I just sent this as an email to Barnes & Noble

[thewayne]

It's been bugging me for a long time.

My wife and I have been members for MANY years. I frequently get complimented on the age of my membership card. Yet I am very disappointed at something that happened several months ago: the removal of the New section from apparently all book sections, yet not from your video section.

I read A LOT. On average, I read a book about a book a week. I also follow a lot of different authors, and some post photographs of the ARCs that they receive. This gives me a heads-up of what I can expect to see on shelves in the near future. Except I can't see them on your shelves because the new releases are now intermixed among all the old releases and I have to dive deep, author by author, to find specific titles. And that's assuming that they're in the specific section that I'm looking for: many has been the time that I've looked for an author in science fiction only to find that they've been put under YA.

You have created a losing proposition for me. I avoid buying books on Amazon because I want physical book stores. We just lost our two local book stores, now I have to drive 90-120 minutes to get to one, and that means three of your stores in Las Cruces or El Paso. And that means frustration of not being able to easily see what's new. So where's the advantage of being able to easily see what's new? There is none. There's nothing prominently displayed to whet my appetite and lure me in to opening my wallet for a $30 hardback.

You've made your stores no longer a destination. Before, when I drove to Phoenix, I ALWAYS made it a point to hit one or two of your stores to see what's new. But that's no longer true, because you no longer display what's new. So what's the point? If I have to go online to find out what's new, THEN go to a store to buy it, I might as well buy it online.

I avoid buying books online to support local book stores and jobs. I don't buy my medications by mail to support local jobs. These are things that are important to me. But what you've done is encouraging me to channel money that I reserve for books in to online venues, and that may not go to B&N.

I've been shopping at B&N since the 1970s at B. Dalton in Christown and Metrocenter in Phoenix. The stores back then had sections for both Science Fiction and Fantasy, then ultimately merged them. I used to buy old copies of Analog magazine by the grocery sack. I am a book hound. I am not a casual reader, I am a ravenous reader, and you are frustrating me.

As I said, you've made it so that your stores are no longer a primary destination. I still stop there if I happen to be in the area and have other places to go, or obviously, if my wife wants to go. But now my personal itch must be scratched online.

I really hope that you put the New Releases area back in your stores. That would make me quite happy indeed.

Comments

[elf]

B&N is doomed. Big-box bookstores can't compete with Amazon, and they've been closing down (Borders) or shifting to more and more non-book content because their business model is deeply flawed. They're flailing to find a new set of gimmicks.

Borders had a good business model - open a large bookstore in college towns that didn't have one. It worked great - until they decided that wasn't a big enough market and they needed to compete with Walmart's book sales. (There were other issues, too; they made their coffee shops compete with their bookstores.) But what killed them was the inability to customize selection for the local market, and that's going to tear B&N down too.

Amazon has "whatever book you like." What they lack, is easy browsing for "books you might like." Their "other people also liked" selections are national aggregates; they say nothing about "scifi fans in your area liked..." (And even if they did, they wouldn't be able to adjust for "everyone's seen this one, so we're not pushing at the regulars anymore.") Local bookstores can customize their selections... except B&N's selections are decided by the corporate office, barely adjustable for individual stores.

I'm not surprised they've decided that "New Releases" is not a profitable use of display space. They've probably decided that people looking for That One Hot New Book are more likely to buy more if it's on a shelf next to other eye-catching books, or previous ones by the same author.

Large bookstores & publishing companies have always been oblivious to the habits of ravenous readers, because so much of what we read is second-hand. They will prioritize the buying habits of the people who buy celebrity tell-alls and a handful of books for Christmas presents over those who actually read every book they buy, and who buy 2nd 3rd up to 17th in a series, because they don't see the effects of voracious readers who bring in new buyers.

"Readers who buy every new book by their favorite 5 authors" aren't as visible as "buyers - who may not read - who pick up the new political biography and will grab the last three if it's on the shelf next to them."

