Borders in trouble - B&N not much better

I don't feel bad about choosing an online retailer over a brick and mortar store since all of the locally owned ones went out of business years ago.

Big box stores thrive on the the perception that their prices are lower than everybody else. Savvy shoppers know that often times this is not the case. Especially when it comes to big box book stores.

I don't bother with Barnes and Noble anymore. Last time I bought a hardcover there it had a "20% OFF!!!" sticker on it. It was still ten bucks cheaper on Amazon. Plus free shipping.

Why would I want to buy from Barnes and Noble when their books are overpriced and they've probably all been thumbed through by latte sipping freeloaders? Their music section? Everything was around twenty bucks last time I was there.

Hey, I enjoy a good latte myself. I'd feel like a leach sitting around consuming product I haven't paid for though. It's not a library.

 

No, I haven't.

 

Don't those potentates buy a lot of gold cds too?

 

You gotta love people who reply purely in links.

I agree, Walmart's success is troubling, but it's one of many indications that the whole retail/business climate is changing radically -- and not for the better. The situation with Borders and B&N is the tip of the iceberg.

Wow, in mono? How's the mastering?

Oh.

 

I'm a reader of historical non-fiction, and what I've found is that the selection at most used book stores covers the same if not more of the topics that I am interested in, while it is also immensely lighter on the wallet. And fortunately for me, the history is usually pretty accurate whether the book is new or not.

Shopping at amazon is incredibly easy if I am looking for stuff from a specific author or on a specific topic. I had books that I was looking for at new bookstores that I just could not find. It took me all of 2 seconds to load it up on amazon and find the best deal.

The one area where a new bookstore is best is when I am just casually browsing. If I wander into the history section without any particular idea of what I might want, and it's very easy to scan hundreds of books in a short time frame and find numerous ones that seem interesting, some of which I would have never thought of without seeing it first.

I'll be saddened if the world of bookstores is shattered by this, but I guess I can't feel too bad when I know I'd be shopping more if the prices were more affordable.

 

So funny!

 

I like real bookstores. Buying online I can't get a real feel for how a book looks. a lot of the time my eye is caught by something on the shelf I wouldn't have thought to look for on my own. How am I suppose to browse in a world full of 2-dimensional computer images? I want to thumb through pages, man. I want to see some glossy covered sexy thing on a end-cap callling my name. Screw the Nook.

 

This is a great post with good points. However I do enjoy getting out of the house and shopping. And it can be fun, if sometimes annoying, to be out in the holiday crowds...it feels like Christmas to me.

 

The love of the book as a physical object. Something to be held, touched, examined and evaluated. Not just "information" per se, whether digital or physical or ordered by chance.

 

I'm with ya. It's even fun to talk to strangers once in awhile.

 

While I am in sympathy with concern over these serious issues, let's please refrain from further debate over them here.

 

I love Barns and Noble but I admit I just go to browse the magazines-nothing else.Not the cds,not to buy coffee and not to browse the books.Seems like a lot of others are just in the front part of the store as well.working on their laptops reading magazines.I think Barns and Noble will survive but with smaller stores.There really isn't a need for (large) bookstores anymore just like there isn't a need for large cd stores either-the internet has taken care of that.

 

Kinda makes me laugh the sign outside the lone Borders in my area still says ...Books and Music. Not much music there last time I checked.

 

Personally I would think a coexistence of specialist local book stores (which these big chain stores are often preventing or suffocating) with online stores and e-Readers would, all together, provide the full range of market possibilities in a more sustainable way. Balance being a key point and one which unfortunately is lacking in a battle of Borders vs Amazon.

One thing that troubles me about having a dependence upon mail order is that we only have a few shippers for everything. UPS, FedEx, USPS. I can easily see numerous potential problems coming from that direction.

 

The Borders in Bloomington, Indiana closes after Christmas.

 

Yeah I agree that experience of making that discovery isn't the same. I do find most of the product reviews on Amazon to be useful and I am seeing more (but far from all) of their books formatted so you can preview some of it, but I get what you're saying.

There's nothing like walking into a well-kept independent record store especially for vinyl. Although to me they were already hurting from Best Buy's loss leader prices and Wal-Mart's "everything you need in one store" business model before music piracy started and iTunes/online music sales really took off.

Blockbuster I'm not so sad about, other than its employees being out of work and seeing another prominent brand go through a meltdown- they ran a lot of independent rental stores out of business with multiple copies of new release titles, and their business model seemed to be all about gouging the heck out its customers with non-competitive rental fees and sometimes ridiculous late fees for years. Then Netflix came along with their movies by mail concept which was a great deal, then they added the ability to watch some films online at no extra cost. Now there's a buzz on Redbox although I doubt I'll use one personally. BB Video either lowered or did away with their late fees to respond to all of it, but it was just too late.

In my area we have "Family Video" where you can rent for considerably less without steep late fees. I know a lot of people who go to the library to rent movies.

 

Wait.....are you saying the Josie and the Pussycats box is available in true mono? Does anyone know which serial numbers are mono and which are just fold downs?

 

Sorry, just realized I was beaten to the joke. Mea culpa.

 

"Give me convenience or give me death"-The Dead Kennedys Gains greater impact year after year.

 

Jeez, I missed that the moment the CD came out. I thought, "wow, this is very high-tech... but I miss reading the liner notes on the back of the record jacket, and I miss the almost 1-foot square cover art."

Unfortunately, I don't see a good end to this. As Victor Hugo said: "Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come." And that's the whole thing behind downloadable media -- no more physical books, magazines, newspapers, music, video, television, or photographs.

 

Those Amazon suggestions rarely result in me buying something. The problem with those suggestions is that they are based on what you've bought/viewed on the site. Not everything I could possibly like I will have searched for.

When browsing you might come across something that you would never have even thought of.

I was bumming around Toronto a month or so back and randomly came across this amazing bookstore. I didn't buy anything (not in the buying mood) but I had a good look around and will definitely go back to buy something.

Eddie

 

Safeway and Whole Foods both deliver.

 

I seem to recall all of this being discussed in these not very difficult to find threads.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=235543&highlight=borders

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=233839&highlight=borders

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=235543&highlight=borders+barnes+noble

 

I disagree.

Online retailers are almost always 40% off. Add tax and shipping to that, you're still incredibly better off than paying full retail (for most books) at Borders or wherever.

 

+1,I miss the old mom and pop video stores.