like this make us sad is because seeing a closed bookstore makes it seem as though people no longer care about books. We just have to remember that buildings like these exist because our industry is at an all-time high. Now, people who may not have ever set foot in a brick and mortar like Borders are getting their hands on books made by authors who may have never been able to get their books into those stores.

In short, it's sad, but there is a silver lining.


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## von19 (Feb 20, 2013)

Its not just B&N, its EVERYONE. Brick and mortar places are slowly dying thanks to the internet. Their just more expensive than their worth. Yahoo recently had an article about this. 

Oh how I miss the Boarders I used to shop at 

Sent from my SM-T210R using Tapatalk


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## omar (Mar 10, 2014)

I've always loved Barnes&noble. Grew up on it and I still love the environment. I go there a lot to relax. I wonder though how they make money. Personally, I now only read books on my phone or the kindle.


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## redacted (Dec 16, 2013)

Businesses that cater to disposable entertainment need to constantly adapt to new technology. They should have learned from music stores and Blockbuster Videos, but they didn't. Such is the fate of all dinosaurs incapable of adapting.


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## lungtastic (May 23, 2011)

Jena H said:


> I haven't been to my local B&N lately (it's been a few months, maybe over the holidays), but every time I'm there, it's always quite busy and crowded. I have no idea what everyone is doing or buying, but there are definitely bodies in the store.


It was the same way at our local Borders before it shut down. There was always a line of people at the cash register and the parking lot was always full. Maybe they were all buying bookmarks or something. I know of one Barnes and Nobles nearby that also shut down, and it generally seemed busy. Sad.


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## jdcore (Jul 2, 2013)

I had a daddy/daughter day with mine the other day, and we went to both B&N and Half Price Books in Robinson, PA. Both were packed.


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## deedawning (Aug 31, 2013)

It's not just ebooks that are killing book stores. Print books still outsell ebooks nine to one, but people are buying print books more and more on line. And not just books. It's everything. Internet stores like Zappos are thriving while sticks and bricks stores are hurting. No, all sticks and brick stores are not going to go out of business, but they will consolidate and we will have to drive farther to get to our destinations.


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## Bluebonnet (Dec 15, 2013)

Anybody from the Atanta area remember the Oxford Bookstore? It was a large independent bookstore, and it was my favorite. Oxford was forced to close in 1997, way before there was any competition in bookselling from the Internet. The reason was that the owner took on huge debt in order to expand and move to a new location, and he could not get enough business to support the new location and make the debt payments. Ill-timed and expensive expansion has destroyed many an entrepreneur. I'm mentioning the sad story of Oxford just to show that there are other reasons for brick-and-mortar business failures besides Internet competition. Without doing research on Barnes & Noble, I'd speculate that they have some additional problems of ineffective long-term strategy, poor management decisions or difficulties with debt financing.

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/1997/05/26/editorial3.html?page=all
Bizjournals.com/Atlanta, May 26, 1997, "Oxford Books' story didn't have to end the way it did."

One interesting statistic in this 1997 story is that 40,000 new books a year were published at the time. Today, over 2 million books are published worldwide each year. I'm sorry bookstores are closing, but the increase to 2 million books per year means that there has been an increase in the number of readers. That is very good news for writers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_per_year
Wikipedia, "Books published per country per year," statistics from UNESCO for 124 countries. They did not have the same year for each country (many countries are late reporting statistics to the UN), but it's the most comprehensive list I've seen, totaling approximately 2,200,000 books. The largest number of books were published in the US, China, UK and Russia, each publishing over 100,000 new titles per year. The next group, roughly 60,000 to 82,000 new books per year, consisted of India, Germany, Japan and Iran. I guess that is telling us where the largest number of readers are, and what languages they are reading.


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## RosalieLario (Jun 21, 2011)

Same thing happened to me a couple months ago. I hadn't been in awhile, and was shocked to see an LA Fitness where B&N used to be.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Packed does not mean sales.  It means people are looking and FWIW, I wouldn't give my local B&N the time of day.


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## Guest (Mar 15, 2014)

Somewhere along the line, Barnes & Noble forgot that it's business purpose was to SELL books, not provide a comfy place for folks on their lunch break to READ books.

