It’s Literally Wednesday: News from B&N
Dave | June 26, 2013When France sneezes, Europe catches a cold. This was said by Klemons von Metternich, foreign minister for the Austrian Empire, in the mid 1800s. This idiom has been adopted to various changes of circumstances, including by me.
When Barnes and Noble sneezes, the publishing industry catches a cold. And the publishing industry is not feeling well at all.
B&N released its sales and earnings reports yesterday for its fourth quarter and for its full year ended April 27, 2013. Net losses for both the quarter and year were double that of those previous, with a downward trend. The company’s stated outlook for the next twelve months is equally bleak.
While retail sales at its bricks and mortar stores posted solid declines, it was nothing compared to the Nook digital division. Nook unit sales declined 34% for the quarter while digital content declined almost 9%. While B&N will continue to manufacture dedicated e-readers, it will stop producing tablets. They are currently looking to partner with another company to supply them with Nook branded tablets. B&N will continue with their current plans for closing 15-20 per year while opening around five. In the Atlanta market, their store on Camp Creek Parkway (just outside the perimeter), will shutter this summer.
A business can only afford losses of this magnitude ($120M in the last three months) for so long. The question on everyone’s mind is whether Barnes and Noble is going the way of Borders and, if so, what then.
This Week
Kent Wascom, author of Blood of Heaven, Wednesday, June 26th at 7pm, Highland Inn Ballroom, sponsored by A Cappella Books, free.
Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Sisterland, Monday, July 1st at 7:15pm, Decatur Library, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.
The loss of Borders was bad enough; Barnes and Noble’s inevitable bankruptcy will be devastating. The days of browsing in bookstores are fast disappearing. I will miss them.
Thanks to a long-standing hair salon appointment my wife has at the Forum in Norcross, I make it out to the B&N there about once a month and do some browsing. Though I always make a point of buying at least a magazine, there is generally a lot more browsing and reading going on there than buying (there’s usually a longer line at the Starbucks in the back than there is for B&N ). I don’t see it lasting much longer, maybe a year.
Something that amazes me, though, is that despite the reported declines in print readership, there seem to be more print magazines being published than ever, and for nearly every conceivable niche or subculture.
In addition, the Decatur Book Festival and Little Libraries are flourishing. Does not compute. Why are bookstores failing? I see some folks around town reading off of devices but many more reading hard copy books? Is reading itself declining?
Something that amazes me, though, is that despite the reported declines in print readership, there seem to be more print magazines being published than ever, and for nearly every conceivable niche or subculture.
While there are magazines for niche audiences that I know have disappeared in the last five or so years, I am equally perplexed that other publications have replaced them on the periodicals’ display area.
I love browsing bookstores and I buy an average of $20-$30 worth of merchandise 70% of the time. I liked having two big bookstores to visit within reasonable driving distance of each other no matter where I was in or outside of the perimeter.
Ironically, I’ve probably bought more DVDs from various B&N’s across town in the last 3 years than I had five years ago.
B&N has always been an overpriced cesspool that deserved to be shuttered, but I feel for all the people who will be out of a job.
+1
Big brick and mortar bookstores are done.
banks are next–there will always be some locations for transactions that absolutely require meatspace, but they’re going to get a 90% haircut over the next 3-5 years.
I agree there are far too many brick and mortar banks around. Unfortunately, the areas with the fewest branches are the areas where there are concentrations of people least likely to use online banking.
You are absolutely correct about banks. On the rare occasion I go to the bank, I can’t help but notice how few employees actually work at a bank anymore. Not too long ago, there would be a teller at every window, a couple more at the drive through and a greeter helping to move the crowd through the branch. Now, you have maybe 1 or 2 tellers and a couple of other people sitting in the offices.
But, this is going to create alot of excees inventory in the real estate market, and banks aren’t easily converted to other uses (although I can think of several that are now urgent care).
Don’t tell Chris Billingsley, but banks can be converted into bars. The vaults make for excellent Elvis shrines.
