Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
I wonder if B&N might not be better off with super-mega regional stores that are destination stores. Have a childcare area with professional childcare staff so parents can book and toy shop; have a similar pet care area.
Include a special dining area for members only that is open for special events with cookbook authors or local chefs preparing signature dishes from cookbooks along with tie-ins to other fiction and nonfiction books.
There are other things that could be done that could make a super-mega regional store a destination place.
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It works for MicroCenter.
Just 25 stores but each is a magnet for long distances.
https://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/default.aspx
They're unique and have outlived the likes of CompUSA and Computerland from the 80's.
(They're mostly in suburbs because they're enormous.)
B&N could properly support a couple dozen even bigger stores in the biggest urban areas and supplement them with a chain of much smaller B.Dalton style stores focused on "everywhere books" and a good online operation. Emphasis on good. They are one of the very few with the logistic capabilities to pull it off.
The small stores would serve casuals and avid readers would have online plus the megastores.
Main question is whether Daunt gets online. He's a bookshop guy.
And it takes a total rethink of how bookstores should work, focusing on markets first and books second.