Possible merger of Borders with Barnes and Noble

[exvaxman]

Threr are four Borders and B&N bookstores in my immediate area. While I dislike B&N for some of the books that they actually publish under their name (but for some reason are not sold in my area), Borders is always difficult to check out of. B&N works closely with the local school to set up book fairs, etc. I feel that any merger would have the consumer coming out on the down side.

B&N also supports the "zink the zebra" foundation that used to be headquartered with them locally until a shopping center rebuild had teh B&N local office shut down for a year.

[QueridaNegra]

Originally Posted by bingle

Huh, I honestly can't tell the difference between the two. They seem pretty indistinguishable already. I would even be surprised if there were much difference in the titles they carry. Of course, this would be bad for the consumer, but I don't think it would affect ebooks in any noticeable way.

I think any real differentiation in bookstores ended a while ago, with the gradual death of most of the little independent/used bookstores.

Originally Posted by NatCh

This is subjective, of course (and mostly based on the SciFi/Fantasy sections, to boot), but it seems to me that B&N will generally carry more titles, but fewer copies of each, and will have "older" titles (ones that have been out a while, but aren't out of print, so it's easier to fill out your back series titles there). Borders on the other hand, tends to have mostly newer stuff, and in larger numbers of copies per title.

This is mostly why I like BN better. They also tend to waste less shelfspace - I remember when Borders had those little blue blocks on the shelves that said things like "best seller" or "hot random thing of the week" or whatever they said. I used to look at them and go - each block = 6 paperbacks, and since I'm in the bookstore, I'd rather have the books than the blocks.

[evil_bunny]

...it sure is depressing when consumers can't tell the difference between brand A and brand B.

The #1 reason why I don't like Barnes & Noble: I work for Borders.
The #2 reason why I don't like Barnes & Noble: See reason one.

If you want, I can explain the differences between us, why you are perceiving these differences incorrectly, from the coffee to the way we shelve books. Oh, and the reason why the 'website' as y'all think of it is amazon is because we didn't want to waste our time reinventing the wheel.

We do have a website that isn't run by amazon. You can't buy books off of it because that would be redundant. It's bordersstores.com

But no, I haven't heard of a merger, I wouldn't find a merger appealing, and I suppose I would be actively forbidden from commenting on a merger if such a thing were to occur.

[Azayzel]

Originally Posted by evil_bunny

...it sure is depressing when consumers can't tell the difference between brand A and brand B.

The #1 reason why I don't like Barnes & Noble: I work for Borders.
The #2 reason why I don't like Barnes & Noble: See reason one.

If you want, I can explain the differences between us, why you are perceiving these differences incorrectly, from the coffee to the way we shelve books. Oh, and the reason why the 'website' as y'all think of it is amazon is because we didn't want to waste our time reinventing the wheel.

We do have a website that isn't run by amazon. You can't buy books off of it because that would be redundant. It's bordersstores.com

But no, I haven't heard of a merger, I wouldn't find a merger appealing, and I suppose I would be actively forbidden from commenting on a merger if such a thing were to occur.

It's good to see a staff member from one of the companies mentioned in this thread giving their 2-cents; however, this response didn't make too much sense when I read/re-read it. The two reasons you stated that you don't like B&N is because a) you work for Borders and b) you work for Borders??? That's it? Or were maybe you meant the main reason you don't B&N is because you work for the competition? This would be akin to saying that I don't like Hollywood video beacuse I work for Blockbuster (and say it twice to emphasize the point). Secondly, you mentioned the Borders website and how it looks like Amazon on purpose, but then you said "You can't buy books off of it because that would be redundant." This kind of defeats the purpose of having an online business if you're not actually sell anything, doesn't it?

As stated previously, I like both stores for their individual differences, not that they are similar. I think what the majority of people posting to this agree with is that we would be losing something in the long-run with the merger and were then stating what they liked/disliked about each.

Hopefully this was someone's poor attempt at a sense of humor, because it didn't make too much sense, especally when trying to take it seriously.

[jpchan]

First as the top of the thread mentions this is not so much a talk of a merger as it is a major shareholder in both companies trying to push to "unlock the value of the companies." In short this shareholder is trying to make his money and run.

