News From YouTube: Company Man Takes A Look At Barnes & Noble

[BrianY]

For those of us who are at least partially dependent on the big bookstore chain:



Do you visit them? What's your sense of how they're doing?

 

[AgentPete]

...new CEO of Barnes & Noble, who previously had success at Waterstones. Key changes included discontinuing the sale of non-book items, stopping payments from publishers for prime book placements, and granting store managers more authority to choose inventory based on local customer preferences...

Both tried at Waterstones UK, both utterly wrong.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Borders was our revelation when we moved to the US in 91. That was our Friday night, the Borders sale table. Gorgeous books for 5.99, 3.99, 10. 99. We still have many of them. No doubt most of them printed. in Asia. We had seen outdoor tables covered with the same kind of gorgeous books in Karachi. Forget dinner and a movie. Coffee and a roll at Borders and two or 3 bags stuffed with brand new, crisp,
beautifully printed books.

That will never happen again, unless there is some way too make books out of plastic refuse and polyester fast clothes. The forests are gone.

 

[BrianY]

Agent Pete, I took a look at the list of locations that Barnes and Noble opened in 2024 and expected to see a pattern. I didn't. Instead, Company Man contradicted what I'd been told about Barnes and Noble in the past. The locations they've announced all seem to be suburban. Some have "Galleria" in their names suggesting malls - the kiss of death I've been told.

Here's what I'm seeing on the ground - Barnes and Noble stores are always crowded whenever I go in them and the wait to pay is often more than ten minutes. However, I almost never visit mall locations and on the rare times I go to them in the USA, they're dead.

I'm far more puzzled by small town independent book stores. They're always empty except when they're hosting book clubs or children's birthday parties, and yet, they claim to thrive. We now have five in Lancaster, PA - more if you count second hand and religious - and I have no idea how they stay open.

 

[Bloo]

Both tried at Waterstones UK, both utterly wrong.

Which both? Or do you mean all three?

I could get on board with nixing pay-for-placement and allowing managers leeway in selecting inventory. I think that would do improve exposure to lesser-known authors and help bring back some variety.

I agree somewhat with the third item. A lot of bookspace has been taken up by toys and other things that are no way related to reading. Cut back on that stuff. Coffee is a different story - caffeine and books just go together.

I'm actually surprised a more back-to-basics approach didn't work at Waterstone(')s. Do you know exactly why it failed?

 

[Bloo]

Borders was our revelation when we moved to the US in 91. That was our Friday night, the Borders sale table. Gorgeous books for 5.99, 3.99, 10. 99. We still have many of them. No doubt most of them printed. in Asia. We had seen outdoor tables covered with the same kind of gorgeous books in Karachi. Forget dinner and a movie. Coffee and a roll at Borders and two or 3 bags stuffed with brand new, crisp,
beautifully printed books.

That will never happen again, unless there is some way too make books out of plastic refuse and polyester fast clothes. The forests are gone.

Is it really the lack of forests, though. The majority of books haven't been made from virgin trees in a long time. Most were made from sawdust from the milling process. Judging by the amount of construction where I live, there should still plenty of wood for books.

B&N hasn't had a bargain table in years. When I asked about it last year, I was told the unsold hardcovers are sent back to the publisher. When I asked why, she didn't know. I think I know now. Ronald Dahl's Omnibus was delivered to me yesterday. I bought it from Half Price Books on Amazon. The hardcover looks brand new and unread. The only "imperfection" is a Barnes & Noble sticker on the cover.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Bloo, where do yu think sawdust comes from?
One future reality that is not being discussed or looked at with all the extreme weather events is what will be used to rebuild after the destruction. Predictions are one or 200 years of unpredictable weather. Farmers need predictable weather in order to grow crops. And even the cheap crappy wood being grown to replace the hardwood forests squandered in the 80's and 90s.
Agribusiness has had a model of indoor/hydroponic farming for decades. One imagined future has a greenhouse on every Walmart, but sit down and do the requirements for energy, water, etc it's roughly the same as colonising the moon or Mars. If it was efficient the earth would have done it already.
The recent flooding around the world showed cars piled on top of each other in narrow streets. The Guardian had photos of acres and acres of dead cars after Spains flooding alone.
One of my first thoughts was there needs to be immediate investment in recycling. The pollution left behind by flooding is catastrophic, but on top of that are we just going to live in a world with mountains of debris? Which ties into the next reality. Insurance isn't going to be viable in the very near future. It's essentially a bet and all bets are off as extreme weather becomes more and more unpredictable.
There are no Star Trek Replicators. Those lovely Borders books were the result of moving printing to cheaper labor and cheaper resources in Asia. Just as in many other businesses it resulted in a temporary easy cheap supply that stimulated demand, but it was not sustainable and that has to do with the failure of Borders et al.
Shitty cheap housing developments are not sustainable. Anyone wanting to build a house anywhere in the world has been stymied by the meteoric rise of construction materials. And that was before the most recent catastrophic weather events.
The reality is that the world that existed even 30 years ago is gone and will not return.

 

[AgentPete]

Which both? Or do you mean all three?

I could have been clearer. Mostly the last two (stopping payments from publishers and granting store managers more authority). But non-book sales could /have expanded the footfall if properly chosen.

I could get on board with nixing pay-for-placement

That used to be a really important ingredient in a publisher’s marketing mix when breaking out a new author or launching a big new blockbuster book. Removing caused much ill feeling among publishers.

and allowing managers leeway in selecting inventory. I think that would do improve exposure to lesser-known authors and help bring back some variety.

Yeah, I’m sympathetic to that idea, too. However, see above. Giving too much local leeway leads to disorderly marketing.

I agree somewhat with the third item. A lot of bookspace has been taken up by toys and other things that are no way related to reading. Cut back on that stuff. Coffee is a different story - caffeine and books just go together.

Yup.

I'm actually surprised a more back-to-basics approach didn't work at Waterstone(')s. Do you know exactly why it failed?

They are actually doing well, I hear.

 

[Pamela Jo]

The boom in bookstores of the 90's took advantage of a brief window where commodity prices and labor in Asia meant what had been expensive could be done dirt-cheap. In other words you could mark-up your product 1k or more and still sell it at what , to the consumer, felt like a wonderful price. Books essentially benefited from the same model as cheap/fast clothes. The first thing you learn in the market and marketing is the past isn't a predictor of the future. And yet MBA's totally rely on statistics and algorithms.

I used to joke that I would open a consultancy and promise to save your company 20 million. My fee would be 3 million. My sole advice would be don't hire McKinsey. The comedian below is spookily accurate and one reason any advice from MBA's on how to fix bookstores makes my mouth pucker as if I've sucked a lemon.