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And now Barnes & Noble faces the Headman's axe


lokisnow

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I have never liked B&N as much as I liked Border's, partly because of reading years ago that B&N was much nastier to small publishers of both books and magazines. I normally only buy discount books there. Still, I'd be a bit sad to see it disappear.

Is Books-A-Million still doing OK as a retail store in some parts of the country? The one in Omaha closed several years ago but I haven't heard how they are doing as a whole -- I know they did buy up a few of the Borders outlets. 

There is still an independent bookstore in Omaha called The Bookworm which seems to be doing OK as far as I can tell. There is also a very small independent store in the "Old Market" touristy area of Omaha called "Our Bookstore" but I think someone told me it was owned by an independently wealthy woman who wasn't concerned with making a profit on it. 

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The big problem independent bookstores will be facing is rent and labor. With out of control rent increases everywhere all the time and nothing to ever be done about it, most of the stores (of any type) that have survived will be eradicated.

after that, the corporate inhumation of unproductive undercaste customers will become a regular state sanctioned thing.

Oh you canceled your prime subscription? Waste of space, we’ll send a drone into your house at night to humanely put a pneumatic bolt pistol through your head and that of your family. Quick, painless and it only makes a mess  on the pillow so the rest of the bed can be resold to productive customers.

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1 hour ago, lokisnow said:

With out of control rent increases everywhere all the time and nothing to ever be done about it, most of the stores (of any type) that have survived will be eradicated.

This is happening to The New England Mobile Book Fair here in Needham, MA.  30,000 sq/ft of row upon row of tightly packed, looming, towers of books reduced to a single storefront in a Marshalls strip mall.  I remember wandering the aisles as a kid back in the '70s, begging Momz to buy me this or that.  CS Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, McCaffery, Anthony, Tolkien: all my early fantasy influences came from there.  Hell, even before that.  Stuart Little, Cricket in Times Square, and probably even my OG Where the Wild things Are.  That place felt timeless back then, like it had been selling books since there were any books to sell.

Gone.

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On 10/4/2018 at 5:24 PM, Darth Richard II said:

I miss Borders so much I could cry.

Me too, came upon this weird looking book while browsing the fantasy section of Borders on Oxford street in London decades ago, this was a paperback copy games of thrones.. fond memories.

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I have very fond memories of browsing and buying at B&N.  Their store at Pacific Place in downtown Seattle was our book spot for many years, and where I purchased the original trilogy of ASOIAF.  When we moved to NJ, our nearest B&N (Route 10 just outside Morris Plains) was where I picked up books for commuting to Manhattan, and where we bought our son his early reading books (and where he first fell in love with Thomas The Train).  Then in Chicago we settled on the Lincoln Park outlet as our local.  I still bring my son there to browse for books.  I bought him Dune on our last trip, but he’s enjoying Ender’s Game now (purchased on Amazon).

Kindle largely killed B&N for me.  The convenience of an e-reader and instant  access to almost any book was enough to end my love of browsing.  My wife stayed loyal to the Nook, but if we’re using e-readers for 99% of our books, B&N has already lost us.  Once our son switches from books to e-reader, browsing a bookstore will probably have changed to a purely online experience. 

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Half Price books is the only local place left to browse books in my area, but they only stock a few new books.   The local Barnes and Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks all closed down years ago, so I have been buying all my newer books (both physical books and e-books) from Amazon for the last few years and rely more and more on my Kindle fire.  

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I always liked Borders better than BnN but I hate to see bookstores close. 

I bought my first copies of Michelle West's Hunter's Oath and Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice  at Borders in Phoenix, AZ.

I discovered Lethem's Gun, with Occasional Music and Jordan's Eye of the World at Page 1 in Albuquerque. 

I impulse bought Plascencia's People of Paper and Browning Spencer's Resume with Monsters at Elliott Bay in Seattle.

I bought Game of Thrones, based entirely on the Jordan blurb, at University Bookstore in Seattle. 

I can't see anything on my shelves currently that didn't come from Powell's. 

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On 10/9/2018 at 8:33 AM, Iskaral Pust said:

I have very fond memories of browsing and buying at B&N.  Their store at Pacific Place in downtown Seattle was our book spot for many years, and where I purchased the original trilogy of ASOIAF.  When we moved to NJ, our nearest B&N (Route 10 just outside Morris Plains) was where I picked up books for commuting to Manhattan, and where we bought our son his early reading books (and where he first fell in love with Thomas The Train).  Then in Chicago we settled on the Lincoln Park outlet as our local.  I still bring my son there to browse for books.  I bought him Dune on our last trip, but he’s enjoying Ender’s Game now (purchased on Amazon).

Kindle largely killed B&N for me.  The convenience of an e-reader and instant  access to almost any book was enough to end my love of browsing.  My wife stayed loyal to the Nook, but if we’re using e-readers for 99% of our books, B&N has already lost us.  Once our son switches from books to e-reader, browsing a bookstore will probably have changed to a purely online experience. 

Haha, I was just there this morning - I grew up in Morris Plains, and have been staying at my parents' place while recovering from a leg injury. As someone who moved around a lot and frequently felt unmoored over the past many years, exploring local stuff has a lot of appeal, but finding a Barnes and Noble and rereading some beloved SF/F or mystery while drinking coffee is something I've found myself doing frequently since 2012.

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4 hours ago, Matrim Fox Cauthon said:

Thanks a lot, millennials.

millenials don't have any money, the retail pocalypse is probably mostly gen x and baby boomers being more and more too lazy to physically go to a store any store

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On 10/17/2018 at 1:48 PM, Matrim Fox Cauthon said:

Thanks a lot, millennials.

You're wellcome! 

Although around here (Linz Austria) I have not really noticed any recent book shop deaths after 2010 or so(before that a lot closed because of amazon I guess). There are still quite a few small book shops in the inner city(plus a Thalia).

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1 hour ago, Wolfgang I said:

You're wellcome! 

Although around here (Linz Austria) I have not really noticed any recent book shop deaths after 2010 or so(before that a lot closed because of amazon I guess). There are still quite a few small book shops in the inner city(plus a Thalia).

I don't really see a decline in the number of book shops in the Berlin area either. At least as far as general book shops are concerned. Specialist and academic book shops seem to have completely vanished, though.

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On 10/9/2018 at 12:33 PM, Leofric said:

Half Price books is the only local place left to browse books in my area, but they only stock a few new books.   The local Barnes and Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks all closed down years ago, so I have been buying all my newer books (both physical books and e-books) from Amazon for the last few years and rely more and more on my Kindle fire.  

They closed our HPB a little over a year ago.  It was a sad day.  My wife and I would have a date night, walk to the local mexican restaurant, drink some margaritas, then browse HPB for an hour or two on a Saturday night.

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