First of all – I don’t see our little enterprise as competing with behemoths like Barnes & Noble, even though the many independent bookstores of the past became the few indies of today – largely due to the presence of B&N store openings. Then, in the same fashion that affected other sorts of businesses, the playing field changed.
Now, Barnes & Noble has listed itself for sale.
The Wall Street Journal reports the decision as being make due to low stock prices. Low sales figures have to come into play somewhere. The other behemoth – Amazon – turned the bookselling world upside down when it promised books on your doorstep in days, at lower prices. They’ve been able to keep that promise. Barnes & Noble has been trying to catch up ever since.
They have a website, like all of us. They ship books worldwide, like all of us. Are we competing? Are we the Davids anticipating the fall of Goliath? Not hardly. The independents of the world are surviving because we love books. Reading about them, talking about them, listening to other readers – in other words – knowing books. On my last visit to B&N, the cashiers simply took money and bagged books. The sales associates were so young as to be forgiven knowledge of authors and titles without a computer search. I don’t think that represents age-ist thinking on my part. It takes time to read a book. It takes years to amass a library of books read.
My neighbor closed her doors for good at the beginning of this month. It makes me sad to see such things happen. She was competing with the “big boys” who had a competitive price advantage and deep pockets. I don’t enjoy the idea of anyone going out of business. It’s the sort of thing that makes for restless nights, worrying.
I won’t be purchasing Barnes & Noble, but I hope the buyer knows books or the brand won’t be long as an anchor tenant. In the meantime, I’ll take in your used books for trade, and be happy to talk to you about authors that may write in the same style as your favorite – whose new title won’t be out for a year.