The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarters Expenses?
Find a technological way to turn their stores into e-versions of what they were up to this point.
Invent a technology where you can bring your e-reader into the physical store and electronically browse what’s there but as soon as you leave the store what you didn’t pay for goes up in smoke like in the old Mission Impossible TV shows.
Keep the cafes, the comfy chairs, and the prime locations.
Once people are hooked on a book they are “browsing” the chances are quite high they’ll actually go ahead and buy it - which is how their old model worked.
I'd LOVE to buy the books touted by many conservatives ... Levin, f'rinstance ... but the computer age has re-directed my love for reading and knowledge to occur in a sitting straight up position while becoming fat on whatever I damned well feel like gorging myself on.
Reading these days is more a Pac Man experience of bits and pieces until a whole hour or day has been eaten up and we move on to the next free game.
I HAVE attempted to read a book, but I find that as good a sleeping aid as Nembutol.
I think it all began in my childhood when I learned to peruse (a) magazine(s) while sitting on the terlet ...
Do girls have this sitting and reading thing ?
I recall reading last year where IHOP and Wendy’s were in trouble also. IMO, Should all three bite the dust in 2012 it would bring home the impact of the poor state of the economy to the average Jane and Joe than all the bank failures have so far.
Good. Maybe they’ll think twice about hiring snooty, more-intelligent-than-thou clerks to take your money when you check out.
I am a writer who gets most of his books (usually 50 years old at least) from abebooks.com and ebay. Occasionally I find I need to go to one of these “big-box” bookstores (hey, if they are going to insult Walmart and Target who are actually helping the middle class by providing affordable goods, we can use their nasty nickname against them) and 90% of the clerks who have taken my money have the attitude, “I work in a bookstore, ergo, I’m a brilliant writer/literary critic.”
Take the metal rod out of your nose, you’re just a cashier.
Smaller stores inside more downtown areas with more emphasis on the cafe, free wi-fi, print-on-site books, and ebooks.
Huge mega stores in malls full of 40 dollar books is a sure loser.
Based on the iPad and Kindle, B&N has been REacting rather than being PROactive. And frankly, I liked the Kindle MUCH better than the Nook.
For the price of about 3-4 new hardbound books, One can buy an e-Reader that will hold hundreds, if not thousands, of books. Around $14.99 is the high typical price of eBook novels, with prices going as low as $0.99. And there are now gazillions of sites out there with free content for the download.
The only time now I’ll buy a physical book is if it’s something I want for my library. Something I feel is of value. Otherwise, my nose is in my Kindle “Keyboard” WiFi every day. Along with Calibri on my PC to maintain my collection, it’s a reader’s dream come true.
There is no reason at all a physical book store should exist. They are simply obsolete.
My husband will be very sad if actual books go away. He was given a Kindle and he re gifted it to someone else. He likes a book in his hand, to turn pages and dog ear the page when he puts it down.
Goodbye buggy whip.
The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarters Expenses?
My best reading occurs every morning when I’m dropping the kids off at the pool. If you know what I mean.
Went to one of the Barnes and Nobles stores. The selection sucked. Had a 50 dollar gift card and could find anything worth even taking for free.
I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas and it is great. One of the best Christmas gifts I have got in a long time.Good quality videos and cheap books. Cant beat it.
I sit astride the lines in this battle. I wish success to Barnes and Noble for two reasons: one is that I own a nook color. The other is that I think more competition means less likelihood of higher prices. But I also buy most of my books from abebooks. The prices are outstanding, the service good, and most of the books I buy are older, sometimes out of print.
I like the nook color because it’s a decent quasi-tablet, and I have many public domain books on it. And it doesn’t hurt that I can use it in similar fashion to my ipad-slinging brethren at work, in meetings.
I still prefer having a genuine book in my hands. For me that still has magic. But I understand and share, to some degree, the attraction to e-readers, whether nook or kindle or sony.
I like real books better.
Call me old fashioned, but I still enjoy turning paper pages.
Amazon.com is a treasure trove of used books. My library is full of $2.00 - $5.00 “must read” old volumes.
I have purchased from Abe Books, as well.
I’d miss B&N.
When I went on my first “official” date with my wife, we were early for the movie - and she wanted to stop at the Barnes & Noble to look at books.
Right then I KNEW I was going to marry her.
One thing I’d miss more than B&N though is the mom & pop new and used book stores.
Sometimes they’re empty, but sometimes they are like treasure troves.
My favorite bookstore, the Science Fiction Mystery Bookstore is long gone, but I still miss it.
There is one used book store in Micanopy, FL, that I could spend days in, and hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. It has the best history/military section of any book store I have ever been in!
Digital books have surely cut a lot into their business, but I also think the entire industry would have been in serious trouble anyway simply because they're selling products that are completely "commoditized" and therefore can't be differentiated from one retailer to another.
The only way out of this dilemma might have been for publishing companies themselves to own book stores -- which would give them the ability to stock their own books on an exclusive basis and cut deals with other publishers to cross-share titles under different pricing structures.
I hope they pull it out. I bought a Nook e-reader last year and love it. I tried the Kindle and hated it. This year I bought the new Nook tablet and it’s fantastic! It has similar features as my first Nook (Wi-Fi, Web, etc.) but is more like a tablet than an e-reader. I also tried the Kindle Fire before buying the Nook and same thing; there was no comparison between the two. The Nook beat the Kindle hands down. It’s more user friendly when downloading books. Both will download books through my public library for free but the Kindle has to be redirected to Amazon to download where the Nook will download directly from the library. The Nook will also accept a 32GB micro card for more storage.