Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/07/730638739/barnes-noble-set-to-be-sold-to-elliott-management-for-about-683-million

by selimthegrim • 7 years ago

256 194 7 years ago

vikramkr• 7 years ago

I really hope I don't read any articles a few years from now about Barnes and Noble filing for bankruptcy after being crushed by the immense debt of a leveraged buyout...

kurthr• 7 years ago

Alternately, figure out where they will be selling real estate and how to make money on that... lots of it will be in California and NY?

dr_orpheus• 7 years ago

Agreed, my first thought when I saw this was of the Toys 'R Us filing for bankruptcy some years after the leveraged buyout in 2005.

lalaithion• 7 years ago

The story reports that the same company recently bought a British bookseller, and managed to turn a company with losses into a company with profits, so hopefully they can do they same with Barnes and Noble.

taborj• 7 years ago

Private investment firms can have a positive effect, if done right. Most of them are looking to make money in 5-7 years, which means spending some money to get it back to profitability before selling it off (or taking it public).

devoply• 7 years ago

Yeah bleed the piggy... then declare bankruptcy.

Donald2• 7 years ago

after being crushed by the immense debt of a leveraged buyout

$680M is in the realm of a cash transaction for a hedge fund, and indeed, if you look at their SEC filing (below), this is an all-cash transaction. Expect aggressive cost-cutting from Elliot (BNs around me seem to be well staffed with lots of people standing around with little to do - so layoffs likely in the future) but the store itself should be able to survive.

http://investors.barnesandnobleinc.com/static-files/e605e233...

nostromo• 7 years ago

Unless I'm mistaken, this is just saying that the fund purchased B&N with cash. That doesn't mean they haven't taken on debt to do so.

mwexler• 7 years ago

Wow, you have a lux B&N. Most of them are desperately understaffed, between the need to reshelve books, receive inventory, manage "cash-wrap" for the long checkout lines, corral running kids, ask the guy destroying the manga to stop folding the covers, straighten the magazines that have been scattered by readers, pick up the trash patrons leave all over the store, check the bathrooms for various "presents" people leave behind, and oh yeah, help folks find the exact book they wanted from the query "that book by that guy who was a chef and then did special forces but now has that book about contract bridge" so they can flip through it and order it from Amazon.

The cost cutting has happened in many places and if it continues, sadly, even a hedge fund won't be able to save it. Sure, lots of room to improve, and a mix of cut the bad and add the good will help. But don't fool yourself, retail is hard and B&N, the good ones, is real work. I wish them the best but it's a hard road.

mtgx• 7 years ago

In other words, B&N is to be dismantled and sold for parts in the near future.

garren• 7 years ago

At the very least, maybe it turns back into a bookstore rather than a cafe/book/music/board game/toy store. It's the board games, comic/anime figurines, and kitchy junk (e.g., polaroid cameras, overpriced drawing and writing kits, etc.) that make me feel like they've kind of lost their way.

vkou2• 7 years ago

The board games, figurines, and the kitchy, disposable crap is what keeps them in business. The margins on those items are much higher then on books, and they sell faster than any random book on their shelves.

Source: My wife worked at Half-Price Books (Which is doing a bit better than B&N atm) for a few years. It also had multiple shelves of disposable crap, that made them a lot of money.

empath75• 7 years ago

They’d be better off if they stopped selling books, profit wise.

vkou2• 7 years ago

It's already gone through that, to make the sale more attractive.

whalesalad2• 7 years ago

TIL Barnes and Noble still exists. I haven't seen one in what feels like a decade.

Donald2• 7 years ago

B&N is surprisingly one of the few private establishments available in the US for the simple pleasure of going in for a nice sit without feeling an obligation to purchase something.

Would be a shame to see them go.

felipellrocha• 7 years ago

As is any small corner bookstore

whalesalad2• 7 years ago

simple pleasure of going in for a nice sit without feeling an obligation to purchase something.