Barnes & Noble, and other large book stores, found it easy to make this unprofitable shift when the stores realized they could stock their shelves with books "on consignment."

If the books (merchandise) did not sell, the stores could return them to the publishers for full credit.

Yep. We'll miss those nice stores where we could sit down and READ the latest books. Isn't it so sad!


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## lisamaliga (Oct 28, 2010)

That is just so sad to see.


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## skyblue (Dec 23, 2009)

That is so sad!!! . I read on my Kindle Fire, but I still like to browse B&N.  My son purchases all his books there, and we always buy Starbucks when we visit.  I purchase greeting cards, travel books and calendars there as well.  It's always swamped.


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## GaryCecil (Jan 5, 2014)

It's just scary to see it happening right at home. You read about it all the time, but to see it, it's just scary, that's all. Bookstores have needed to adapt for a long time. They're quite intimidating to walk into. So packed and stuffed that all you end up "seeing" are the bestsellers, who will continue to be bestsellers for this reason.


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

My honest feeling: way back in the day when B&N first became a major player, it was they who were putting indie bookstores out of business by undercutting prices on hardbacks and offering steep discounts to members: a business plan smaller competition absolutely could not compete with.

They were a company with far more resources than any indie bookstore. Instead of doing what the indies couldn't do, and putting some work and money into growing along with the industry's technological changes, they spent years screeching and flailing all over the place about how Amazon was...putting them out of business by undercutting their prices at rates they could not possibly compete with.

So as much as I enjoy visiting bookstores, I'm not sad to see these guys go. At all. Their hypocrisy, and the way the major publishers jumped onboard with trashing Amazon (and then colluding against Amazon with Apple) under the banner of "Won't somebody think of the bookstores!" was disgusting.

'Bye. Don't let the door hit you on the butt on the way out.


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## GaryCecil (Jan 5, 2014)

I agree that greed can go a long way, and those who're greedy should be removed. I just don't think that thousands of people (the employees) should have to suffer for the greed of their "superiors" (the CEO, big-shots). That's the sad part.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

I too miss Borders.  There is a Barnes & Noble very near where our Borders was located.  (I never understood why B&N opened so close to where Borders was.  Borders was there first.)  I don't go into B&N very often, but like to know it's there for when the spirit moves me.  (Recently.)  But I wouldn't be surprised if it closed?  One big problem for me with the store -- it's in a HUGE space!!!  Way too big.  Two floors!!  I'm pretty sure one floor was app. the size of Borders which was big enough.  One of the last times I was there . . . as I was walking out, I remembered some other subject I wanted to look at.  It was located upstairs.  Not going to go waaaay up again at that point to look.  It's just too big.  I wonder who at B&N thought that space was good?  Maybe they got a deal on rent from shopping center management, but still . . . .


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## Brenda Ortega (Jul 22, 2013)

I heard an interesting story on NPR the other day, which basically reminded listeners that at one time everyone lamented the rise of the big box bookstores. The idea then was that Borders and B&N were these monoliths that would kill the indie bookstores, crush the art and custom of hand-selling, etc. 

The upside of the demise of the mega-chain bookstores, according to this story, is that it's benefiting the indie bookstores. They're all that's left to fill that bookstore niche, and they're uniquely poised to determine what their individual communities want and need.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

If I had the time and money to invest in it, I'd pursue my idea of a "digital book store" that is basically a coffee & pastry shop set up like a bookstore, where people could still meet and talk about books but no physical books would be sold. (There would definitely be a shelf or two of Book Crossing/free-exchange books, though.) The main profit would be in the food and coffee, with extra facility rental fees for people who wanted to hold meetings or other events there. It would be possible to buy e-books there, using affiliate links presented through a captive WiFi system, but despite being the advertised purpose of the store it would not be an important revenue stream and it wouldn't matter if people found a way to bypass it. The real purpose/value would be to replace the book-oriented social aspect of the dying/dead big book stores and profit from making it as comfortable and reader-friendly as possible.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

My real objection to the closure of stores is this ... you can browse properly and sometimes find brand-new stuff in stores in the way you simply cannot on the internet. On the net, you simply get the most powerful marketers thrusting stuff at you the entire time. This kills genuine choice. The internet was supposed to make us freer, but the basic truth is we're giving away much of our freedom and choice and turning ourselves into passive consumers by giving into it completely.