I’d beg to disagree RSH. Independent booksellers seem to be making something of a comeback (http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/03/are-independent-bookstores-making-a-comeback/), and a good number of the well established, well diversified independent bookshops have been flourishing for years. I don’t know where all of this affection for the corporate booksellers like Barnes and Noble and Borders has come from, but it seems incredibly hypocritical to me. They are very much the cause of the struggling and shuttering of independent booksellers, and then when the big guys are in trouble, people jump to waxing poetic about the death of literacy and the loss of the experience of browsing bookshops. Doesn’t make sense to me.
My guess is that it’s not that people have a great love for the big box booksellers but see their decline as a sign that the whole industry is failing. But if independent booksellers are having a revival, that would be fantastic. Certainly Tall Tales and Charis have hung on and I hope that Little Shop of Stories is thriving. Used bookstores seem to be doing ok. But with Oxford, Wordsworth (next to Rainbow Grocery), Wordsmith (Downtown Decatur), Final Touch, and Blue Elephant all closing down over the years, it hasn’t looked good for small bookstores. I have friends with small internet-based book reselling businesses and they aren’t doing so well.
The explanation I hear for the decline of bookstores is 1) online bookselling–e.g. one day delivery by Amazon; and 2) e-book devices. It’s the latter explanation that stumps me because I just don’t see that much e-book reading around–e.g. at book clubs, at the pool, on line at the store, waiting in doctor’s offices, on planes, in people’s homes etc. Some, but I still see tons of hard copy books in people’s hands and bags. That’s why I wonder if the failure of big box bookstores is due to a decline in reading itself in addition to the internet competition. I’d love to think it’s that the American public has realized the value of browsing in high quality bookstores, but I’m worried that’s not the case.
I know that my spending on books will decline drastically if there are no more brick and mortar bookstores for me to browse casually. I’m a real sucker once I have a picked up a book and gotten interested.
Tall Tales, which is thirty-four years old, changed hands earlier this month. Marlene Zeiler has retired, selling the shop to employee Rebekah Hagedorn. Congratulations to Rebekah! Charis has been open 37 years. A Cappella has been around for about 26 years. Eagle Eye has been open a good long while. Little Shop will quietly celebrate its 8th anniversary in five days. So the local independent scene is reasonably stable and healthy.
I believe that RSH was referring to big box stores only. The American Booksellers Association, which represents independent bookstores, is indeed experiencing a modest if steady increase in membership. My problem with Barnes and Noble is that is a relatively soulless bookseller (despite having dedicated employees). The stores seem more interested in selling coffee and electronic devices and massively marked-down product than they are in quality fiction and nonfiction. Unfortunately, many of B&N/Borders sales have migrated to the even more soulless Amazon.
I realize that this is an elitist argument. But literature is art. Literature is important. And literature deserves better.
Pretty much agree with you. I always enjoyed browsing (and shopping) at Borders, but I didn’t shed a tear when they closed. I felt for the employees, but considering what Borders and B&N did to small, independent booksellers, it was hard to feel bad at Amazon doing the same thing to them.
Just a point of clarification,but B&N and Borders didn’t do anything to independent booksellers. Consumers did. Maybe not you and maybe not many who post here, but the public at large chose to shop at the big box bookstores. All B&N and Borders did was offer a different (homogenous) experience and pass on volume discounts to consumers. If the majority of book consumers chose to shop at small, independent bookstores, neither B&N nor Borders would have grown into the behemeths they once were.
I guess I am part of the problem (if you see it as such). I browse and buy booksalmost exclusively on Amazon and the vast majority I buy for the Kindle. I resisted eBooks for the longest time, but now that I am used to reading on the iPad, I don’t mind them at all, and almost prefer them (except for the pool, beach, etc.).
+1 Borders, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Amazon, Target, insert any evil empire here. The “problem” isn’t that these organizations exist, it is that they are very attractive to a large population, making them too successful for some people’s tastes.
