Barnes & Noble’s New Comeback Plan

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Waterstones is doing/has done what B&N should do. They never got in to selling their own ereader. They shut down their ebook store. And the stores are given the freedom to display books that sell well in the area rather than what B&N does which is to make every store as much the same as possible given the dimensions and layout differences between buildings.

I believe Waterstones has actually become profitable. Where as, thanks to the Nook, BN is in the gutter. They seem to be trying to shed some of the costs, they outsourced the eink devices, which was the only physical device BN still mucked with. I think part of that deal included the firmware for the Nook being developed by others. It remains to be seen if these changes can salvage the Nook, if if the questionable quality of service that comes with outsourcing in the name of the bottom line will be the final coffin nail in the Nook.

Having owned every eink Nook beside the first generation, I can say that features have started to seriously dwindle in the last two models. The Glowlight Plus just caught up to the Kindle Voyage and Kobo GloHD both of which were available well before the launch of the NGP. It also suffers from odd design decisions.

I see. So the reason for closing the Nook UK store are somewhat different than Waterstones'? I thought maybe Waterstones was trying to get rid of the ebook store to delay or avoid the fate B&N is facing.

[fjtorres]

At their peak, circa 2010-11, shortly after the Borders liquidation, B&N controlled a third of the Pbook market in the US. This week, in a financial conference call, they reported 20% market share. That's around a 40% drop over 5 years.

Restaurants probably won't reverse those losses but since they seem incapable of fixing their online arm it is marginally better than doing nothing. Maybe.

I still think they need to bring back the B. DALTON model. Combine it with POD, online, and next day in-store pickup and they might have a chance to remain relevant.

The other bit of recent news is they are now offering to stock Indie Published titles in their stores. Falls under the too little, too late category...

http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/0...ttle-too-late/

...mostly because of the hoops they expect Indies to jump through and their ongoing Nook press alliance with Author Solutions.

Still, the underlying message ("You no longer need a traditional publishing contract to get your books onto B&N shelves!") may not sit well with their BPH suppliers already looking at declining shelf space at B&N stores because of the encroachment by toys and "lifestyle merchandise" and now, booze and food, amid *their* declining sales:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/0...-january-2016/

I suppose the good news is they are trying but the bad news is that instead of trying to exploit consumer trends (more online shopping across the board) they are trying to increase their share of the declining B&M shopper pool. Counterprogramming works for movies and TVs but for retail?

[Cosimo]

Before ebooks, I would go to BN once a week, wander around for an hour or two, and always leave with a bag full of books and magazines.

In the last 5 years I've gone twice and only spent money on coffee. With the tables of calendars, toys, and other 'stuff', books don't seem to be the focus. The last time I was there, sometime in the fall of 2015, they were even having some sort of sewing demonstration in the back, but how this tied into a book, or books, wasn't evident.

I can't see this bar / restaurant gimmick helping at all.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Cosimo

Before ebooks, I would go to BN once a week, wander around for an hour or two, and always leave with a bag full of books and magazines.

In the last 5 years I've gone twice and only spent money on coffee. With the tables of calendars, toys, and other 'stuff', books don't seem to be the focus. The last time I was there, sometime in the fall of 2015, they were even having some sort of sewing demonstration in the back, but how this tied into a book, or books, wasn't evident.

I can't see this bar / restaurant gimmick helping at all.

Did you walk back to see what book the person was sewing from? Bet there was a book or kit being hawked.

[LovesMacs]

I would think that adding restaurants would be riskier than just selling books and coffee. Food has less of a shelf life than books, so I would think they'd have to sell even more in the restaurant section just to break even.

Who here thinks of Barnes & Noble when they're hungry? Not me!

Here's one for you: Barnes & Nibble.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

I would think that adding restaurants would be riskier than just selling books and coffee. Food has less of a shelf life than books, so I would think they'd have to sell even more in the restaurant section just to break even.

Who here thinks of Barnes & Noble when they're hungry? Not me!

Here's one for you: Barnes & Nibble.

If you're looking that way: Booze & Nibbles.

[Cosimo]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Did you walk back to see what book the person was sewing from? Bet there was a book or kit being hawked.

Yes, I walked through the entire store, making my way through the maze of Star Wars paraphernalia, and paused, trying to figure out what exactly they were doing. There were no signs, no table of books to be autographed, nothing, just a few people, a couple sewing machines, and a dressmakers dummy.

At that point all I was interested in was anything pumpkin-spice-flavored.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Did you walk back to see what book the person was sewing from? Bet there was a book or kit being hawked.

I agree. But they have seriously lost FOCUS. Promoting (about to be) High Volume Authors should be what they do (or are they going to sell Sewing Machines next ).

My wife has some fantastic sewing (and a whole lot more ) machines. I understand some of the shoppers needs.

IMHO Specialty stores are the proper venue for those type of demos because they usually tie in with the stuff sold at the store...Like $10K+ Embroidery machines , 5 thread Sergers :: <Rube Goldberg would be proud ) (I get to clean and do minor fix-it's. Yes, I can thread and RUN all of them, but it takes an Artiste to make nice stuff with them. )


Current Corporate Think.
Blame the decline on those nasty e-books and Indy authors.
Fail to aggressively head toward the future of the market ("but that would hurt our sales of trees').
Roadblock, flim-flam non-traditional Author source channels
Then sell-off the future as 'a Failure'


Brick and Mortar Retail is failing across the country. Store Rents (>$10 a foot in major cities) are just too high to be sustained by the current Retail sales model

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by theducks

Brick and Mortar Retail is failing across the country. Store Rents (>$10 a foot in major cities) are just too high to be sustained by the current Retail sales model

Simply filling the store with stuff indiscriminately, hoping *something* catches somebody's eye is as "effective" as loading up the front with the same 20-30 new releases available everywhere.

