Another tale of Barnes and Nobles woes

[corona]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

Red Emma's in Baltimore is doing well and they are definitely a community gathering place (they even have a row of computers set up for public use). It helps that the food and beverages there are very good. They are also specialized, so that no doubt helps: they have a very progressive/alternative/anarchist/diy slant, they are a worker-owned collective, and their food is fair trade/vegetarian/vegan. They have identified a segment of the population to appeal to and they cater to it. It's my favorite bookstore...

Great place! I was in Baltimore once for two days and friends told me to be sure to go there. Nice neighbourhood, too. I know other bookstores like this, too. Very local, with strong community connections.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

It's almost as if people have lost their sense of cause and effect. You cannot simultaneously bemoan the loss of your neighborhood B&N and go there to browse and then buy your books online.

Well, you can, and most people do. It's just bad for the bookstores.

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

Are we becoming a nation of moochers?

Yes

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

Do we not realize that someone has to pay for the stuff we mooch, and that there is a tipping point beyond which there are too many moochers and not enough payers to keep the content alive?

No

But, freeloaders did not sink this B&N, it's mostly closing due to a rent increase. Instead of investigating the actual sales figures, the journalist walked around and chatted up a few people who were hanging around. Anecdotes are a poor yet common substitute for facts.

Again, people have window-shopped and lounged in bookstores and cafes since their inception. That isn't what's killing bookstores or B&N. One factor is, as you noted, that Americans are increasingly price-sensitive, which can lead to contradictory actions like simultaneously praising bookstores while purchasing books online; or decrying foreign manufacturing while buying the cheapest foreign-made goods they can find....

[Nathanael]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

the journalist walked around and chatted up a few people who were hanging around. Anecdotes are a poor yet common substitute for facts.

And an especially common amongst journalists -- find yourself an anecdotal yet interesting story. Write it up. Then the editor saddles it with a headline which includes words like "trend" and "increasingly".

An article a couple of years back trumpeting the rising trend of Chinese studies in American education focused entirely on a single California school district, which an en passant mention of a New Jersey school at the very end. Turns out the "trend" was Chinese class enrollment increasing from 200 to 275 students in a districting with 75,000 students, some thirty percent of whom were second generation Chinese immigrants. Hardly a representative district.

The problem with news reporting is "A Few B&N stores closing" doesn't sell newspapers. "B&N Bankrupt! Internet Kills Bookstores!" (complete with exclamation points) does.

--Nathanael

[capidamonte]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Eh. I live in a town of about 10,000 and we have at least six bookstores. Many of them are "bookstores and" - coffeshop, restaurant, B&B - but what we *don't* have is a big chain retail bookstore.

Which is probably why we have so many bookstores.

Hey, I've spent plenty of time in Borders when I lived in the big city, but as the chain stores start dying, and since I live somewhere where the nearest one is over an hour away, I have to say I'm not going to be sad to see the big chains die. They killed bookstores, really. It's just karma.

+1 to this. It was part of the business plan to kill those bookstores.