It’s fine to say that Amazon is soulless, but the fact is I can find things there I would probably never find in a brick and mortar store, indie or otherwise, and once I’ve found it their customer service is nearly unmatched. Amazon (and,with cinematic art, Netflix) have opened up the world of literature as art to consumers outside of New York and LA in a manner unimaginable just 20 years ago. I love bookstores (and the nearly defunct video store), but do I want to sacrifice wide selection at prices I can afford for charm or “soul”? No I don’t, though I hope the two can manage to coexist somehow.
I can’t give this a big enough “AMEN”!
Seconded!
I would say that Amazon has given the marketplace a selection of books unimaginable 20 years ago, and that that is a great thing. I don’t think they treat literature as art anymore than they sell an Original Penguin Men’s Short Sleve Mearl Polo shirt as art. (That’s the first item came up on their home page under “What Other Customers Are Looking At Right Now”.) They just sell stuff. That’s okay, it just doesn’t advance art.
I don’t care that much about how a third party like Amazon treats literature as long they offer it for sale; it’s up to writers to advance literature as art. And in an online age I don’t need a bookstore employee or owner to guide me, as there are numerous forums online that offer expertise and discernment. The traditional publishing and distribution business is rapidly changing and writers don’t necessarily need the tastemakers in New York anymore. Let’s not pretend their ultimate concerns aren’t careers and profits too.
Sounds like I’m in the minority of those who would miss B & N, and I’ve even been labeled a hypocrite (thanks for that, Megan). But I enjoy B & N; I like the experience of a large bookstore that carries a wide variety of the type of books I read.
I have bought countless books I hadn’t intended to buy, because the selection offered by the soulless (Dave’s word, not mine) cesspools (Jeff’s word) presented an opportunity for me to comfortably browse among my interests.
I am also pleased at the continued success of independent booksellers, but I didn’t realize until this discussion that one cannot hope for both them and the big boxes to succeed. To me, the loss of ANY bookstore is a bummer.
I actually said “relatively soulless”. I have met many superbly knowledgeable B&N employees over the years and, like SMB…SLT, have enjoyed many hours in their stores, though I enjoyed them more ten years ago than I do now. In many towns B&N is the only bookstore around and they frequently carry many more titles than do local libraries; their loss would be deeply felt.
“In many towns B&N is the only bookstore around and they frequently carry many more titles than do local libraries; their loss would be deeply felt.”
Their loss would be much greater if Amazon were not around.
It’s ok to enjoy B&N. I used to enjoy Border’s because i could hit it and Whole Foods and Staples all in the same car trip. For me, any bookstore is better than none, though I do especially cherish an independent bookstore. If I can walk to an independent bookstore, all the better. Being next to coffee makes it heaven. (Reminds me of the demise of Indie Bookstore and Cafe–I LOVED that place.) I think some of the bitterness you are sensing here is because there was a time when the big box bookstores were crowding out the smaller independent bookstores. Now, all bookstores seem endangered. I’m encouraged that some posters here think that the it’s premature to write the obituary for bookstores.
no worries–contrary to public opinion, people are reading more than ever–it’s the distribution channel that’s changing, and making literature more widely available and more affordable is nothing to bemoan
“[A Gallop Poll], conducted May 20-22, finds 47% of adults saying they are presently reading a book, up from 37% who reported that in 1990, and 23% in 1957.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/the-next-time-someone-says-the-internet-killed-reading-books-show-them-this-chart/255572/
That’s reassuring. Kind of makes me wonder what they WERE doing back in 1957 if they weren’t reading a book, they weren’t on the computer, many did not have a TV yet, and they lived in a dry town. Maybe that’s why families were so much larger then…..
Working. That would be my grandparents in rural Kentucky. One set ran a farm raising tobacco for cash and other crops for food. The other set sent my grandfather to the coal mines each morning. They worked from sunup to sundown and then went to bed, where they spent some time adding children to the family, before falling asleep to rest up for doing it all again the next day.
