I feel sorry for B&N...and lots of other brick and mortar retailers for that matter. People go there, browse, and then order what they want online. The retailers get stuck with the salaries and overhead.
Often times I'll take my mom out for breakfast on a Saturday morning. We head to a real nice pancake house about 12 miles away, that serves a more affluent community.
On the way home, I'll drive through a certain subdivision, where the houses are on large lots, park like landscaping, many of the homes backing to ponds.
When we exit the subdivision, there is a shopping center on that road that has a B&N. Often times I'll stop their and browse. I'll find a book I want, grab 1/2 dozen magazines, go to the café area, grab a coffee or juice, enjoy the smells, the quiet and REEEELAAAX, flipping through the pages of the mags.
I usually buy 2 or 3 of the mags and the book and I've enjoyed an hour to hour and a half of quiet, relaxful time.
The time spent relaxing and browsing is more than enough to make up the cost I might have saved buying from elsewhere.
I don’t feel sorry for B&N at all. This is just free market evolution at work.
And remember that B&N didn’t feel sorry for all of the local mom and pop bookstores and newstands destroyed when it was gaining rather than losing market share.