B&N (More bad on top of ... you know...)

[Apparition B5]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

This wouldn't be so bad (to me) if we could go back to small bookstores in malls. Unfortunately, I think the days of the brick and mortar bookstore chain are nearing their end.

The days of malls, period, are nearing their end. IIRC, there hasn't been a new one built in the east coast of the U.S. in over a decade, and most of them are turning into a blight.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I've seen those YouTube videos as well, But then, where I live we have two high end malls directly across the street from each other that are going like gangbusters.

Mall closures are a result of over-building especially the ones populated by the generic chains targeting the middle class. Upscale malls are generally doing better since exclusivity/limited availability is part of their "value" proposition.

Too many malls relied on window shopping-as-entertainment to draw in customers for impulse purchases and these days people have a lot more options for entertainment: reading, gaming, video, etc.

Shopping is reverting to its original function of fulfilling specific needs. And online can take care of a lot of the stuff that isn't time sensitive.

It's a rightsizing thing.

Pretty much the same problem B&N refuses to acknowledge.The
You can't sell if people don't come.

[Richwood]

Recent articles I have seen about large malls leasing to folks like exercise facilities and similar facilities just to draw customers to otherwise empty areas of the mall. Many empty retail buildings locally in Reno that have been empty for years from closed department stores to places such as ex Borders books to a ex Good Guys Electronics locally. Due to so much available retail space Borders might be able to renew leases for a lot less at the end of current leases. This in a rapidly growing city where I live, Reno, NV. I hate to think of all the empty retail space in cities that are not growing.

[Richwood]

Nook might survive a B&N bankruptcy as I believe it has been spun off as a separate company now. Nook Media is partly owned by Microsoft and partly by Pearson in addition to the B&N primary ownership share.

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/nook-media

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Richwood

Nook might survive a B&N bankruptcy as I believe it has been spun off as a separate company now. Nook Media is partly owned by Microsoft and partly by Pearson in addition to the B&N primary ownership share.

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/nook-media

Uh, no.

B&N bought back the Microsoft and Pearson shares years ago.

Then they spun off the college bookstore business as a separate entity called, creatively, B&N Education.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/b...ores-unit.html

[HLS]

I am worried about this as well. My company been periodically laying off. I also have a new manager that singled me out to cause trouble for me. SHe seems to think im screwing around but all i do is work myself to death

[fjtorres]

Business insider compares AmazonBooks to B&N:

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazo...hain-retail-20

Lots of pics.

They don't like AmazonBooks but they do document all B&N does wrong.

Bottom line:

Barnes & Noble provides a compelling, if imperfect, alternative to local bookstores in cities that can't sustain them. But its retail strategy more closely resembles those of struggling department stores — selling too many things in too big a space — than more innovative counterparts like Apple and Warby Parker.

A minimalist approach might be best for tech products, but it doesn't work as well for bookstores. The more you limit inventory, the more you defeat the purpose of going to a bookstore in the first place. Barnes & Noble is a better store than Amazon Books, but it's tied to a worse business model

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Business insider compares AmazonBooks to B&N:

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazo...hain-retail-20

Lots of pics.

They don't like AmazonBooks but they do document all B&N does wrong.

Bottom line:

Well, we'll never see an Amazon bookstore in Springfield, Illinois, but we DO have a B&N. So I give B&N credit for THAT, at least. Though they did drive the 3 local bookstores out of business. I give them debits for THAT!

In my eyes, the only reason for a physical Amazon bookstore is to give users an opportunity to handle and test electronics and maybe promote books published by Amazon.

The truth is, the online Amazon shopping experience for books is superior to physical shopping. At least in my eyes, it is.

[filmo]

Indoor malls have higher heating cooling costs. I've seen some converted to outdoor malls 30 years ago and many more recently.

A relative works at home online for a major insurance company and just moved from San Francisco to Arizona for lower cost of living and less traffic.

[JSWolf]

These corporate layoffs are coming after the Trump tax cuts.

It's the higher ups getting ore money and then being the greedy types they are, they want even more.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

These corporate layoffs are coming after the Trump tax cuts.

It's the higher ups getting ore money and then being the greedy types they are, they want even more.

Actually, at B&N the higher ups aren't get much money because there is no money to get and because whatever tbey get won't last thanks to their CEO revolving door.

No need to bring politics into it.
They've been spiraling down the drain for most of the previous regime.
Bad management knows no politics.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

These corporate layoffs are coming after the Trump tax cuts.

It's the higher ups getting ore money and then being the greedy types they are, they want even more.

The Law of the Jungle man!

Dog eat "littler" dog!

[Gardenman]

I went into the B&N closest to me today and the whole nook section was shut down. No tablets and no eink readers. The Nook desk was there but it was being used to store other things. The only thing for sale were covers for the glowlight 3.

[geekraver]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

These corporate layoffs are coming after the Trump tax cuts.

It's the higher ups getting ore money and then being the greedy types they are, they want even more.

The market is really high right now. That means the smart money is going to get out (i.e. rich people). But how to do that without generating a big selloff? Easy, you bribe the politicians to give big corporate tax cuts to fund stock buybacks. The money that would have gone to the government gets diverted to the wealthy stockholders, and then it all comes crashing down after they have taken their profits at the top!

Plutocracy 101 :-)

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Mall closures are a result of over-building especially the ones populated by the generic chains targeting the middle class. Upscale malls are generally doing better since exclusivity/limited availability is part of their "value" proposition.

I never was much of a mall person, but malls used to be a social center for teenagers and young adults -- like downtowns were before malls. I think what is really killing malls is the same thing that is killing brick an mortar stores in general -- the Internet. Kids' and young adults' social center is now Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and (for some, I guess) Facebook. I don't know them all, but I'm sure there's others. I wasn't much for malls, but I think it was healthier than this isolation of virtual reality.