In many small rural towns in 1957 there would not have been a library or a book store. There might have been a bookmobile, but in rural areas books were generally confined to schools. Of course there has also been a large increase in college enrollment, which would also be a factor in the increase in book reading
Thanks WalterM. Yours was one of the best responses I’ve read at DM over the past year. I would place the literacy IQ of the children of the Fifties at almost the same level of those of the Thirties and Forties, the Greatest Generation. It’s not only how much you read that is important, but also what you read and how much you comprehend. In my opinion, the children of the Thirties, Forties and Fifties were like triple awesome Bro!
As to the decline of B&N, I will miss the Moreland Ave/Little Five Points store, not because I buy a lot of books but because it gives me a chance to do something with my son, a true book lover. But to those of you who think I’m always a big DM downer, I would like to end this posting on a positive note, Let me recommend the latest book from Jack E. Levin, “The Crossing”. You can get it at almost any book store, including Walmart. It is perfect for Independence Day.
i don’t think you’re a downer, Chris–not one bit.
your perspective is as valuable here as anyone else’s, and i enjoy it.
you’re also one of my favorite Decaturites because of your long and loyal service to our schools and children, and, perhaps most of all, because had you and your students not cleaned my gutters over the last few years, they’d likely be laying on the ground.
Maybe I missed it but WalterM didn’t mention any reading at all, much less anything that indicated a higher quality of reading. Don’t understand how the response was relevant to the post.
AHD asked, “Kind of makes me wonder what they WERE doing back in 1957 if they weren’t reading a book . . .?”. Walter’s comment was apropos to that.
I guess there were regional differences. One branch of my family lived in a tiny rural NE mill village where the village library was quite active. It was basically where the women volunteered and hung out, other than the 3-room school or church. My grandmother’s nose was always in a book and she was always eager for new books in the library. She’d read anything. One winter she read all of Dickens. Another time I saw her reading “The Boston Strangler”–gross! Legend had it that she was so desperate during World War II for reading that she read a whole dictionary and was starting in on one of the encyclopedias. My impression was that it was not uncommon for blue collar residents with no more than a high school education to be big readers. So it appears to me that each succeeding generation has been reading less and less, especially when it comes to reading for pleasure. I’m glad to hear that’s not the case overall and I sure hope that things like the Decatur Book Festival, Little Libraries, and the stability of some independent bookstores, means that reading and the book (in all forms) are thriving.
If BN goes under, I think I’ll miss its onlne presence more than its brick’n’mortars. I find myself in a physical BN about once every other month or so, but I find myself on Amazon and BN.com pretty much daily. I can’t physically flip through pages online, but a fair number of books have the “Look Inside” feature with excerpts. Both sites alert me to books I’d never find otherwise based on my buying history, like the collection of essays I’m reading now. I stumbled across it, downloaded it, and started reading it all after 11:00pm Tuesday.
As for e-readers, they aren’t ubiquitous, but I see them quite a bit. My circle of friends typically has three or four old models and awaits new models lilke I await the start of college football season. We have various Nooks, Kindles, Kobos, Surfaces, iPads, Droids and now my wife reads on her Galaxy phone. Small screen, but highly portable. She used to bring a suitcase of books when we travelled. Now she brings a tablet and a phone and has access to every e-book she owns and Delta doesn’t get the extra baggage fee.
Throughout today I’ll use my e-reader to access my essay collection, my guilty pleasure book I downloaded two days ago, and try again to wade through Thucydides “History” that I downloaded from Project Gutenberg. All three books fit in my suit jacket pocket.
I’m happy the independents are doing better and I love to drop into A Cappela or Book Nook and kill an hour or two looking for something old. They meet a consumer need at good prices, always a winning combination and an experience that can’t be matched online. But I just don’t find myself in the large brick’n’mortars anymore. I agree the shuttering of any bookstore means a loss, but I’ll cry more if BN.com goes dark.
As I’ve said before, soon the Suburban Plaza Wal*Mart will be our local brick’n’mortar bookstore. Maybe Amazon can run them out, too.