Barnes & Nobles, Borders bookstores closing left and right

Two gigantic ones closed near me. I recall when these bookstores come in and drove the independent booksellers out of business. Now, I guess, Amazon is driving them out of business.

Anyone remember Bookstar?

oh well

Tit for tat.

they take up half the block

they don't have to worry about competition from places like Amazon. and the books are so cheap that people would buy books they might not have otherwise considered if it cost more.

i usually pick up something at used bookstores . books i never heard of before but they might seem interesting . and since they are cheap i don't feel like i would be wasting money if the book is bad. you can also bring the book back to the stores so they can sell it again.

:cry:

while ebooks will do well. i don't think the market will go out for the paperbooks. i think it will be similar to the movies in theaters . where some thought the television would make theaters go out of business but it didn't happen.

i know a lot of people who get multiple editions of books they already read. if they love it they like to keep a special hardcover or some other edition in their collections.

i think ebooks will mostly do well with people who travel a lot and similar people who like to read but it's too much to carry around so many books.

libraries didn't hurt the sales of books.

A lot of the independent sellers on Amazon seem to be used bookstore places. Allows them to reach beyond local buyers.

isn't the same at all.

grabbing the free wi-fi. Maybe not enough buying books.

thus not at home to receive packages, and are in no mood to ride transit across town to UPS.

The small mystery bookstore that I used to frequent closed up shop. The owner said that she was going to sell books online. There also used to be bookstores in the local malls, but they disappeared a long time ago. And there isn't a lot of business at the malls now, either. I do go to Barnes and Noble, though, and they always seem pretty busy, especially around the holidays...

It's a really nice store and I hope they don't close. I rarely go to Borders, since it's downtown and it's hard to find a place to park. But Barnes and Noble is always quite busy, and is the only bookstore in town, anymore, except for Borders... :(

what I have noticed is Barnes and Borders no longer have any outlet stores. Used to love those. Wasn't Bookstar a chain as well? I remember using them in Vegas they had a store on Paradise Blvd, whenever I had to work in Vegas I would go there...

they were all about the books only. they sold a few other things like bookmarks and some other gift items. but not what you see these days at BN and Borders.

but i remember loving to look at those stores. especially bookstar with the aisles so closely packed with books.i don't get the same feel from BN and Borders.

be mentioning Montgomery Wards and Mervyns. :hi:

when I can just go on Amazon and get anything I want, usually cheaper, delivered free of charge on the 2nd day (thanks to my Amazon Prime membership), or better yet, start reading it right now on my Kindle?

Just like travel agents, bricks and mortar bookstores need to adjust to the new reality.

Barnes & Noble are doing great right now. They just came out with a new color nook.

The sky isn't falling quite yet. :)

Now it's in color...

Maybe independent bookstores will come back?

I've noticed that Starbucks, after putting a lot of independent coffee shops out of business, actually wound up creating a place where independent coffee shops could thrive. People who may have got turned on to the coffee shop experience by Starbucks realized that starbucks sucked, and sought out "hipper" places. Or whatever.

I wonder if there is a future in that for bookstores? Because, talking in very vague Generalities, the people who really liked the big box bookstores are also probably the people most likely to enjoy the Kindle. Whereas the people who prefer not big-box bookstores, are probably more likely to still prefer the independent bookstores.

Or, maybe not. Maybe now we'll just live in a bleak world where the marketplace has decided that all reading must be done on screens.

don't know if it still holds true but B&N was on the Buy Blue list -- as I recall, most of their political contributions went to Democrats.

let me know when the latest Nancy Drew mystery would come in to the store. Now that was eons ago but I still recall and was grateful.

Granted they have put some independent sellers out of business, but as far as "chains" go the bookstores do it right. Both the Barns and Borders near me have plenty of comfortable seating, and free WiFi, they don't harass their customers, you can sit there all day and read without buying anything, and they have great employees who are happy to do whatever they need to to help you.

let me know when the latest Nancy Drew mystery would come in to the store. Now that was eons ago but I still recall and was grateful.

Two locations, one in downtown, and one on Colfax St.

Sure, the books there may be MSRP, but at least they WILL get the book for you if they don't have it handy.

http://tatteredcover.com/

Hawkeye-X

Their prices are very competitive, unlike Borders and B&N.