Could explain why they aren't very profitable and why they might be going by the wayside.

pkaye2• 7 years ago

They made it a little too comfortable. I'd remember their cafe would have students sitting there studying or reading store books for hours. Meanwhile customers ordering food would have no space to sit down and eat. At some point they sold those cafe to a third party which modified the layout so tables were tall and narrow so less comfortable for studying.

seanmcdirmid• 7 years ago

Amazon's smaller mall bookstores feel the same way if you have kids. Heck, they even have less toys, which is useful when kid wrangling (the last time I went to B&N, I couldn't get my toddler out of hte book section).

unethical_ban• 7 years ago

There are five each in Austin and San Antonio; thirteen in Houston and fourteen in DFW. Even Lubbock has two.

They are pretty big stores, on par with anchor department stores.

bytematic• 7 years ago

Well Elliott is a vulture fund so we all know where this is going

timthorn• 7 years ago

They already own Waterstones in the UK which they seem to be treating ok so far: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48560539

tonyedgecombe2• 7 years ago

I was pleasantly surprised when I visited a Waterstones recently. They were much improved over what they used to be.

MR4D2• 7 years ago

Thank god. Their website is so bad that it’s almost like they are trying not to sells books.

Last week I had a gift card for BN that I needed to use, and tried to buy an audiobook on bn.com from my iPhone. It was damn near impossible to find anything and I still don’t know how to search for an audiobook.

Such a shame, as I used to love their physical stores.

Hopefully these folks will do a much better job.

threezero• 7 years ago

And their SEO is terrible. You have to go to google and add the domain to any query to find a book on their site.

mikestew• 7 years ago

https://m.barnesandnoble.com/b/audiobooks/_/N-2cnc?sk_page=d... is what came up when I typed “audiobook” into the search box. There’s an entire section.

MR4D2• 7 years ago

Yes, but let’s say you’re a George Soros fan and want to buy one of his audio books. So you do a search for “Alchemy of Finance audiobook” and the result you get is this [1].

Now here’s the kicker - it’s out of stock. WTF !?!

[1] https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-alchemy-of-finance-geor...

legitster• 7 years ago

So, before we doom and gloom about B&N, it's important to remember that independent bookstores are doing great! https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/why-independent-bookstores-haved-...

So why is Barnes and Nobles struggling? A couple of important points:

Their inventory and footprint IS HUGE. Large inventory with low turnover is a margin-killer in retail. And I doubt they make much money off the books in their shelves - real money is in the piled selection and special coffee table books and new features and what have you.

Wide inventory is their advantage over the smaller stores, but it comes at a huge cost and forces them to keep prices high. Remember, in retail, selection costs money consumers have to pay. Smaller stores can get away with a random selection and stacking books all over the place (the hunt is part of the experience). If someone can't find a copy of the Republic at B&N, they probably lost a customer.

I suspect they will switch over to a more curated model (like AmazonBooks) - basically only new and select books. Smaller store, less footprint, and less product to buy and eat costs on. And then they can compete on costs more.

AdmiralAsshat• 7 years ago

I suspect they will switch over to a more curated model (like AmazonBooks) - basically only new and select books. Smaller store, less footprint, and less product to buy and eat costs on. And then they can compete on costs more.

That's understandable, but a bit of a bummer. Part of the joy of B&N is being able to just go and browse--finding something you didn't know you were looking for.

With it downsized, I imagine we'll get something closer to the bookstore at an airport: nothing but the most recent Tom Clancy novels and such.

I suppose the best-case scenario would be like your neighborhood comic book store, where you can place the order and B&N would ship it to store from one of their warehouses.

sokoloff4• 7 years ago

Why would I want to come back to the store that couldn’t provide me the product on the first visit?

If my book is going to be shipped, it’s almost surely going to be shipped to my house, whether by B&N or by Amazon...

NikkiA• 7 years ago

nothing but the most recent Tom Clancy novels

I feel this is less likely to be a valid business strategy since 2013.

LanceH2• 7 years ago

They switched over long ago.

There are far fewer shelves of books now. Of the books they do have, they are optimized for profit -- ranging from best sellers, new books by genre, and those few books from big authors that sell year over year.

Most of these books are now trade paperback instead of mass market paperback. I go in needing to get Tom Sawyer and the only option they have is $15.95.

