B&N "death spiral"?

[BeccaPrice]

from the Digital Reader: The Death Spiral has Officially Begun: B&N Announces Plans to Close 20 Stores a Year

The Wall Street Journal has more information but less speculation.

(oops - that Wall Street Journal just links to their portal - I guess I dont' have access to the full article.)

[afv011]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

from the Digital Reader: The Death Spiral has Officially Begun: B&N Announces Plans to Close 20 Stores a Year

The Wall Street Journal has more information but less speculation.

(oops - that Wall Street Journal just links to their portal - I guess I dont' have access to the full article.)

I don't see that as a "Death spiral", but a way to control costs.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by afv011

I don't see that as a "Death spiral", but a way to control costs.

Yabut... Closing stores does nothing to raise profits. I don't know if that's a "Death Spiral", but it's a very strong indicator of weakness in *their* business.

[Tony1988]

Oh no not another Barnes and Noble death thread. Look we all know the reason why bookstores are failing. So do we really need another thread with over a hundred posts asking or thinking why Barnes and Nobles is losing marketshare???

[QuantumIguana]

Apparently we do. People still wish to discuss it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by afv011

I don't see that as a "Death spiral", but a way to control costs.

Why let facts get in the way of a good headline?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Yabut... Closing stores does nothing to raise profits. I don't know if that's a "Death Spiral", but it's a very strong indicator of weakness in *their* business.

Depends which stores you close. If it's loss-making ones, that can certainly increase profits.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Yabut... Closing stores does nothing to raise profits.

That's not necessarily true. It does nothing to raise revenue, but revenue and prfoit aren't the same thing. If they close stores that are losing money, it can, indeed, raise profits.

Nobody predicted Home Depot's death spiral when they were closing unprofitable stores a few years ago. Nobody predicted Walmart's death spiral when they were closing unprofitable stores a few years ago.

It could be the salvation of the company, or it could be another in a long series of bad decisions. From the outside, the only way we can tell is to watch what happens.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Apparently we do. People still wish to discuss it.

For some values of "discuss," maybe. Mostly, people just want to talk trash about a company they don't like, and other people want to defend a company they do like. B&N, Amazon, Apple, whatever, it's all the same content-free noise.

[teh603]

I wonder if there's some corporate raider who wants the various Nook properties without the rest of the company, and is willing to destroy it to get them?

[charmian]

Death spiral is an overly dramatic way of putting it. However, it does surprise me that they're making ten-year plans in a market that's changing so much. I don't think ebooks and online print book shopping will become 100% of the book market, but from what I hear the growth of ebooks hasn't stopped yet. Plus, that doesn't take into account any technological changes that might jump-start a new round of growth.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by teh603

I wonder if there's some corporate raider who wants the various Nook properties without the rest of the company, and is willing to destroy it to get them?

Since the nook stuff has been spun off in to a seperate company, there wouldn't be much point in what you suggest. Plus, they'd have to fight Microsoft over the carcas.

[xendula]

I'm with Becca: that's how it started with Borders as well, and CircuitCity, and CompUSA....
If the B&N in my area closes, there won't be a single book store left here.

[charmian]

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/...DEyNDgyWj.html

I think this link might work.

Other things in the article: Klipper claims that fewer than 20 stores lose money.

Bertelsmann SE & Co.'s Random House, the world's largest publisher of consumer books, says e-books now make up about 22% of its global sales, up from almost nothing five years ago. The head of a major publishing rival says he expects e-books will be as much as 50% of his total book sales in the U.S. by the end of 2014. Digital books already account for 60% of this publisher's sales of new commercial fiction, a key category for the nation's largest bookstore chain.

60% of new commercial fiction sales? Wow. That's above even the 50% figure for fiction I've seen estimated. 50% of total book sales by 2014 is quite a figure. Yet, at the same time, growth is slowing?

[toddos]

I love Barnes & Noble because

• I love my Nook
• I can buy discounted gift cards using Discover cashback and use them for ebooks
• They use the industry standard epub format and easily breakable Adobe-based DRM

That said, I haven't been inside a B&N store in nearly a year. The last time I went in one was to look at the then brand new Nook Glowlight, to decide if I wanted to buy one online or not (I eventually bought one used for cheap on Craigslist instead). Losing the brick and mortar stores is no big loss, at least for me. Even losing the nook readers and ebook store wouldn't be a mortal blow, since hackers have rooted all of the readers and I can buy books anywhere and rip/convert as needed (or not, if I buy from an Adobe-based store).

I'd be sad to see B&N go, and it would mean the end to any sort of competition for Kindle (Kobo tries, but they're just not on the same playing field), but it's not the end of the world.