Aug. 29th, 2017

thewayne: (Default)
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.
thewayne: (Default)
I went to Walgreens today to pick up some meds, and they are putting up their halloween stuff.

*sigh*

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