I recently went to the Borders in Watchung, NJ, and it was exactly as Maeglin described.
In response to each guess:
This was far far beyond what would be required for that stuff. You could have maneuvered hospital gurneys in there.
See #1
That’s possible, but it’s very easy to make books take up more space–just increase the number of books that are “face-out” vs. “spine-out.” Face-out books generally sell better, too. But at the Borders where I was, I actually noticed how few books were faced out.
See #1
See #1
I’m tellin’ ya. It was really really really empty in there. I’m interested in retail merchandising in general, and this was absolutely abnormal.
I don’t want to go back, because it felt creepy and weird.
Shopped last night at the Borders in South Charlotte. Was curious to see what it was like. It definitely is drawn down in stock, and they had some sections in the middle of “reorganization.” The DVD/CD section is being shrunk down; it used to be most of the upper floor and is now only about a third of it.
Barnes and Noble across the street was having no such issues, and that’s despite the fact that there is another Barnes and Noble just down the street two blocks, for no discernable reason.
The Aussie business is separate from the U.S. company - Borders agreed in June of last year to sell its stores in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore to retailer A&R Whitcoulls, which in turn is owned by private-equity firm Pacific Equity Partners.
I would have been so tempted to just say “You know what? Forget it, I’m not buying a damn thing.”
The weird thing about my local public library is that the selection really kind of sucks. There’s lots of new popular fiction that you have to wait to get your hands on, a lousy selection of non-fiction, and then there’s all kinds of 70’s fiction by authors you’ve never heard of but which is interesting in a cultural time capsule sort of way. I read a novel by a woman that, swear to Og, went on at length about her “frigidity” which was “cured” once she met the right man.
I don’t really buy at stores anymore–either I use the library or I buy used online. I don’t mind small, independent bookstores, but I rarely buy from B&N. Well, not entirely true–my brother works there so sometimes I buy stuff here that’s discounted.
And man, I totally would have walked out if someone had said that to me, JuliaSqueezer.
So does anyone know why Borders is suffering more then Barnes and Nobel? Not as developed an online store?
I always liked Borders better, as the ones around me anyways always had larger math, science and computer sections then Barnes and Nobles. I’d be sad to see them go.
Speaking just from my observations as a customer, Borders was always much more oriented to browsing and hanging out. B&N typically had fewer chairs and a somewhat less diverse selection; they seem smaller as well. Also, my understanding from folks who have worked at both is that B&N is much more leanly staffed. That made Borders a much nicer place to shop, in my estimation, but given the shock of the current economy, it was affected more than B&N. Plus, B&N makes you pay for your discount card, which then offers significant discounts, which means if they get you to sign up they’ve captured you very effectively. Borders gives it away for free but doesn’t have the same great benefits which B&N finances through its membership fees. So Borders fanciers who happen to be near a B&N will just as soon buy from there; not the other way around.
B&N also has a web store; Borders didn’t for several years.
Borders at Plaza Las Américas (San Juan’s mega-Mall) shows some reduction in the DVD department, significant cutdown of CDs, a substantial enlargement of the Bargain section and some minor loss of total shelving footage (therefore less new inventory total). At the Carolina, PR store, here one can see that there was a reorganization of the shelving layout that noticeably reduced total shelf space; CD section reduced, DVDs only minor cutdown but the section was much smaller to start with. Borders-PR does have the peculiarity of a very large Spanish-language inventory. The mall-style bookstore a-la Waldenbooks never fared too well in PR historically, even for the many years Before Borders the most successful mall bookstore was really an indie in organization and philosophy once you got inside it.
One of the major drawbacks of Borders PR is that for special-ordering it’s easier for us to get stuff from Amazon or BN-online directly; an in-store special order easily takes weeks or over a month, if it even comes.
I think it’s a shame if Borders goes to far with it’s inventory reduction and chair removal. There’s a significant factor of ambience involved in the look and feel of lots of inventory and a store packed full of customers. Even if the people sitting down aren’t buying, and the extra inventory isn’t selling, a store that “looks” well off and busy is much more attractive to customers. If it starts emptying out it will get the “stink of death” and people will be turned off to coming in as much.
B&N will come out on top because Leonard Riggio is a very smart and very ruthless owner. It’s not just that he pioneered many of the aspects of chain bookstores that we take for granted today but that he always found other less publicized but solidly profitable niches to help the main business.
In addition, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers operates at more than 600 colleges, almost as many stores as the 800 regular ones. Nothing like a captive audience to improve your profit margin.
Profit margins are the unfortunate reality of businesses, much as I love comfortable chairs.
Riggio also bought GameStop in its early years (when it was still known as Babbage’s) and made a huge chunk of money before GameStop became it’s own company and stopped being a subsidary of B&N.
I’ve seen area Barnes and Nobles drastically cut back on their stock of CDs in the past year or so. I used to buy quite a few classical CDs there, but it’s not even worthwhile browsing there anymore.
I loathe these come-ons for discount cards, whether at B&N or other places. If I had a register clerk that pushy I’d be sorely tempted to walk out without buying anything.
They did more rearranging this week! They put a bunch of books on the DVD wall where the DVDs used to be and put a whole bunch of upright bookshelf sections in the DVD/music room. They moved all of the shelves that were in the philosophy section somewhere else and no there is just a big hole there. Next to that there are some empty shelves. I wonder where all this is leading…
I had a similar experience at B&N. I told the guy behind the counter that not only was I not interested in the discount club, but I was not interested in completing the current transaction. I left the fifty bucks worth of books on the counter and left the store.
“Will you be saving 10% today with your discount card?” Jebus, I don’t know how many times I had to say that in the years I worked at B&N. Make no mistake, though, not only does your job depend on saying it to every single customer, but your performance is rated every day by how many of the things you sell. If you don’t make your quota for the week you get a yard of [del]shit[/del] encouragement. If you continue to fall short, you get fired. …and God help you if you forget to recite the little spiel and a manager is behind you, or a secret shopper is in front of you.
Except for the obnoxious gung-ho few, I think I can safely say that we hate saying it as much as you hate hearing it.
