MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - An observation on readers being sold

elizilla · 03-10-2011, 11:20 AM

B&N is generally a disappointing bookstore, in person. They build these massive big box stores, three stories tall with giant columns like a temple of reading, and you imagine you'll go in and browse for hours, it'll be fantastic, right? Then you go inside and it turns out that while the place is three stories tall, the depth doesn't match the width, and it's just a giant hollow atrium, all this empty air above you. All the books are tucked away on a teeny tiny balcony running around the second floor. There's a dramatic stairway leading up there. On the first floor, there's a Nook display in a temporary fairground style booth in the middle of an echoing empty space, and around the perimeter of the first floor, there are coffee shops, toy displays, and a few tables filled with "bargain" coffee table books.

It's all presentation and very little actual bookstore. You can find more depth of selection in bookstores with a quarter of the square footage.

Thanks goodness for the "long tail" of the internet.

03-10-2011, 11:20 AM	#47
elizilla Addict Posts: 271 Karma: 610286 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Michigan, USA Device: Kobo Elipsa, Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Sage, others	B&N is generally a disappointing bookstore, in person. They build these massive big box stores, three stories tall with giant columns like a temple of reading, and you imagine you'll go in and browse for hours, it'll be fantastic, right? Then you go inside and it turns out that while the place is three stories tall, the depth doesn't match the width, and it's just a giant hollow atrium, all this empty air above you. All the books are tucked away on a teeny tiny balcony running around the second floor. There's a dramatic stairway leading up there. On the first floor, there's a Nook display in a temporary fairground style booth in the middle of an echoing empty space, and around the perimeter of the first floor, there are coffee shops, toy displays, and a few tables filled with "bargain" coffee table books. It's all presentation and very little actual bookstore. You can find more depth of selection in bookstores with a quarter of the square footage. Thanks goodness for the "long tail" of the internet.