Are Amazon’s bookstores headed for the same future as struggling chains like Barnes & Noble? It’s possible, according to the company’s latest financials, which suggest the company’s physical bookstores aren’t doing so hot. [More]
bookstores
Barnes & Noble CEO Uses Amazon To Justify His Company’s Continued Existence
By 5.24.17
In the age of online shopping, are bookstores irrelevant? The new CEO of big-box bookstore chain Barnes & Noble doesn’t think so. If they were, why would Amazon be opening physical bookstores across the country, with a new one opening in New York City tomorrow? He sees this growth as proof that bookstores are still relevant. [More]
Barnes & Noble Blames Coloring Books And Adele For 8% Decline In Sales
By 3.2.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Investors don’t want to hear that a retailer’s sales are down, so when Barnes & Noble had to explain to its backers and to industry analysts why comparable stores sales figures were down 8.3% over last year, the bookseller had some scapegoats to blame: coloring books and Adele. [More]
Has Amazon Helped Indie Bookstores?
By 1.26.17
Bookstore chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble were among the first retailers to feel the sting of Amazon, with its vast variety of titles and speedy delivery times, not to mention its huge share of the ebook market. However, the online goliath doesn’t appear to be having the same diminishing effect on the number of independent bookstores. [More]
“Rude” Store Owner Tries To Weed Out Freeloaders By Charging $.62 “Browsing Fee”
By 1.6.17
Who among us hasn’t spent time browsing the wares at a store while knowing full well that we have no intention of spending a penny? The owner of one shop got fed up with freeloading looky-loos and has decided to start demanding money just for the pleasure of browsing. [More]
Amazon Opening Its Next Physical Bookstore In NYC This Spring
By 1.6.17
New Yorkers who like the experience of thumbing through a book made with paper and smelling the fresh ink before they buy it will have another place to browse this year. As we suspected in July, Amazon says it will open its next physical book store in Manhattan this spring. [More]
Amazon Now Charging Both Prime And Non-Prime Prices At Physical Bookstores
By 11.2.16
For years, Amazon has offered slightly different pricing for products depending on whether or not a customer was a member of the company’s $99/year Prime service. Now, it appears those price discrepancies have migrated to the company’s physical bookstores as the company works to bulk up its Prime subscriptions. [More]
Colleges Give Up On Bookstores, Just Send Students To Amazon
By 9.16.16
Amazon pickup points on college campuses, which have been sprouting up at schools across the country, have two purposes: they exist to alleviate the strain that college students with Prime memberships put on campus mail services, and to help kill college bookstores. Bookstores are responding: not with price-matching or anything wacky like that, but by dropping books from their merchandise assortment. [More]
Barnes & Noble Founder: Retail Climate Is Terrible, Sales Will Keep Falling
By 9.8.16
Leonard Riggio, the founder of Barnes & Noble, was supposed to retire by now. Instead, he is serving as interim CEO after the company fired imported Canadian CEO Ronald Boire. He started the bookstore that grew into the Barnes & Noble chain more than 50 years ago, and he shared some important wisdom during the company’s earnings call today: things are really terrible in retail right now. [More]
Barnes & Noble Decides New CEO ‘Was Not A Good Fit’
By 8.16.16
Barnes & Noble is ditching its CEO of about a year, Ronald Boire, saying in a statement today that he “was not a good fit for the organization” and that the company would begin their search for a new CEO immediately. [More]
Amazon Will Open Its Second Real-Life Bookstore In San Diego This Summer
By 3.7.16
Last fall, Amazon took its business model offline into the real world with a bricks-and-mortar bookstore that opened in its hometown of Seattle. The e-commerce giant is continuing its foray into the physical with its second book store, announcing that it’s preparing to open up shop as a book peddle in San Diego this summer. [More]
Amazon To Open Fifth On-Campus, Offline Location At University Of Pennsylvania
By 1.12.16
Amazon has spent the last year expanding its challenge to the existence of college bookstores, opening pickup locations on campuses scattered across the country. There, students can pick up things that they ordered on Amazon, and… that’s about it. A new pickup point at the University of Pennsylvania will also offer study and collaboration space for student use, and will provide same-day or next-day pickup for members of Amazon Student or Amazon Prime. [More]
Amazon Opens Actual Real-Life Bookstore Today In Seattle
By 11.3.15
In the last year, there have been rumors that Amazon planned to open a gadget store and package pickup center in Manhattan near the Empire State Building, and that they planned to buy the leases of some RadioShack stores when that retailer declared bankruptcy. Neither of these happened. This morning, Amazon is opening an entirely different sort of real-life store. They’re selling books. [More]
Authors, Booksellers Call For Investigation Into Amazon’s Alleged Anti-Competitive Business Practices
By 7.14.15
Last year, Amazon and book publisher Hachette engaged in a contentious feud that at times saw the online retailer use its considerable clout to make it difficult for consumers to purchase books by Hachette-published authors. Now, eight months after the two companies came to an undisclosed agreement, groups representing thousands of authors and booksellers are pointing to the online book retailer’s actions as reason for the Department of Justice to open an antitrust investigation into Amazon. [More]
Barnes & Noble Turns Profit, Considers Splitting Itself Up
By 2.26.14
Barnes & Noble consists of three businesses: college bookstores, regular bookstores, and the Nook e-reader device and platform. In today’s earnings call, new CEO Michael Huseby reported that the company is again turning a profit, and that they’re “studying” separating the different parts of the business. [Reuters] [More]
Are Small Bookstores Committing Suicide If They Join Amazon’s New Kindle Program?
By 11.6.13
A common refrain among people in the book business — especially those in the independent bookselling market — is that Amazon is “out to kill small bookstores.” Depending on how one looks at it, the latest scheme from the online retail giant either bolsters or calls BS on that statement. [More]
Barnes & Noble Founder Drops Bid To Buy Out The Struggling Bookstore Chain
By 8.20.13
Remember how Barnes & Noble founder, chairman and stake holder Leonard Riggio was going to swoop in on wings made of cash and buy back the struggling chain, saving it from the doom met by Borders? That shining hope has fizzled, it appaars, as Riggio has taken back his offer to swoop, buyout and generally act as savior in general. [More]
Could The Delightful Scent Of Chocolate Wafting Through The Air Save Bookstores?
By 7.25.13
Bring on the chocolate wallpaper, chocolate fans and delicious chocolate fountains: A new study says shoppers are in a more personable, interested mood when the scent of chocolate is in the air at a bookstore. Researchers say there’s something about the smell of chocolate that entices them to look at the merchandise more and perhaps read what it’s about, and also talk to the employees in the store after a nice, leisurely browsing session. [More]