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

Bluebonnet said:


> Anybody from the Atanta area remember the Oxford Bookstore? It was a large independent bookstore, and it was my favorite. Oxford was forced to close in 1997, way before there was any competition in bookselling from the Internet. The reason was that the owner took on huge debt in order to expand and move to a new location, and he could not get enough business to support the new location and make the debt payments. Ill-timed and expensive expansion has destroyed many an entrepreneur. I'm mentioning the sad story of Oxford just to show that there are other reasons for brick-and-mortar business failures besides Internet competition. Without doing research on Barnes & Noble, I'd speculate that they have some additional problems of ineffective long-term strategy, poor management decisions or difficulties with debt financing.
> 
> http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/1997/05/26/editorial3.html?page=all
> Bizjournals.com/Atlanta, May 26, 1997, "Oxford Books' story didn't have to end the way it did."
> ...


There was a Borders in the mall near me that I used to go to all the time until they went belly up. The closest B&N to me is in Bethlehem, PA, and I went there a number of times in 2012 but didn't go there at all last year. The times I did go, there were lots of people in the store. 

True about overexpansion in other industries. Back in the 80s and 90s, in the microbrew beer industry, a well-respected brewery named Catamount had some delicious beers; then they decided to expand their production (including a new building to house the brewery), without any sort of marketing push, and they went bankrupt: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20001001/20428.html. Really sad, because their beers were quite good.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

Our local Books-A-Million seems to be thriving.


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## GaryCecil (Jan 5, 2014)

Tony Richards said:


> My real objection to the closure of stores is this ... you can browse properly and sometimes find brand-new stuff in stores in the way you simply cannot on the internet. On the net, you simply get the most powerful marketers thrusting stuff at you the entire time. This kills genuine choice. The internet was supposed to make us freer, but the basic truth is we're giving away much of our freedom and choice and turning ourselves into passive consumers by giving into it completely.


This is such a valid point! I know we are at the dawn of the digital revolution, and physical stores are becoming extinct, but there's just something off about the Internet. It can be a beautiful and profitable place, but at the same time, you have to sift through marketing powerhouses. How many emails do you get from Amazon showcasing your books? Probably none.

They push their product and their new releases right in front of your face, where most consumers are at. Hell, to find the horror section, you have to click on "literature and fiction" then scroll on down to horror. Before they even make it to the latter, they've already clicked on a banner, showcasing a "hot new release" and so forth.

Hell, I could be a bestseller if I had a million bucks to market myself. It's not even about being good, it seems, it's about having powerful people behind you, saying that you're good.


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## Alessandra Kelley (Feb 22, 2011)

Okey Dokey said:


> Somewhere along the line, Barnes & Noble forgot that it's business purpose was to SELL books, not provide a comfy place for folks on their lunch break to READ books.
> 
> Barnes & Noble, and other large book stores, found it easy to make this unprofitable shift when the stores realized they could stock their shelves with books "on consignment."
> 
> ...


The returns policy, whereby stores could return unsold books to publishers for full credit, dates to the early 1930s, when the Great Depression was devastating sales everywhere.

It is not a recent thing. People have been pointing out its flaws for decades.

Barnes and Noble dates at most to the 1960s, so the policy was solidly established long before even its founder was born.

Whatever malign influence the returns policy has had, it was not a new factor contributing to book chain collapses.


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## deckard (Jan 13, 2011)

Alessandra Kelley said:


> The returns policy, whereby stores could return unsold books to publishers for full credit, dates to the early 1930s, when the Great Depression was devastating sales everywhere.
> 
> It is not a recent thing. People have been pointing out its flaws for decades.
> 
> ...


According to Wikipedia, Barnes & Noble had its start back in 1886, with its name becoming B&N in 1917.

