Why Barnes & Noble is Selling Rugs

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I get stuff so quickly from Amazon with Free Super Saver shipping that I never saw the need for Prime. E.g., I ordered a DVD box set on October 20 (and that was a preorder that didn't ship till October 23!); it was at my post office on October 24. I ordered a handheld vacuum on October 26; it's already at my local UPS and will be on the truck Monday.

How much quicker can Prime possibly be?

With Prime there's no minimum $25 purchase as with the Free Supper Saver shipping. You can order something for $5 and get it in two days. If you want something the next day, it's only $3.99. I know it's easy to throw $25 worth of stuff in your cart with Amazon, but that's the selling point. That, in addition to the free streaming of selected video content. Attractive for those who don't have a Netflix subscription. I made use of the streaming service when Netflix wasn't officially available for Honeycomb tablets.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I get stuff so quickly from Amazon with Free Super Saver shipping that I never saw the need for Prime. E.g., I ordered a DVD box set on October 20 (and that was a preorder that didn't ship till October 23!); it was at my post office on October 24. I ordered a handheld vacuum on October 26; it's already at my local UPS and will be on the truck Monday.

How much quicker can Prime possibly be?

The next day.

I ordered 3 HP TouchPad covers (to be sent to 3 different addresses) on a Tuesday morning and all 3 were out for delivery the next morning. How's that for quick?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by SCION

With Prime there's no minimum $25 purchase as with the Free Supper Saver shipping. You can order something for $5 and get it in two days. If you want something the next day, it's only $3.99.

Frequently, I'll get next day delivery without having to pay the $3.99 charge.

[SeaKing]

Prime rocks!

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by DianNC

B&N can decide to sell whatever they want, but if it's available on Amazon I'll buy it there everytime and if it's not, I may wait until it is.

Better customer service and no tax.

That's pretty much me.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Frequently, I'll get next day delivery without having to pay the $3.99 charge.

Same here! I'll check the status and it'll be on the truck for delivery that day.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Well B&N is only a couple of letters away from B&L.

I think there is a railroad in there somewhere too.

[MV64]

Originally Posted by Apache

I hope their stores don't start looking like Books A Million Stores. More crap than books in the stores.
Apache

That's exactly what is happening. I understand the whole diversification of product thing to stay afloat, but as an employee it's really annoying that we carry so much garbage now. Half the time I don't even know what people are talking about when they're referring to some obscure game/gift item. And as a customer I hate that the bookstore is becoming just another general department store.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by TimW

I don't think I can afford to have THAT rug pulled from under me...

[covfam]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I get stuff so quickly from Amazon with Free Super Saver shipping that I never saw the need for Prime. E.g., I ordered a DVD box set on October 20 (and that was a preorder that didn't ship till October 23!); it was at my post office on October 24. I ordered a handheld vacuum on October 26; it's already at my local UPS and will be on the truck Monday.

How much quicker can Prime possibly be?

i live 4 hours from the nearest post office sorting and postal distributing center so us post office and federal express (through post office contracts) take a week or more on a fairly local delivery but with amazon prime my stuf comes from UPS to my farm next day or 2nd day... and to me thats worth getting amazon prime... also with amazon prime i get free access to a section of amazon on demand for free and also amazon has an agreement with the hotell chain my wife and i have membership with and we earn hotel points based on things ive purchased from amazon.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by frahse

...

If B&N is smart, they will come out with all the things that Amazon left out.

SD card support
USB2.0 (full support)
Full Android from the get go.
And then of course a good reader fully coordinated with the B&N store.
AND the wonderful READER PHYSICAL PAGE BUTTONS.

And finally allow the addition of things like
GPS,
Ability to hook in a 3G dongle, something like Archos has for their foreign Generation 9 tablets.

.....
I will never buy a Fire, but something like I described above might make a sale with me.

You truly don't get it do you. You may be an engineer and a wanna-be-writer, but you certainly don't understand business and that is what you are talking about here. Steve Jobs understood business, that's why Apple was so successful.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Has no one heard of vinyl?
No vacuuming needed. Just occasional sweep into a picker up.
Spill something? Just get a towel and wipe it up.

The only choice to make is tile vinyl which you can put down yourself or sheet where they come and do it for you.

or tiles!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by SCION

Same here. Plus if you're a student and can provide a .edu email address for verification, it only costs $39 for Prime. You can renew for three years at that price.

That alone may have made this thread worthy.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by kennyc

You truly don't get it do you. You may be an engineer and a wanna-be-writer, but you certainly don't understand business and that is what you are talking about here. Steve Jobs understood business, that's why Apple was so successful.

Please don't lump engineers in there: spec-sheet design and gold-plating are cardinal sins to good design engineers.

A properly-designed product will meet actual consumers' actual needs, not *every* theoretical need of every *theoretical* consumer. No product will ever meet the needs of 100% of the market; trying to do so is the fastest road to disaster, especially in competitive markets.

Similarly, retailers need to be careful in identifying the needs of their actual customers; stocking products that *might* appeal to their customers only works if *enough* customers actually buy those products. Otherwise they're wasting resources better allocated to other uses.

B&N selling rugs online presupposes a large enough fraction of B&N's customer base is actually likely to buy rugs when they go to their website for books to make it worthwhile.

"Honey, I ordered you that new $9.99 David Weber book you were thinking of getting. And while I was there I saw this gorgeous $800 rug and I just *had* to have it."

It could happen, I suppose...

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Please don't lump engineers in there: spec-sheet design and gold-plating are cardinal sins to good design engineers.

.....

Hey! Don't start that, I R an enginer!

(the reason I said what I did is that the poster claimed his status as an engineer for stating what he did and it clearly does not fit with the remainder of your post. Yes products are designed to appeal to customers, but the additional requirement is that they support the company goals of the company the engineer is designing for -- in this case Amazon and the Fire fits perfectly as well as meeting the needs of Amazon's customers. The post/poster in question clearly wants a different product and is confusing his personal requirements with the requirements of others.)