Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
Big stores have big overheads and still only offer a fraction of the selection of an online store. As revenues and margins continue to shrink, the stores will be increasingly difficult to keep open.
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The key question for the "OldCo" part of B&N is which part of "bookstore" they are going to stake its future on: the "book" or the "store".
If they're going to bet on the store, they need to find how to move enough product to pay for the facility costs and make a fair return on investment. Which means supplementing/replacing books as their primary revenue source.
If they're going to bet on the book, they need to find how to match the facility to the volume of revenue the books can bring. They either shrink the facility or figure out how to move more books--with ties to online, regional storage houses for next-day special orders, POD, etc...
It's not a given that *all* bookstores are going to go away; just certain *types* of bookstores. It may be the big chain stores, it might be the indies, it might be some of each.
It will simply be a matter of who best adapts to consumers' evolving needs.