They took the computers out where I could look up a book.

If I manage to find a series of books I want, there is a good chance the first book in the series is missing, since that is the most likely to be purchased. I could then ask at the counter, where they'll tell me they can order it for me.

The shelves themselves have fewer, larger books -- many place front cover out -- occupying fewer shelves. There is just no hunt left in B&N anymore. There is no discovery of something from the back catalog.

kabdib2• 7 years ago

They stopped having a "new releases" part of their main sections, so if I want to find a new release in SF/Fantasy it means having to look at all the books in that section.

Granted, that section is a lot smaller now, with books front-cover-out, as you say. But it's still kind of a sucky move for steady customers.

I used to visit the local B&N every week. Now it's down to every few months, when I know exactly what I want to find there. And the B&N is about a quarter toys and board games now (this is not an exaggeration). We're down to two bookstores in our city of 600K+ people, hard to believe.

mieseratte2• 7 years ago

There are far fewer shelves of books now.

Mine has the same number of shelves as far as I can tell, but reduced the overall number of books on a given shelf. They keep the shelves looking full by drastically increasing the number of books with outward-facing covers.

I know it sounds like a minor change, but it really gives me an uncanny valley feeling.

baron816• 7 years ago

before we doom and gloom about B&N, it's important to remember that independent bookstores are doing great

It’s funny watching a movie like You’ve Got Mail today when the trend was reversed. That movie hasn’t aged well for many reasons now that I think about it.

rhizome2• 7 years ago

If the bookstore setting is played out, perhaps something fresher would be a perfume store? Or a music store? Or a leather goods retailer? These all still exist! :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikl%C3%B3s_L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3#P...

JohnJamesRambo• 7 years ago

F O X

Mediterraneo102• 7 years ago

It's important to remember that independent bookstores are doing great!

The independent stores that you think are doing great are not what many fans of independent bookshops are thinking of by the words “independent bookstores”.

I fondly look back on certain 1990s independent bookshops that had enormous stock, and books were all they sold. But these days, many independent bookshops have trimmed their book inventories to a bare minimum of “new and select books” like you speak of. Small bookshops have felt the same pressures as the large chains, and in the place of actual books come things like vinyl records, Kikkerland products, and fancy teas. That might help them stay afloat financially, but for actual book lovers, it feels like the soul has been ripped out of the shop, like the proprietors are not bibliophiles themselves.

mykowebhn• 7 years ago

This depresses me.

One of the reasons I don't like B&N is because I feel it's a store no longer dedicated to books. They have books, but it's also a gift store, a toy store, and a stationery store. From just my estimate, I feel about 40 percent of its floor-space is for non-book items.

Another book chain in Canada, Indigo Books, operates similarly.

I think the last bastions for book-lovers are used bookstores. Also, Powell's in Portland seems quite dedicated to selling books of all sorts.

darkpuma2• 7 years ago

Something I've noticed is that small bookstores, particularly used bookstores, cram in way more books per square foot of floor space. Books from floor to ceiling, often with so many shelves crammed into the building that you wonder if the average-sized American can actually squeeze into the store. I wager I've seen some used bookstores smaller than my college dorm room with more books than a B&N.

It's a cozier atmosphere too, more conducive to hanging out for a while digging around for things that look interesting. An all around more enjoyable experience than B&N or Borders ever were.

PopeDotNinja2• 7 years ago

Crazy idea in alternate universe... Turn all Barnes & Nobles into libraries.

Rapzid2• 7 years ago

The selection is too poor.

ihuman• 7 years ago

Or you could just go to your local library in this universe. They still exist.

war10252• 7 years ago

Actual idea: Treat your local bookstore like a library. They don't care if you read their books as long as you stay in store and are respectful. Plus they have actual up to date selection with no waiting list for new releases. And spending money at the cafe is probably higher margin for them anyway.

nichos• 7 years ago

Which become internet kiosks for the homeless.

jimmaswell2• 7 years ago

In the long run, most book stores are doomed. There's no way around it no matter how nostalgic some are for physical books - the medium is an obsolete novelty with the advent of smartphones/tablets. Some book stores will remain but it'll be a niche thing like vinyl records and horseback riding.