On the merits of a merger. I have done little research on either company so keep that in mind. If a lot of the standalone stores ( ie not attached to a shopping center. I'm thinking of the free standing locations) are outright owned by the companies and not just leased. Then there can be a lot of real estate value that can be freed up by combining competing locations. Even if they lease I assume that there are a lot of long-term leases that the combined company could get a lot of value out of by subleasing to others. This is one of the major merits that Sears could point to in their merger with K-mart. There is of course the savings and reductions in cost by reducing labor, combining distribution and as another poster pointed out further beating up on publishers on costs.

There is most likely a lot of overlap but in the customer loyalty program a combined program would provide a lot of data to mine for targeted marketing opportunities.

The reasons not to merge are also rather self evident. Anti-trust concerns. If I was a share holder of B&N I'd be very wary of taking on the rather huge debt load that Borders has (629 million). At a glance of between the 2 stocks B&n looks to be the better managed company. B&N(stock symbol BKS) looks to have double the profitability and earnings growth that Borders(BGP) has.
All these seem to me to make a merger of the 2 to be dilutive to current B&N shareholders.

[evil_bunny]

(1) I really don't have a reason to dislike Barnes and Noble, they're fine people. I just can't like shopping there because of the obvious. I am generally ambivalent with no desire to shop there. There is no obvious reason that I can provide that will encourage others to agree that B&N are horrible people.

(a) A few years ago B&N discontinued carrying Cliffs Notes in order to promote their own proprietary brand SparkNotes. We get requests from customers who do not understand that we do not carry SparkNotes and 'No Fear Shakespeare' for the same reason the World of Coca Cola doesn't sell Mountain Dew products.
(b) B&N incorrectly shelves books if the author has a complicated surname. For instance, Gabriel Garcia Marquez will be found shelved under "Marquez" at B&N instead of the correct "Garcia Marquez." Please also note Alexander McCall Smith.
(c) The customers inform me that B&N employees are less likely to show you the location of a book. Which is ironic because I find myself and others performing likewise.

(2) There are two websites. The official Borders website is bordersstores.com and is not an e-commerce site. The borders.com website is not owned or operated by Borders and is Amazon.

(a) Our company is not attempting to use an online site as a primary source of income.
(b) The Borders / Amazon site exists to provide the customer with an opportunity to shop online if they desire to.
(c) The BordersStores site exists to bring customers into the store, which should be the main intent of a website for a retail store.

(3) From what I've seen of our locations, neither companies own the property.

[Azayzel]

Thanks for the detailed reply Evil_Bunny, it's interesting to hear some of the inner workings of a chain bookstore. I had no idea that B&N stopped carrying CliffNotes simply to push their own variety, pretty sneaky and definitely a quick qay to loose potential business from those people who are sold with a specific brand and can't find it there (esp. something such as CliffNotes, which you can find at Wal-Mart).

A few years back, I contacted both companies to see if either offered a franchise so I could open my own store in a lucrative area, but was informed that neither offers such a franchise. Kind of sucked, since they are so well known in the area as opposed to a mom & pop shop. Ah well, I don't live in that area anymore so it doesn't really matter. Thanks again for your thoughts!

[nekokami]

Barnes & Noble also publishes their own copies of public domain classics.

Originally Posted by wikipedia

CEO Stephen Riggio has been quoted as saying that he expects 10% of Barnes & Noble bookstore sales to come from books published in-house. While this has been praised as a good business strategy, it is controversial in both bookselling and publishing industry circles because of the competitive advantages conferred by vertical integration.

I still shop there, but I do generally like Borders more. As it happens, though, there is no Borders conveniently near me.

I do not buy online from Barnes & Noble, after they mangled a Christmas gift order a couple of years ago, misinforming me that products had shipped which had not, subsequently promising that they would ship by a specific date and then lying AGAIN, etc. All of this resulted in me canceling my order and making a midnight run to the closest Borders to be ready for a family holiday get-together the next day. The local Barnes & Noble store manager, when informed of this, actually provided me with a store credit to use in the bricks & mortar stores, which I thought was very decent, considering that they hadn't caused the problem.

When I buy online, I prefer Powells.com, because I know they pay their employees a living wage, and they have never spammed me (as both Amazon and B&N have, and Borders is still doing -- you can't get a discount card at Borders unless you are willing to receive spam, which I think is appalling).