Neither approach provides much reason for people to go to the trouble of driving to *their* store.

Part of the problem they are facing is that the people who used to visit regularly and buy a lot of product were (no duh!) avid readers (who have moved enmasse to online and ebooks) and their business model only works for casual readers (looking to see if anything catches their eye) and social bandwagon readers (looking for hot "bestsellers"). Neither demographic can sustain a "cathedral of literature, alone or combined. Not at those rents.

They need to downsize and know it but they're stuck with the monster stores so they seem to be looking for ways to use the floor space. With toys and lifestyle merchandise only providing 10% of their revenue in exchange for *over* 10% of the floorspace they now need to try something else.

In truth, the restaurant idea isn't totally hopeless--back in the day, a Friday afternoon outing in my social circle a couple times a month started with an early exit from work, a late afternoon movie, dinner at a casual sit-down restaurant, capped by a run through Borders for a handful of books each. Movie--Friday's--Borders.
But that was a decade or more ago.

Today there might be three or four summer movies worth the trip and B&N isn't worth the time to walk in one door and out the other.

It might work with younger bookworms...but I doubt it.
And even if it did, four stores isn't going to move the needle much on a chain their size. Even if it were to succeed, the time and cost of moving the bulk of the chain to that format would be prohibitive. For them, anyway.

They need a total revamp of their bookselling approach, not doodling on the margins with four experimental hybrids.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by theducks

I agree. But they have seriously lost FOCUS. Promoting (about to be) High Volume Authors should be what they do (or are they going to sell Sewing Machines next ).

My wife has some fantastic sewing (and a whole lot more ) machines. I understand some of the shoppers needs.

IMHO Specialty stores are the proper venue for those type of demos because they usually tie in with the stuff sold at the store...Like $10K+ Embroidery machines , 5 thread Sergers :: <Rube Goldberg would be proud ) (I get to clean and do minor fix-it's. Yes, I can thread and RUN all of them, but it takes an Artiste to make nice stuff with them. )


Current Corporate Think.
Blame the decline on those nasty e-books and Indy authors.
Fail to aggressively head toward the future of the market ("but that would hurt our sales of trees').
Roadblock, flim-flam non-traditional Author source channels
Then sell-off the future as 'a Failure'


Brick and Mortar Retail is failing across the country. Store Rents (>$10 a foot in major cities) are just too high to be sustained by the current Retail sales model

Totally off-topic does your wife have a 100 + year old sewing machine that still works. Note this is an electric not a treadle.
Note: my favorite is a needle and thread.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

I see. So the reason for closing the Nook UK store are somewhat different than Waterstones'? I thought maybe Waterstones was trying to get rid of the ebook store to delay or avoid the fate B&N is facing.

Waterstones closed the ebook store because it wasn't making money and they were doing some sort of refocus of the business. Each store is given much more free range for how things are displayed. This move initially costs them money since publishers typically pay to have a book featured on a display. However in the long run the staff is happier because they feel their opinions are valued, customers buy more because the store shapes itself around what their customers like, and there's less waste since the stores in conservative areas aren't going to get a ton of a liberals book and vice versa (just as an example).

B&N shut down their Nook UK store as a means to stem the drain that Nook had on their profits. Rather than allow stores to become community centers (which is what the corporate directive is ironically enough), they're doubling down on making stores as much alike as they can. This is done via the displays that publishers pay for. Now the staff wont feel as if their opinions are valued, the customers will find other places that have the books they want, and the stores are left with deadstock. Granted they can return books to the publishers, but in brick and mortar businesses you should aim to move everything rather than accept that some things wont sell.

BN has other failings, their PR division often if not always fails to get ahead of the press when they're reporting things incorrectly. They've had a -lot- of turnover at the corporate level, which has resulted in a very muddy message to consumers as to where the company is headed.

I believe BN's stores are still turning a profit, overall, but the Nook division is sucking that profit right up. BN at least seems to be trying to change this rather than live in denial, the last I heard they were projecting that by fiscal 2018 Nook would only be losing 10-20 million as opposed to the 80+ million it currently burns.

[basschick]

Originally Posted by Barty

Remember when people lamented B&N would kill all the independent book shops? I think that was the premise of that rom com You've Got Mail. Now Amazon is killing B&N. There's always a bigger fish.

They should skip the food and go straight for the drinks. That seems to be popular.

i don't think amazon is killing B&N - they're doing a fine job of doing that themselves.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by theducks

Brick and Mortar Retail is failing across the country. Store Rents (>$10 a foot in major cities) are just too high to be sustained by the current Retail sales model

Exactly. I see an increasing amount of vacant retail space.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by theducks

Brick and Mortar Retail is failing across the country. Store Rents (>$10 a foot in major cities) are just too high to be sustained by the current Retail sales model

Rent is a lot greater than $10.00 a square foot in most areas of the US. Strip Centers are mostly charging $15.00 to $20.00 and malls start at $24.00 and go up. The closer you are to center court the greater your square footage charges. And mall square footage does not include all of the add-ons. Malls also charge CAM (Common Area Maintenance), Security, Real Estate Taxes, Forced Advertising, and anything else they think they can get away with. They even charge a percentage of your sales when your total sales for the year go over a set amount that is determined by your sales classification. All of this is added to your rental payment. Of course the anchor stores do not have to pay rent because they supposedly draw in the hoards of shoppers that will also buy from the smaller stores. And malls wonder why they have so many empty spaces and are failing across the country.
Apache

[Wearever]

Well that explains why B&N is going this route. Misery Loves Company .