Marsymars3• 7 years ago

I don't know anyone who reads significant numbers of books on smartphone/tablets. It's either print books, ebooks, or audiobooks. And looking at print book sales over the last decade, there hasn't been a consistent downwards trend.

Personally, I like to buy print books because I can give them away to friends or family after I read them. I also get a lot of print books from my local library, because there's nearly always less of a wait than for ebooks, due to the obnoxious DRM/copyright terms that ebooks for libraries entail.

Gene_Parmesan• 7 years ago

This common prediction has not at all been borne out by facts. Physical books still remain popular -- maybe not as popular as thirty years ago, but there's a lot of reasons why that would be the case (general availability of entertainment from competing media). Most importantly, there was a 2017 study that showed that young children prefer reading physical books to reading books electronically.

Physical books have been with us much longer, culturally speaking, than vinyl records were. We're talking millennia. It's going to take much more than the iPad to kill them off.

wnissen• 7 years ago

To save anyone the trouble, the book value (no pun intended) is only $474 million. You'd think the inventory alone would would be work more than the average $675K per store that you get if you assume their other assets (minus debt) are worth nothing.

thomas932• 7 years ago

Can you expand on what the implication of your comment is?

Book value on the balance sheet is ~$474 million, but that doesn't seem particularly meaningful in a valuation context for the business (especially considering the ~$1,123 million they are carrying for treasury stock).

As for inventory, they have that carried on their books for ~$1,000 million, which also means very little without a broader context on the state of the business.

Turing_Machine• 7 years ago

Most of the books in a major bookstore like B&N are returnable. They're not actually owned by the bookstore (at least not permanently, and not outright). If the book doesn't sell within a specified period of time, the publisher will take it back.

Hardcovers are generally returned intact. Paperbacks and magazines often just require that the retailer tear off the cover and return that, while destroying (at least in theory) the rest of the book. That's why you sometimes see that warning in the front of paperback books and magazines about not buying it if its cover has been removed... unscrupulous retailers will sometimes strip the cover, return it for credit, then sell the stripped book on the black market.

WalterBright• 7 years ago

Amazon has recently opened bookstores in shopping malls.

dwighttk• 7 years ago

Hopefully their first step is to replace their website with one that is useable to purchase books. Oof and that app which is a watered down version of the site that runs slower.

tnorthcutt• 7 years ago

Last year I wanted to buy Thinking in Bets (great book, btw). I was feeling impatient, so I looked it up on Barnes and Noble's website, and saw that a store where I was had it in stock.

I went in to purchase it, and the price in store was a couple bucks higher than the listed price online. I asked the clerk about it, and he kind of shrugged and said he couldn't do anything about it.

I walked out without the book and ordered it from Amazon on my phone in the parking lot.

I still can't fathom the decision-making that led to that pricing strategy.

Scoundreller• 7 years ago

People are usually prepared to pay a bit more to get something right away vs. in a few days.

It works out great (usually) for the impatient, but terribly for the patient that are aware of their options.

ummonk• 7 years ago

The problem is that as a lazy person, waiting a day or two for something to be delivered straight to my doorstep is less effort than having to go to a store to pick something up.

munmaek2• 7 years ago

Why does this work out terribly for the patient?

It's not like you're going to die if you don't get the book you want in 2 days, or even 3-7 business days. (Not that I buy physical books anymore typically, but it applies to other items)

People have just grown very impatient over time. I found myself getting annoyed that I wasn't receiving some items in 1 day (in Korea), until I reflected on what I actually was getting annoyed over.

Personally I find myself buying things on amazon or gmarket simply to avoid having to drive to the store.

abdullahkhalids3• 7 years ago

What's confusing? Shipping a book from a warehouse is cheaper and maintaining a website is cheaper than setting up and selling from a physical store. If I order a book online, I don't want to subsidize the walk in customers.

nraynaud• 7 years ago

the value of the book doesn't change depending on its distribution channel

vvanders• 7 years ago

It's deceptive, if you're going to advertise a price make it clear that the price is online only.

dymk2• 7 years ago

And still, nearly all retailers have adopted a price-matching policy that matches not just their own website, but competitors as well.

