Barnes & Noble’s ‘Crucifyingly Boring’ Stores

[fjtorres]

This more of a discussion thing than news but it is recent.
From Publishing Perspective:

https://publishingperspectives.com/2...le-challenges/

Daunt shows some of his plans:

At today’s (November 25) FutureBook Live conference in London, James Daunt has said that the vast 629-store Barnes & Noble chain he’s now overseeing in the United States must rip out what’s boring—both in stores and online—and find its character if it’s to succeed.
The FutureBook event, now in its 10th year, has drawn what organizers say is more than 500 to its programming today, speakers included, and this industry-facing conference gave Daunt a warm welcome for his show-opening welcome.

Daunt lists three elements of successful bookselling, and personality comes first. Second is also critically important, he said, the presence of an aggressively curated inventory, responsive to each store’s consumer base. And third is engaged and capable staffers, the employees many people in publishing like to believe are in each bookshop, enthusiastic and adept at helping a customer find what she or he is looking for.

The biggest difference in bookselling in the States and in the UK, Daunt told a questioner in the audience, is that there are far fewer bookstores. And the profession of bookselling in America has taken a considerable hit over the years, he said.

“Unfortunately, Barnes & Noble degraded the career of a bookseller,” as he put it, and he sees part of his mission to be re-establishing the importance of booksellers in the American stores and giving them the authority of local curation, something he’s known for doing at Waterstones.

Asked by The Bookseller editor Philip Jones what success will look like at Barnes & Noble, Daunt’s answer was to ask for some patience. “It takes a couple of years to get a bookselling team turned around,” he said, “so it will be 2021 or 2022” before the real effects of his efforts to redirect the long-flagging company can be discerned.

(Presumably he means less bookstores per capita?)

There's at least one visible outcome already of the Daunt regime: a class action lawsuit:

Not mentioned in the morning session here at London’s 155 Bishopgate conference center was the lawsuit filed in the States against Barnes & Noble five days ago (November 20) by former Barnes & Noble employee Barbara Tavres, 59, in the US District Court in Northern California, seeking class action status and alleging age discrimination.

Tavres was told she’d be dismissed in September, and the court filing clearly looks to connect her experience to an idea that Daunt’s plan includes youthening the chain’s workforce.

From the filing: “In its effort to avoid growing ‘stale’ and to foster its ‘shiny and new’ public image, Barnes & Noble determined that these older workers no longer looked the part. To accomplish this goal, Barnes & Noble engaged in a campaign of age discrimination. It terminated its employees age 40 and older and replaced them with a younger workforce. And in doing so, Barnes & Noble violated these workers’ rights to be free from age discrimination in
the workplace under both federal and California law.”

Lots more at the source.

[Tomk2]

However, it sounds like he is really standing behind all the booksellers he didnt fire.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Paperbackstash]

I've seen recommendations to have catered booksellers guiding customers as an improvement in a lot of these articles. I know a person whose whole job was at Barnes N' Nobles as a recommendation expert before they cut the position. It's helpful for the bookclerks to know where books are --- but too much emphasis on this can be irritating. I don't want to be followed around with recommendations if I'm a browser/shopper. I usually can find the areas I'm looking for.

When we had a Barnes N' Nobles, I didn't find them boring - but I found them pretty pricey. Brick and Mortar Stores can be pretty expensive. The local Books a Million is in business and has a large section for discounted books all the time, which is helpful and a fun area to browse.

I do miss the Barnes N' Nobles coffee shop and cheesecakes.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Tomk2

However, it sounds like he is really standing behind all the booksellers he didnt fire.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Mostly because Riggio fired most of the experienced staff last year.

https://teleread.org/2018/02/14/barn...or-this-world/

If the suit is true, he's just finishing the job.

Bear in mind that his UK staff was protesting low salaries this year:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...y-val-mcdermid

...and quit over the lack of action:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ve-bookselling

It doesn't sound like he links low salaries with the degrading of bookselling as a career, which is not what minimum wages are for.

For all the griping about Amazon, at least their salary floor is $15 these days. Still not career levels but it's nearly double the legal minimum.

[crich70]

They should start by using words that actually mean what they mean to say. The word Crucifyingly as far as I know doesn't exist, and the word "Crucify" (aside from its religious overtones) stands for a very painful way to die. It would have been far better to use a word like Excruciating in its place.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by crich70

They should start by using words that actually mean what they mean to say. The word Crucifyingly as far as I know doesn't exist, and the word "Crucify" (aside from its religious overtones) stands for a very painful way to die. It would have been far better to use a word like Excruciating in its place.

Generally agree that there are better words.
But looking online, it does seem to get some usage on the other side of the pond and in at least one other publishing piece.

Maybe they're very religious about literary culture?

[HLS]

I love B&N except the employess are clueless about their products. When I bought the 2017 Nook they sold me an empty box. It was the stock model box they sold me. Lucky I was still in the store and got them to give me another sealed box. I made them open the first one for there was no plastic wrap and they acted like that was normal

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by HLS

I love B&N except the employess are clueless about their products. When I bought the 2017 Nook they sold me an empty box. It was the stock model box they sold me. Lucky I was still in the store and got them to give me another sealed box. I made them open the first one for there was no plastic wrap and they acted like that was normal

That comes in part from firing all their most experienced employees a while back.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

That comes in part from firing all their most experienced employees a while back.

They saved $40 million, though.
Apparently that was more important to them.

[Phogg]

Well some of the cluelessness of Barnes and Nobles operations procedures reach a level of "pretty nasty" and that doesn't help them from a PR standpoint in localities in which corporate inflexibility leads to avoidable indiscretions.

[BookCat]

Like many people, I do all my book shopping on Amazon. Apart from a small chain of shops called The Works, I haven't been in a brick and mortar bookshop for years.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by BookCat

Like many people, I do all my book shopping on Amazon. Apart from a small chain of shops called The Works, I haven't been in a brick and mortar bookshop for years.

These days, I don't bother with The Works even for board games... (They seem to pick up strategy games overstocks every so often.) . I'll sometimes check out second hand book stores, but we're trying to downsize the physical library and increase the virtual library.

[Fiat_Lux]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Mostly because Riggio fired most of the experienced staff last year.

https://teleread.org/2018/02/14/barn...or-this-world/

If the suit is true, he's just finishing the job.

Bear in mind that his UK staff was protesting low salaries this year:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...y-val-mcdermid

...and quit over the lack of action:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ve-bookselling

It doesn't sound like he links low salaries with the degrading of bookselling as a career, which is not what minimum wages are for.

For all the griping about Amazon, at least their salary floor is $15 these days. Still not career levels but it's nearly double the legal minimum.

Minimum wage in Washington State is US$13.50/hour;
For all practical purposes, minimum wage for King County is US$16.00/hour
Minimum wage in the City of Seattle is US$16.39/hour;

So no, not only is Amazon's base pay not even close to career levels, it is not even minimum wage for the City of Seattle - its corporate headquarters.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Fiat_Lux

So no, not only is Amazon's base pay not even close to career levels, it is not even minimum wage for the City of Seattle - its corporate headquarters.

But it is quite a bit higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

On the other hand, In-N-Out Burger also has a starting wage of $13 an hour. So it's not like Amazon is superheroic.