Independent bookstores to financial analysts have been watching Barnes & Noble’s strategy closely since the rise of the e-book. As an independent bookseller, I couldn’t be more pleased with the impending pressure on big box bookstores.
J. P. Mangalindan of CNN Money.com made the argument for “why Barnes & Noble should go from bookstore to Nookstore.” He makes these key points about the changes at Barnes & Noble:
- B & N stock is down 80% over the last five years.
- Since B & N went on the for-sale market last August, there has been no buyer.
- B & N did beat Borders in branding its very own e-reader as opposed to Borders’ poorly marketed, little known Kobo reader. The B & N Nook has also beat the Sony reader in sales and remains second to Amazon’s Kindle.
Analysts like James McQuivey note B & N’s advantage with the Nook, but caution that changes to store space cannot come quickly enough. E-book sales are predicted to dominate the market within the next 24 months with B & N expected to cut retail space. However, McQuivey urges a faster and more drastic reaction:
“In a conservative market scenario, the company would shutter at least 30%, or 211, of its 705 retail locations, within the next three to five years. ‘If it were me? I’d cut deeper, faster–like two to four years,’ he says, suggesting a boutique model where B & N reduces store capacity by 50% through a combination of store closures, reduced store footprints, and decreased shelf space.'”
Meanwhile, Amazon announced this week that they will now be selling a reduced price Kindle–with ads. With ads?!?
The device is called “Kindle with Special Offers” and features ads from Proctor & Gamble, Buick–and the worst of all–Visa credit cards. If that weren’t enough, the screen saver is sponsored as well. Another layer of ads is Amazon itself–promoting their own products. Amazon assures its customers that the ads will not get in the way of reading.
One of the last questions Mangalindan asks in his article was important because he used the phrase digital company:
“Barnes & Noble has already gotten one thing right in having an ereader ready to help it do battle with Amazon. But as far as successfully transforming itself into a digital company? Well, that’s just Chapter One”
It made me ask myself: Can we say that B & N is moving out of the book business?
Thank You B & N and Amazon for focusing on a digital product and for taking much of the beauty and aesthetic enjoyment out of a book and allowing true book lovers to sell them! To me, putting ads on an e-reading device was the last straw.
What do you think?
The Bookstore Key Series on Changes in the Book Industry
Decluttering the Book Market: Ads on the latest Kindle (April 14) Independents on the Exposed End of the Titantic? (April 6th) Border’s Bonuses (March 30) The Experience of Holding a Book (March15) Finding “Deep Time” in a Bookstore (March 8th) Reading The New Rules of Retail by Lewis & Dart (March 3) The Future Price of the Physical Book (Feb 18) Borders Declares Bankruptcy (Feb 16) How Great Things Happen at Lemuria (Feb 8th) The Jackson Area Book Market (Jan 25) What’s in Store for Local Bookselling Markets? (Jan 18) Selling Books Is a People Business (Jan 14) A Shift in Southern Bookselling? (Jan 13) The Changing Book Industry (Jan 11)
Comments are closed.