There's really not a good reason for their in-store price to be higher than their online price in 2019.

clarityPhone• 7 years ago

I can’t think of any other retailer that does this. Best Buy, Walmart, Famous Footwear, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc. all honor the same prices in person as they do online.

midnightclubbed• 7 years ago

What makes it confusing is that you can check local store inventory online, order online at the online price and pickup in an hour from the store. However if you grab the book yourself from the physical store and save them a step, they absolutely won’t honor the online price. You have to order online and wait an hour while they take the book off the shelf for you. Or you get exasperated with the ridiculousness of the whole thing and buy from amazon leaving b&n with no sale.

Rebelgecko• 7 years ago

Maybe you ended up ordering on Amazon on principle, but FWIW you can order from B&N online and do in-store pickup

IAmGraydon2• 7 years ago

I can’t fathom the decision-making that led to spending the time to go down to the store for some instant gratification and then leaving over a $2 difference.

darkpuma2• 7 years ago

Presumably it was the principle of the matter. Bait and switch generally being seen in a negative light...

Glyptodon• 7 years ago

Because you don't want to reward bald-faced manipulation. It's not about saving two dollars.

OrgNet• 7 years ago

probably spent $2 in gas too... but sometimes it's just principles.

barking2• 7 years ago

Going off topic. I looked up that book on Amazon and one critical review said it was the same thing repeated over and over and he could sum up the book's advice in one paragraph:

Make a decision as if you are betting all of your money on your choice. Don't take shortcuts based on your inborn biases and seek contrarian opinions and experienced counsel. Don't blame bad luck on bad outcomes; figure out how you could have made a better informed decision. Oh, and surprise, surprise, join groups with participants who have had similar experiences and expertise who can critique your choices and illuminate your blindspots. There you go.

Was he wrong?

ellius• 7 years ago

Yes and no. You could summarize 'The Wealth of Nations' the same way and it would also sound pretty basic and not worth the 800+ page read. I agree in general that 'Thinking in Bets' is conceptually thin, in the sense that there's a high text-to-ideas ratio, but there's some value in reading all of that. Duke does a good job of describing her own thoughts and experiences, in a way that makes you want to actually apply those ideas in your own life (rather than just read about them). A better book on the topic is 'Fooled by Randomness.' It's much more conceptually dense and covers a lot of the same ideas.

rhizome2• 7 years ago

From the parking lot? In your car? With which you spent $2 in gas to travel there and back?

uponcoffee• 7 years ago

This boils down to voting with your dollars, the root comment didn't like B&N's business practice and gave their business to someone else.

lostcolony• 7 years ago

I had the exact same thing with a D&D book. I don't remember which (it was 5th ed, so fairly recent), but online it was equal to the Amazon price. In person it was like $10-20 more, and yeah, wouldn't price match.

Taught me to never look at B&N for a book I wanted again. I only ever go in there now when I happen to pass one with time to kill and just want to browse.

dragonwriter3• 7 years ago

Last year I wanted to buy Thinking in Bets (great book, btw). I was feeling impatient, so I looked it up on Barnes and Noble's website, and saw that a store where I was had it in stock.
I went in to purchase it, and the price in store was a couple bucks higher than the listed price online.

If you looked at in on the web and saw that it was in stock, it also had a “buy online and pick up at X store” button on the results page online, which is both more convenient and avoids the problem you relate (they've had that feature for years, and I just tested and it's still there now.)

The in store price is probably higher because people coming in, going through the stacks and de-merchandising books, asking questions, etc., cost more to service, and would be even more unsustainably unprofitable if online prices, which are for sales that don't have those costs associated were charged (meanwhile, online sales would be uncompetitive if in-store prices were charged.)

mieseratte2• 7 years ago

Are you sure the one online was the same imprint and trim size as the one in-store? Publishers often have multiple different imprints and trim sizes as a means of price discrimination, as well as for stylistic reasons.