... I'm sorry you're stuck dealing with that. I live in the bay area; while Amazon has slammed a number of bookstores, we still have several good ones.

Potential other things to read:
SGA fanfic recs - her recs are awesome, but definitely mind the tags and warnings; she likes darkfic.

[conuly]

Our B&N hasn't moved that way yet, thank goodness - though I also am lucky enough to be in NYC and mostly shop at the Strand if I want new books.

[thewayne]

I was in a B&N in Chandler, AZ a few weeks ago. Their scifi section had what appeared to be a New area, but it didn't look right. Quite odd. But my three "local" B&Ns do not, and a friend of mine who lives south of Portland confirmed that they don't up there. And as I recall, two other stores in Phoenix that I've visited in the last six months or so did not either. Must be a regional manager option.

We live in rural New Mexico, as in at 9,000' on the top of a mountain in the middle of the Lincoln National Forest. We had one book store in the nearest town, about 25 minutes away, but the entire chain went bust. I was hoping another chain, FYE, would move in as they already have a presence in northern NM and in El Paso, but it didn't happen. Thus, I believe that the area is doomed to never have another decent book store again.

My wife and I happened to be in Berlin two years ago on the same weekend that Charles Stross had a new Laundry book releasing, and he recommended two stores that might be able to get it for me. One was able to, it was run by a Brit and an American. Wonderful classic used book store filled to the ceiling with hardbacks.

[thewayne]

I've been frankly amazed that B&N has been able to survive, paying mall rents. They spun-off their college book store chain, I've heard their either going to do the same or close their Nook line.

For me, my tastes have changed through author death, series ending, and acquiring new authors that aren't big enough names for chains to carry. My biggest change in authors has been in reading everything for this year's Hugo nominees: picked up several authors from that! Add to that the fact that I'm switching from dead tree editions to ebooks. Part of that is the desire to reduce my physical space, part of that is the fact that we may be moving out of the country in a few years. Yesterday I took four banker's boxes of books and Analog magazines to the thrift store, previous trip it was six. Comic books are going to be the tricky part as I may have to take those to Phoenix.

The reality is that book stores are no longer a core need for me, but visiting them is still something that I like to do. And a lack of a New just takes the joy of discovery out of it.

[silveradept]

The hand sell from knowledgeable people is the thing I've always thought of as a successful bookstore element. Then again, it's also what makes libraries good, so maybe I'm a touch biased.

But not having a new books section seems like bad business decisions.

[elf]

Publishers are flailing; bookstores are flailing; bookstores attached to a publisher - like B&N - are double-flailing.

They have a business model built on scarcity of resources and curation, and they never managed to figure out how to curate if the resources weren't scarce to begin with.

They're running on inertia. As the Gen X and younger crowds become mainstream consumers, that'll collapse, because the younger crowd doesn't think of "bookstore" as where you acquire entertainment or information content. (I miss bookstore browsing - but what I'd really want is the ability to browse, and then buy digital. And none of the big bookstores wanted that; they were firmly attached to the notion that paper is the way books should be.)

[moonhare]

I laud your efforts to keep these stores alive, and hope they respond favorably to your note. The Library actually buys a Lot of books from the local B&N.

And I'm surprised you don't make more use (or mention) of your local library, as a voracious reader. Our more recent books are kept in Express (seven day loan) and New (three week loan). Librarians are more than happy to order interesting books for patrons, and you should be able to get books from anywhere in the continental US through them. And most library websites will have links to new and/or popular book lists.

[thewayne]

It's a matter of convenience.  Our truly local library is tiny and has peculiar hours.  The Alamogordo Public Library just isn't that convenient to get to.  A majority of my book purchases come through Humble Bundle and the like: I've got two Bundles waiting for Friday for me to buy them.  I really need to dig in to Python and robotics as a potential job could hang on them. I have made use of the university library, but they've been hit with budget cutbacks and they're suffering.  They had a deal with the Alamogordo library where each of them would be closed one weekend day, but the net result was that a library was available seven days a week.