Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
That *is* how it is sold in the partner outlets, no?
And it appears to be the way Amazon bookkeeps Kindle.
As a rule, retailers' overhead covers the cost of stocking and selling a product, unless they're receiving co-marketting or rebate funding. It makes sense to treat Nook as a separate product if it is to be a self-sustaining business at some point.
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No, what B&N execs stated on their earnings call recently was that in-store costs like building kiosks were being born by B&N consumer retail, ie. not charged to the Nook division.
Third party retailers like Best Buy charge for space in their flyers, any premium space in stores (like end-caps) and certainly if they were to build a Nook kiosk (like Comcast was doing: 100% of that cost is born by vendor, not the Best Buy).
To the extent B&N consumer retailer has dedicated staff manning those kiosks, as well as other associated costs (floor space for example) -- not to mention any special incentives for the sales staff -- those are "hidden" subsidy costs that don't get charged back to Nook in the same way the identical practise in third party would. It just means the true cost of the Nook to B&N corporate is probably higher than what's been stated (in very general terms I might add) to date.