Deckard


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Sadly, I fear that this is the beginning of the end for B&N. They have closed a number of them in Chicago, too. And the stores that are open (and I was just in one yesterday) somehow seem...emptier, than they've ever been.


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## Alessandra Kelley (Feb 22, 2011)

deckard said:


> According to Wikipedia, Barnes & Noble had its start back in 1886, with its name becoming B&N in 1917.
> 
> Deckard


You're right, of course. My apologies. I'm not a New Yorker and was relying on the official B&N history page which doesn't mention anything from before 1965 and is all about the current owner.

It does remain true, though, that the returns policy dates to the 1930s, and it seems a stretch to trace the current decline directly to that.


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

It was pretty disappointing when the Borders in my town closed. The building is still standing vacant, though there does appear to be some activity inside recently.

A couple of things about Borders that people might not know:

  1. They experimented with selling ebooks long before Amazon jumped into the market. The problem was, there were no stable ebook reader producers. Eventually, Borders scaled back their activities on this front about a year or two before Amazon hit the world with the Kindle.

  2. Borders had a business division created solely for the purpose of working with self-publishing writers to assist them with getting their books printed and into Borders' stores. They recognized that there was talent out there that the big publishers were passing over and that these independent writers could turn out to be hits. Gaining an exclusive by working positively with that writer could be very lucrative. They were working just shy of being a publisher in some ways. This was back when turning to self-publishing was considered a thing of shame.

They were very forward thinking and ahead of the times. It's sad they couldn't better capitalize on their progressive programs.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

The Barnes & Noble store near Lincoln Center that was easy walking distance for me closed a long while back because of real estate costs.  Century 21 (clothes) is now in that spot.  The space that was Borders at Columbus Circle is now an H&M clothing store.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

mlewis78 said:


> The Barnes & Noble store near Lincoln Center that was easy walking distance for me closed a long while back because of real estate costs. Century 21 (clothes) is now in that spot. The space that was Borders at Columbus Circle is now an H&M clothing store.


And when we're 3D-printing our clothes based on indie-published and/or open-licensed machine patterns -- similar to the WikiHouse concept -- the clothing stores will follow the book stores into obsolescence!


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## Sean Sweeney (Apr 17, 2010)

ElHawk said:


> My honest feeling: way back in the day when B&N first became a major player, it was they who were putting indie bookstores out of business by undercutting prices on hardbacks and offering steep discounts to members: a business plan smaller competition absolutely could not compete with.
> 
> They were a company with far more resources than any indie bookstore. Instead of doing what the indies couldn't do, and putting some work and money into growing along with the industry's technological changes, they spent years screeching and flailing all over the place about how Amazon was...putting them out of business by undercutting their prices at rates they could not possibly compete with.
> 
> ...


THIS. Been my argument for a while.


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## metal134 (Sep 2, 2010)

Sean Sweeney said:


> THIS. Been my argument for a while.


I third this. I mean, on the one hand, I like Barnes and Noble (especially because of their bi-annual Criterion sales. HUGE lift for my Blu-Ray collection), but on the other hand, they are only getting taken out by the same tactics that put them on top in the first place.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

I miss my Borders horrible.


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

I wander in big book stores to pass time, not to get a book. When I still bought DTB I bought them from used bookstores that were small mom & pop places, and rarely from Half-price-Books, mainly I get CDs there though.
I have no sympathy for the B&N or Borders plight. They forced out of business every small bookstore I grew up going to.


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## JamesOsiris (Mar 23, 2014)

Crenel said:


> And when we're 3D-printing our clothes based on indie-published and/or open-licensed machine patterns -- similar to the WikiHouse concept -- the clothing stores will follow the book stores into obsolescence!


That's going to be some incredible stuff when it happens - and it will, assuming the social order doesn't completely disintegrate in the next 30 years xD


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

Tony Richards said:


> My real objection to the closure of stores is this ... you can browse properly and sometimes find brand-new stuff in stores in the way you simply cannot on the internet. On the net, you simply get the most powerful marketers thrusting stuff at you the entire time. This kills genuine choice. The internet was supposed to make us freer, but the basic truth is we're giving away much of our freedom and choice and turning ourselves into passive consumers by giving into it completely.