Just the other week I went into Barnes & Noble to purchase a book and they had two different trim sizes of the same exact book right next to each other. Both paperback but one was large-and-thin while the other was small-and-thick. The former was about $4 more than the latter.

ngngngng• 7 years ago

Barnes & Noble online is run as a completely different business than the brick and mortar stores. The prices are not posted to match on any items. Brick & Mortar stores will not honor any online posted prices because of this strategy.

jschwartzi3• 7 years ago

It actually costs them a ton of money to physically label the prices on each book. B&N adds their own sticker over the top of the MSRP when they receive the book. Changing the sticker every time the online price is changed would cost them a small fortune.

If you're ever wondering why the online price differs from the in-store price by a significant amount, usually it's not because the retailer is trying to gouge you. It's because they would have to pay to have the shelves re-tagged. Retailers don't use the regular store associates to re-tag shelves. Instead they usually have roving teams of contractors who go around retagging everything on the store shelves periodically.

The only way to really eliminate this is using electronic shelf labels, and that's quite impossible in a bookstore. Much of their inventory is thinner than the tags themselves.

SOLAR_FIELDS2• 7 years ago

Half price books has solved this in a rather ingenious way: they just sell the book for half of what the MSRP is on the cover. No need to tag anything, decent markup, and the price data is already there/doesn’t need to be created. It’s little efficiencies like this that make HPB one of the most successful brick and mortar bookstores out there.

ineedasername• 7 years ago

Books all have barcode with entries in their POS linked database, why not just have the current price linked to it? When I used to work for BN during my college days, that's how it worked. When a book was on sale, there was no need to re-tag the books, it was just a database update.

kgwgk3• 7 years ago

He’s not complaining about the price tag not matching the online price. He’s complaining about the cashier applying the tag price and not the lower price advertised online. I also find it confusing when retailers apply different prices online and at physical stores, unless the fact that the online price is different is very clearly stated.

drivers992• 7 years ago

B&N doesn’t put their own price stickers over the MSRP / barcode. In certain sections they would have an X% off on the top-right of the front cover like new and best seller hard-covers, and specific prices on the discounted/remaindered looking stuff, but that’s also on the front cover. The main sections divided by topic (which is all full price) don’t have any stickers. They just sell stuff at full price and then apply discounts if you’re a member (only 10%), coupons etc.

Borders did put a sticker on every book. 2nd & Charles does too.

shaklee3• 7 years ago

Home Depot has solved this in their appliances section. They now have e-ink screens on everything.

omnimus2• 7 years ago

This is norm in europe with most online stores (especially smaller ones) that have physical store.

It makes sese to me since i dont have to pay for shipping.

mastratton3• 7 years ago

I mean $2 seems fair for them to hold it in inventory and take the risk.

amluto• 7 years ago

Maybe they’ll make the Nook better.

tonetheman• 7 years ago

Every once in a while I still go in there and buy a book for more than I need to... just to hope that I am keeping the store open.

I miss bookstores.

musicale• 7 years ago

Well I hope B&N will do better than Sears, Toys R Us, and RadioShack after they were taken private and saddled with unsustainable debt.

ForHackernews• 7 years ago

I hope they don't kill the Nook, it's a much better eReader than the Kindle: uses standard epub format, fun and hackable, independent of the Amazon behemoth.

Marsymars3• 7 years ago

Kobo is also pretty good!

flyGuyOnTheSly• 7 years ago

Title should read $683M (not $638M)

selimthegrim5• 7 years ago

I emailed dang to correct it.

cybersnowflake• 7 years ago

I certainly think there is a niche for the absolute last physical bookstore in town.

ilamont• 7 years ago

Indie publisher here. I deal with B&N through several programs they offer. They have real market power in areas like college bookstores and sales to schools. I think it's possible to view the website and its ebook platforms as brimming with a lot of untapped opportunity.

And while they sometimes have some fantastic initiatives, they really struggle with execution, such as the launch of their self-serve ad platform in February (http://leanmedia.org/bn-botches-ad-platform-rollout-can-it-r...). The print-on-demand launch (http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/press-release/6_28_16_nook_...) was also a miss, which I think relates to its siloed and bureaucratic nature.

dragonwriter3• 7 years ago

They have real market power in areas like college bookstores and sales to schools.

