Shame on you Barnes and Noble

[BookCat]

Originally Posted by gmw

I find the whole thing a bit dodgy. Chances are the charity these books go to know what these children would benefit from most. So give them them the money directly, along with the chance to buy books without no markup.

Of course charity isn't quite that simple. For whatever reason, people may be more inclined to give if they think they are giving a specific gift. The possibly better PR of giving books may make the company more generous.

There's a whole social sciences problem sitting here waiting to be studied.

But it appears that the charities aren't being given books, the person who pays the $5 is. I suppose, if the books given to the 'donator' are worth considerably less that $5, the the remainder of the money is what the charity gets; either that or B&N just pocket the money, in which case I don't see how this benefits a charity at all.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this because it's a particularly US form of charity. In the UK it would be more likely for a bookshop, or supermarket to have a bin with a sign over it asking for books to be donated to a particular children's charity in order to give them a book for Christmas, or something similar. Many supermarkets have such bins for tins of cat/dog food for donation to Cat's Protection or RSPCA etc. You just do your normal shopping, but buy a few extra cans to put in the donation bins.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by BookCat

But it appears that the charities aren't being given books, the person who pays the $5 is. I suppose, if the books given to the 'donator' are worth considerably less that $5, the the remainder of the money is what the charity gets; either that or B&N just pocket the money, in which case I don't see how this benefits a charity at all.

I think how it works is you pay, pick one from B&N's selection of books, then B&N donates that book to the charity.

[BookCat]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I think how it works is you pay, pick one from B&N's selection of books, then B&N donates that book to the charity.

We cross-posted while I was editing my above post.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

At back-to-school time Dollar General was doing this for school supplies for needy kids. However, they had a container of the supplies sitting by the cash register so anyone wanting to donate could easily see what was available and choose accordingly.

B&N should let you see the offerings before you decide to donate. Then if you didn't like the options you could choose to donate your money elsewhere.

Typically this is how is works, the BN selected books are in a small box in front of each open register, there's also maybe a larger box at the front of the store with more information (because there's not gonna be a cashier standing by it to explain). At the register the cashier asks, shows books, customer accepts and picks a book which is then scanned checkout proceeds as normal, or customer declines and checkout proceeds as normal.

IDK what happened in OPs case, since it would seem the cashier scanned a random barcode which is going to come back to bite the store come inventory time in a couple of months. Though the cashier probably doesn't care they're likely a holiday temp anyway.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

I was in Barnes and Noble a couple days ago. I bought some Christmas cards on sale and a calendar. I frequent the store browsing books and having a coffee sometimes at lunch. When I checked out they asked if I wanted to purchase a $5 book as a child's Christmas gift. I said sure. I finish checking out and she hands me a stack of very thin paper back books. The first book was titled "Who Were the Beatles" A kid would even care? The other titles were even worse. I wanted to ask for my five dollars back, but I had already checked out. In the back of the stack I found a book on dinosaurs so I picked that. None of these flimsy books were more than 30 pages

I mean how @A$%A#&@! cheap can you be B&N. You couldn't like have provided a paper back of maybe Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson, or some similar books that would be good for children to engage them in reading. The books you had for picking weren't worth 50 cents much less the $5 donation you wanted for the book. What a scam you pick a bunch of crap you can't sell, ask for $5 buck donation for a 'donation gift' to get rid of useless inventory. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Well no more, I don't buy books from them anyway, but in my browsing book sessions during lunch, I'd pick up a hard to find DVD, calendar, stationary, magazine, etc. NO MORE!! YOU HAVE LOST MY BUSINESS FOREVER. I HOPE YOU GO OUT OF BUSINESS.

Thanks! Rant over.

Ahhhh hahahahaha....are you serious???? You don't even admittedly buy books from them, so they aren't losing a customer. You buy a calendar once a year maybe, maybe a magazine once in a blue moon and a coffee. Big fricking deal. Your whole attitude and the fact you didn't ask about the books is petty to say the least. Sorry. This is on you NOT Barnes and Noble. When I donate money I don't worry about what I receive in return. THATS CALLED....the Christmas Spirit. .just saying...Rant Over..

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

Ahhhh hahahahaha....are you serious???? You don't even admittedly buy books from them, so they aren't losing a customer. You buy a calendar once a year maybe, maybe a magazine once in a blue moon and a coffee. Big fricking deal. Your whole attitude and the fact you didn't ask about the books is petty to say the least. Sorry. This is on you NOT Barnes and Noble. When I donate money I don't worry about what I receive in return. THATS CALLED....the Christmas Spirit. .just saying...Rant Over..

You didn't get the point. I didn't receive or expect anything in return. The child receiving the book got a crappy book, B&N got rid of crap inventory, and I paid for that. What I would have expected was for B&N to provide books for donation that would have been a bit more memorable for a child. I'd have rather paid more of a better book for B&N to provide to a child. They are using the 'donate' to remove unwanted inventory. I will admit, I should have inquired a bit more about what book was being donated. Next year, I'll just exclusively stick with toys for tots. I pick it out, buy it, and put it in the bin. We do that yearly. B&N could take a lesson from that model. Let you go buy any book, but it in a bin for donation, not just books they are trying to get rid of.