That really is a problem, especially for me because I don't generally like bestsellers. In fact, if I see a book has won an award or is a bestseller, I pretty much know that I won't enjoy it.  Subsequently, I have to really "dig, dig, dig" page after page on places like Amazon to find books that might interest me. I'm really happy with the indie author "revolution" because I've found several authors that I love. They aren't necessarily indie and some are published by small presses that are also relatively new, but I'm just glad to have access to them.

Bookstores weren't always the answer to more choices/browsing, though, since they had limited shelf space and often only carried the big names and a few midlisters.

I just wish some of the search algorithms were a little easier to manipulate. And I'd love to be able to exclude certain powerhouse authors who constantly gum up my searches and force me to sift through more pages to find the things I do want to read.  I'd love to be able to mark certain authors on Amazon as "never show me these in search results." That would really be SWEET. LOL


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## Mollyb52 (Jan 4, 2009)

I must agree with those who don't feel sorry for B&N.  It was suicide by greed.


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## Tris (Oct 30, 2008)

My B&N seem to be doing well.  Of course, I do live in a more popular suburb, so we've got 2 B&N stores on either side of the city.

I do find it funny when I hear people miss Borders.  Borders was the MOST expensive book store ever in my area. There was one in a major mall in my city and another in my neighboring city (another major city).  People were young and older families, but the Borders (even with a posh location) didn't make it.  Both locations closed within a year.  A lot of people came in, but didn't really buy anything as one look at the prices, they would say things like "I could get it cheaper at B&N!"  Which had one a quick block down the street.  Sticker shock when the same edition of a book would be at least double what it would be at B&N...and even with the massive size of Borders, everything seemed to have to be ordered. 

Tris


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

I bought plenty at Borders. They had a Rewards program which was FREE just for signing up until last few years when they charged for membership. (B&N always charged for Rewards / Membership?) That got you e-mail coupons once a week. Many times (no, not always, but many) there was 25% - 40% discount coupon on a book. Often enough 30% or 33%. I took advantage of those. I bought books with graphics / coffee table type books, not reading books. (Kindle for those.) My shelves are full. I love my books. I miss Borders big time. I was there at least once a week. Got to know (in the store) manager and some booksellers, especially Kevin who managed CD and DVD department. One bookseller was there from Borders day one until last day. I don't know for certain, but thinking must have been something like 15 years? Twenty maybe?


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I used the Borders coupons too on dvds and an occasional book.  I could see my Borders dying though, because they had other junk and it was often hard to find what I wanted.  It was the only book store in my neighborhood, so I didn't like that it closed.  The B&N that closed due to high real estate costs near Lincoln Center closed before that Borders did.


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## CecilyKane (Mar 4, 2014)

Brenda Ortega said:


> The upside of the demise of the mega-chain bookstores, according to this story, is that it's benefiting the indie bookstores. They're all that's left to fill that bookstore niche, and they're uniquely poised to determine what their individual communities want and need.


I've wondered for a long time if this would be the case. Happy to hear that my prediction's been confirmed.


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## GaryCecil (Jan 5, 2014)

Both of your pics are so sad!


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

There was a sales person at my Borders who swam at my health club.  I still see him at the club sometimes.  I don't know what he does now, but he was at Borders until they closed.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

I'd forgotten about Chicago's long-gone Kroch's and Brentano's. Kroch's was my first introduction to bookstores.

The article about Kroch's reports that Borders' first store in the Chicago area was in Oak Brook (that was "my Borders"  ) which opened in app. 1989.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

For some reason I used to really like the in-mall bookstores, i.e., Waldenbooks and B. Dalton, not realizing at the time that they were connected to Borders and Barnes & Noble, respectively. Now I see them in the same "class" as the old Software, Etc. stores (which I also liked a lot), i.e., outdated and not matching current consumer interests. Clearly people are still buying books and software, but both are often electronically delivered and, when not, they're often shipped directly to the buyer's home or business. Some one-stop-shop stores (Walmart, Fred Meyer, etc.) still devote shelf space to books and software, but that shelf space seems greatly reduced from what it once was. If buyers don't buy those items that way much anymore, stores specifically designed for buying those items that way are basically doomed.

