01-23-2010, 02:29 PM | #1 |
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A city of 250,000 in US without a bookstore...
B&N shut down a profitable bookstore because of their "overall strategy"...
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/01/22....html?hpt=Sbin This leaves a city in the US, population 250,000, without a single bookstore. For anyone who would like to start a bookstore business, this would be a very good location. I just can't figure out B&N. Who runs this company? |
01-23-2010, 02:34 PM | #2 |
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Be curious to know how many small bookstores were there (if any) before B. Dalton opened.
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01-23-2010, 02:45 PM | #3 |
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This is actually pretty amazing to me. 1) you shut down a profitable business, 2) you don't understand the impact this will have on your customers, what if your business actually fulfilled a need in your community. This is beyond stupid, this is blind idiot business sense. Do these companies even think about what they are doing?
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01-23-2010, 03:04 PM | #4 |
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In B&N's defense, they are shutting down ALL B. Dalton stores.
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01-23-2010, 04:33 PM | #5 |
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01-23-2010, 04:35 PM | #6 |
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I didn't know there were any B. Dalton stores still around anywhere anyway! Haven't seen any in years!
Though given Laredo's size I am still shocked that there is now no major chain bookstore. |
01-23-2010, 04:50 PM | #7 |
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B. Dalton was probably the first chain bookstore I ever shopped in. Too bad the one in Laredo couldn't be converted to a B&N.
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01-23-2010, 06:12 PM | #8 |
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According to CNN B&N already is considering to open a new store in Laredo. Maybe they just wanted to get rid of B. Dalton or close all (smaller) mall stores to re-open a more spacious one.
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01-23-2010, 06:28 PM | #9 |
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That's just a sad state of affairs for a city of that size. However from the sounds of things they maybe just shuffling stores so one will appear nearby soon.
I live in a town of 50'000 and we don't have a single good restaurant, that's just as ridiculous.. |
01-23-2010, 07:23 PM | #10 | |
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What is sad is that I'm helping to lead the way. I'm reading more now but I go to the bookstores much less. The bookstores were where I went to find something NEW. Something, and I didn't even know what. Just roam around until I found a new book, a new series. A library is something like that, but not really the same. And as the paper bookstores go away books will become more expensive, harder to find, then fewer and fewer. Until the library will be a tomb of ancient books visited only by Sol Roth searching for the mystery of Soylent Green. |
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01-23-2010, 07:23 PM | #11 | |
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It's not the first company that's shut down profitable stores. MBA's think they're too important to look at details, and as the article said, the B Dalton line as a whole was losing money-so let's not look at individual stores, just shut them all down. (K-Mart did the same several years ago. Bank of America did it before them. And those are only the ones I know about.) |
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01-23-2010, 07:34 PM | #12 |
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This is actually "old" news, it was announced several weeks ago. As the article points out, that store made a profit, but B. Dalton as a whole did not.
Unfortunately, they don't really have an easy alternative in terms of keeping that specific store open. It's not like you can just change the sign and voila, it's a B&N. |
01-23-2010, 08:43 PM | #13 | |
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Now that I've looked into it, B&N owned the stores for 23 years (since 1987). You would think, that in 23 years, you could come up with a way to make something like that to work! I'm still at a loss as to how this is a positive for anyone. |
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01-23-2010, 09:09 PM | #14 |
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Mall bookstores just aren't profitable enough. Rents in malls are extremely high, and with the big box stores everywhere and internet book buying, they just can't hang on anymore. B&N is doing this with B. Dalton and Borders is doing the same with Waldenbooks.
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01-23-2010, 09:56 PM | #15 | |
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Yes, Barnes and Noble is supposedly thinking about opening a store there, but it won't open for two years, which seems like rather a long time. In the meantime, why not hang a banner over the B. Dalton sign saying "Same books; new name: Barnes and Noble!" and keep the profitable store open? Also, for those interested, I heard about this a while back and couldn't resist the obvious response. I posted it here. |
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