12-07-2017, 10:10 AM | #31 | |
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I used to work at the local B&N for fun. Besides us, there was a Waldenbooks inside the mall. A competing mall was built across the street and one of the anchor stores was going to be a Borders, prompting Waldenbooks to close. The general public didn't know that and I had to deal with many angry people that would come to the information booth just to tell me they were mad we had run Waldenbooks out of business. |
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12-07-2017, 10:15 AM | #32 |
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I would bet it mainly has to do with reducing their overhead costs. Also, they said they want more of a focus on books. If you were to take one of their larger stores and cut the café, music/video, toys and tchotchkes, they'd cut their floor space quite a bit.
Since people have replied to my comments, here is the article I mentioned up-thread: Why Barnes & Noble Wants Smaller Stores |
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12-07-2017, 10:17 AM | #33 | |
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12-07-2017, 10:44 AM | #34 | |
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Now, if you are asking about the possibility to pass genuine complaints/suggestions on, I could tell my supervisor about them. Really the typical inquiry was along the lines of 'what author wrote Brokeback Mountain, and do you have the book in stock?' (that was a big movie when I worked there) or 'I can't find Valley of the Dolls. Do you know if the Willowbrook store has it in stock?' One compliment I will give to the store I worked at. We had the Waldenbooks (and later Borders) number handy and would call to see if they had a book that we didn't. Of course we could order the book, but so could Amazon. The customer is at a store because they want it now. Last edited by ZodWallop; 12-07-2017 at 10:47 AM. |
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12-07-2017, 12:11 PM | #35 | |
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You could make a loop and hit all the big box stores. Half are on one side of the street and the other are on the other side. This includes 2 grocery stores, Sam's Club and Walmart. |
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12-07-2017, 12:16 PM | #36 |
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12-07-2017, 01:28 PM | #37 | |
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I miss the days of the smaller bookstores. A mall without a bookstore doesn't feel right to me and to be honest, I would be hard pressed to say that the big Barnes and Noble stores serve me better than the old B. Dalton, Walden Books and Crown Books did. I will admit, nostalgia may be coloring my memories. |
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12-07-2017, 01:43 PM | #38 | |
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The Odessa mall does have one great thing the Midland mall doesn't. Indoor playgrounds. |
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12-07-2017, 01:56 PM | #39 |
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We have a high end mall and the lovely weather of a diseased swamp.
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12-07-2017, 02:01 PM | #40 | |
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I saw it might snow in Corpus Christi tonight. |
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12-07-2017, 02:15 PM | #41 | |
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I'm from California, but really I'd like living in an area with colder weather, like Seattle. |
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12-12-2017, 02:59 PM | #42 | |
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I only go to the BAM in a nearby town to check out and peruse the magazines and the War and Science Fiction books I compete with and sometimes write a bit for as well. Book racks always bring to mind the "old world" that I grew up in, fought for, and sometimes miss too much. |
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12-13-2017, 09:06 PM | #43 | |
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And CinisaJoy, I lost track of the thread sorry. Don't have much else to say as ZodWallup summed it up and I seem to reminisce similarly in all these threads haha. But tbh, being a place where waxing sentimental isn't frowned upon is probably a big reason why MR a 'community' that I appreciate participating in. -pcr Last edited by Pizza_Cant_Read; 12-13-2017 at 09:10 PM. |
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12-15-2017, 02:08 AM | #44 |
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At highschool, I used to go to the bookstore to buy a book once a week. As a highscool student, I had very little money. I used to browse for 1-2 hours before selecting something. Now, I only enter my local bookstore to buy ink.
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12-28-2017, 11:51 PM | #45 |
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I work 2 minutes walk from a large B&N in a *very* affluent area (Bellevue, WA). I love spending a half hour in the store at lunch hour several times a week. The store wasn't exactly bustling a year ago but its positively dead now, with more staff than customers. There was a Starbucks semi-attached to it, and that has closed down - when all the other Starbucks in the area have a constant stream of customers. Every time I visit I am surprised it is still in business. Even I rarely buy books there - why would I pay full price when I can get Amazon to deliver the book to me next day for much less? And now there is an Amazon brick-and-mortar store 5 minutes walk away. It's soulless, and has 1/10th the selection, but its probably going to pull enough of the remaining business that we're talking days or weeks, not months, before the store shuts down.
Funny thing is, if B&N offered 20-25% off (without requiring payment for a loyalty program) I'd probably buy way more books there. So the solution could be staring them in the face. Half Price Books seems to have figured this out, as they have added new titles at a discount, and they seem to be thriving. But B&N stores won't even match their *own* online prices. If they fail its largely their own doing, IMO. |
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