ETA: Speaking of malls, they seem increasingly focused on clothing, and thus I almost never go to them anymore. A local mall just shifted to the "outlet mall" model and, when I just looked at what stores it offers in the "Cards, Gifts, and Books" categories, the stores listed were not where you'd expect to buy books:  Bed, Bath & Beyond, Body Jewelry Plus, Burlington Coat Factory, Gosanko Chocolate Art, Marshalls, Nordstrom Rack, and Spencer Gifts.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

This is quite the interesting thread with many varying opinions and thoughts about bookstores and their current demise.  I'm a guy who hates to shop--except for bookstores.  I used to spend at least an hour at a time just browsing through the aisles.  I never cared about coffee or reading much while in the stores.  I got a Kindle  about 6 months after they were out.  I immediately lost my interest in dtb's except for tech books.  I'm sure it's true that the big box stores were partly responsible for the demise of the idie stores just like hardware, grocery, restaurants, etc..  However, the internet and ereaders are, too.  My wife and others still read dtb's because they like the feel, etc..  However, she does it less and less now and really likes her  PW.  It's okay for us to feel sad about the end of the road for the bookstores, but it's just a sign of the times and technology.  There's also the convenience.  I don't how many times that I've gone to store to get a particular thing that they are out of or don't even stock.  Then after wasting gas and time, I return home and order the item online--usually from Amazon.  I now even find myself rescheduling projects to coincide with shipment arrivals.  I'm not totally sure that I like the way things have turned out, but this is the way it is.


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## skyblue (Dec 23, 2009)

We went to B&N Friday night.  It was surprisingly busy, lots of activity.  We always get Starbucks before browsing.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Was in B&N today.  Was curious about music I heard playing.  I was near Music / Video dept.  No one including Kevin (from Borders) was in the dept.  Waited a few minutes and checked again.  Still no one there.  Saw a bookseller working near Music dept.  I asked him what was playing.  "I don't know."  I didn't expect him to know, but thought he'd offer help in finding out.  He didn't even ask if I saw anyone in Music dept.  Simply "I don't know."  That's why I don't like B&N.  Have to go back tomorrow .  I'll advise the manager.  Saw music seller few minutes later.  I'd heard 2Cellos.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

deedawning said:


> It's not just ebooks that are killing book stores. Print books still outsell ebooks nine to one, but people are buying print books more and more on line. And not just books. It's everything. Internet stores like Zappos are thriving while sticks and bricks stores are hurting. No, all sticks and brick stores are not going to go out of business, but they will consolidate and we will have to drive farther to get to our destinations.


Actually no print books don't 'still outsell ebooks nine to one'. Even the skewed statistics you see in newspapers which exclude indy and most small publisher ebooks don't say that.

As far as B&N and Borders, Karma bites. They're experiencing what they did to independent bookstores not all that long ago. I grew up spending a lot of time in bookstores but don't particularly get the nostagia. As long as people are buying books (of whatever medium) and reading, why should it matter where they buy them? When I want a book to read in the middle of the night, I love having them at my fingertips.


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

If BN didn't get into digital publishing; it would have gone long before like other book stores. It's the age of shopping on-line... Let us accept it...


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

deedawning said:


> ...Print books still outsell ebooks nine to one...


According to data harvested by authorearnings.com and several other publishing market-watching sources, the ratio of print to digital books generally hovers around 2:1. So a 66% vs 33%, or two-thirds market share, is a fairly accurate description.

To be fair, this ratio fluctuates depending on the time of year and other market pressures. At one point, when ebooks were starting out and took on "fad status", the ratio briefly punched up to 50/50, inducing some pundits to declare print was dead. But overall, print still exceeds digital by a decent margin. For this, anyone looking at self-publishing must add to their business plan a path for going to print.


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## geniebeanie (Apr 23, 2009)

I live in Egg Harbor N.J.  We have one book store in the entire area around Atlantic City.  It is called Bam. I do not drive and to get there Inhave to walk from the Hamilton  Mall to the book store. Easier to order from Amazon.


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