They used to, but Barnes and Noble (ticket: BKS) (the firm being discussed here) does not, AFAIK, any more, because Barnes and Noble Education (ticker: BNED) was spun off in 2015, and is a separate public company.

mrnobody_67• 7 years ago

I'm betting they try to flip it to Amazon for $1.8b in 18 months time :)

Rapzid2• 7 years ago

Amazon really sucks if you are trying to buy a physically nice book these days. I've had to make so many returns this year. Most recently after waiting almost 2 months for my hardcover "On The Origin of Species", it has a box cutter cut on the front cover :S

A physical presence would be great for inspecting and purchasing hardcover if quality matters. Amazon doesn't seem to care much what condition they arrive at your house in.

1123581321• 7 years ago

That would be good for B&N, but that has to cross some antitrust line for Amazon. They are so close to crossing 50% market share of paperbacks already. I wasn’t able to find figures on B&N market share, but I could see them pushing hardcover close to majority in the US as well. https://www.statista.com/statistics/534111/amazon-book-marke...

ausjke• 7 years ago

the writing has been on the wall for quite a while, sigh.

it gives people fond of memories, unlike amazon while you can get something cheaper, amazon has nothing else

throwaway_bn• 7 years ago

I hope they don't kill B&N. I dropped out of college while pursuing a Physics degree. After which I didn't have much in terms of career prospects. There was a B&N near my apartment and I bought a lot of CS and programming books and went on to get jobs at FAANGish companies. I think I've spent about $30,000 at B&N over a 15 year period. I mostly buy from Amazon now but still go to B&N to be able to quickly physically browse through various categories of books.

b3b0p• 7 years ago

I selfishly hope that the Barnes and Noble at the entrance inside Mall of America stays (because I live downtown Minneapolis and take the Blue Line directly there for fun). It's always busy, it's large, it's glorious and stocks the most awesome video game and obscure magazines anywhere I have seen. I love this store!

I always want to buy something, but living in small little tiny apartments all my life and finally selling off the last of my video game collection (31 large moving boxes filled) I want less physical items and buy all my books digitally. I like physical more, but with iBooks and keeping it always available at my finger tips on all my devices, it's way to convenient. I realize I might be part of the problem. There is always the downtown library.

foxhop• 7 years ago

I work remote and at least a few times a month I make it a point to work out of my small towns public library. It's so cool! when I do pomodoros and take a 5 minute break, I walk the stacks and find so many books I want to read!

Digory• 7 years ago

I never thought I'd live to see the day the Riggios ran out of ideas to squeeze more cash out that business.

They've been experts at killing a business slowly. Maybe only Sears has done a better job of extracting value from a death spiral.

sergiotapia• 7 years ago

I hope they don't close, I love going to Best Buy and browse around, then go nextdoor to the B&N to see what's up in the latest comics, graphic novels, and scifi books. My kids love the kid section too.

raleigh_user• 7 years ago

My #1 bone to pick with Barnes and Noble was they wouldn’t price match their online price in store.

There is a local store near me and probably once a month I want a new book. I want the new book that day so I look online (Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, borders, etc) and determine Barnes and Noble is only a dollar or two more than Amazon. Fine because I want to read now.

Turns out, that was their online only price. If you want the book in their store it costs more.

I’ve avoided buying at least 12 books from them in the last 2-3 months because of it and went with Amazon.

todd3834• 7 years ago

I always wondered why they are not trying to compete with Amazon in selling books online. I know they also sell books online and I know they have the Nook but I don’t think I have ever bought a book from their website. Is Amazon executing so perfectly that they simply can’t be beat?

speeder• 7 years ago

I hope now I will be able to get my books...

I bought a lot of books from fictonwise because it was only store that sold them to Brazilians. BN then bought them and put a rule where you can only download those books, even though you bought them, of you are physically inside USA

Barnes & Noble Set To Be Sold To Elliott Management For About $683M

Related Stories