[Luffy]

drofgnal is right. b&n are the guilty party here.

[wandalynn]

Originally Posted by Luffy

drofgnal is right. b&n are the guilty party here.

I agree, drofgnal made the $5 in good faith that b&n would provide a book of that value for a child. But they did not, and I take drofgnal's post as a heads up to anyone else who may be shopping there this season.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

You didn't get the point. I didn't receive or expect anything in return. The child receiving the book got a crappy book, B&N got rid of crap inventory, and I paid for that. What I would have expected was for B&N to provide books for donation that would have been a bit more memorable for a child. I'd have rather paid more of a better book for B&N to provide to a child. They are using the 'donate' to remove unwanted inventory. I will admit, I should have inquired a bit more about what book was being donated. Next year, I'll just exclusively stick with toys for tots. I pick it out, buy it, and put it in the bin. We do that yearly. B&N could take a lesson from that model. Let you go buy any book, but it in a bin for donation, not just books they are trying to get rid of.

Still. Donate or don't donate. You should have looked at the books. Most kids today dont have the attention span to read treasure island anyhow. You didn't give a list of the other books. Some kids like thin books.

[Deskisamess]

Most kids today dont have the attention span to read treasure island anyhow.

Really? You have kids in your life? That's a very wide generalization.

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Really? You have kids in your life? That's a very wide generalization.

Agree, I have nieces and nephews who are voracious readers, reading well beyond their grade level.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

I was in Barnes and Noble a couple days ago. I bought some Christmas cards on sale and a calendar. I frequent the store browsing books and having a coffee sometimes at lunch. When I checked out they asked if I wanted to purchase a $5 book as a child's Christmas gift. I said sure. I finish checking out and she hands me a stack of very thin paper back books. The first book was titled "Who Were the Beatles" A kid would even care? The other titles were even worse. I wanted to ask for my five dollars back, but I had already checked out. In the back of the stack I found a book on dinosaurs so I picked that. None of these flimsy books were more than 30 pages.

So I went and had a look at Who Were the Beatles? which is part of a series of Who Was (historical figure/s)? put out by Penguin. It has 103 reviews and a rating of four and a half stars. It doesn't seem like an egregiously bad kids book to me. And the book is 112 pages and has a retail price of $5.99. So it's not the pamphlet you describe.

$5 may not be a deal of a price, but the book doesn't appear to be garbage.

I can't defend the other books, because you didn't list them. But I agree with the Mountain<Molehill argument.

Originally Posted by drofgnal

You didn't get the point. I didn't receive or expect anything in return. The child receiving the book got a crappy book, B&N got rid of crap inventory, and I paid for that. What I would have expected was for B&N to provide books for donation that would have been a bit more memorable for a child.

There's just not enough evidence to prove that. You didn't mention what other books were available nor what books had already been donated from the on-hand stock at the register you were at.

I pick it out, buy it, and put it in the bin. We do that yearly. B&N could take a lesson from that model. Let you go buy any book, but it in a bin for donation, not just books they are trying to get rid of.

I no longer work at B&N, so I don't know their current policy. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if you purchased ANY book from the children's section and donated it, they would accept it. But realistically, they have to keep some stock of something at the registers.

In my store for instance, if I asked a customer if they wanted to donate a kids book and they did, but I then told them they had to go back upstairs to the children's section, pick out a book, go through the line again and then donate, there wouldn't be many takers.

I also wouldn't be surprised to find there was signage around the store mentioning the donation effort (business do like to pat themselves on the back), so you likely had opportunities before reaching the register.

[BookCat]

@Zodwallop, Thanks for the link to the Beatles book. It doesn't look too bad, and a young child whose parents, or grandparents, have mentioned the band, might well be interested in it, or at least interested in the beginnings of pop music. Not at all as bad as I expected.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by BookCat

@Zodwallop, Thanks for the link to the Beatles book. It doesn't look too bad, and a young child whose parents, or grandparents, have mentioned the band, might well be interested in it, or at least interested in the beginnings of pop music. Not at all as bad as I expected.

Also good for middle grade or older readers who are struggling with literacy but interested in musical topics. (These kids are not going to be engaged by the Swiss Family Robinson - have you actually met any children, OP??) Musical teenagers of today are really, really into classic bands of the mid to late twentieth century. And this book places the Beatles in historical context, so there is learning in several domains going on.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by meeera

Also good for middle grade or older readers who are struggling with literacy but interested in musical topics. (These kids are not going to be engaged by the Swiss Family Robinson - have you actually met any children, OP??) Musical teenagers of today are really, really into classic bands of the mid to late twentieth century. And this book places the Beatles in historical context, so there is learning in several domains going on.

Yup. The Beatles are timeless and I remember as a kid I loved reading stuff like that....