[Steven Lyle Jordan]

In many of the stores and bookstores I've visited, displays of reading devices often featured dead or damaged devices, or items were locked up in cases. When I asked, floor personnel would invariably tell me "We had one on display, and it was broken in a day or so. So now we show mockups and lock the rest up."

In defense, though, some of the mockup displays, and the mockups themselves, do a decent job of showing off the device. Some of them have display loops running on locked-down devices (when they're working), which aren't bad at showing the device's uses. I see that now for a few other electronics as well, and it's better than a plain brown box.

As you indicated, Geoff, no one was checking them out, and no one was buying. But unless you stake out the store all day for a week, say, is it a fair comparison to say "I didn't see anyone look, during the whole ten minutes I was there in February"? I could say the same thing about many of the departments in Best Buy, for instance: "No one was looking at the ebook readers when I was there. Nor the appliances. Nor the cameras. Nor the non-Blu-Ray DVDs. Nor the magazines..."

Let's face it: It's hard to catch eyeballs in a department store, for anything that you didn't specifically come in for. Unless you put live celebs or Playboy bunnies in front of a display, it may never be seen by 90% of the people who go by. (This is the strategy of the average U.S. beer store... posters and cutouts of scantily-clad models, cheerleaders and sports stars surround the products in the aisles; and it's one of the primary reasons Budweiser and Miller products are so popular. 'Cause it ain't the taste...)

And so far, no one has come up with a way to promote ebooks or readers that Joe and Jane Consumer would consider compelling. "Look cool?" Right. "Save bookshelf space?" Wow. "Buy something that'll be obsolete within 2 years?" Oh boy, can't wait.

Finally, department stores rarely have personnel that they can dedicate to the small section that readers generally occupy. They probably do better if they are prominent in the electronics section, which may be permanently manned and therefore easier to get help. (At Best Buy, they're nowhere near the rest of the electronics, so no stationed personnel to help... it's usually, "Sure, let me find someone to help you with that." Find a seat, have some coffee, hope you weren't in a hurry...)