Barnes & Noble to close hundreds of stores
The bookseller has historically closed 15 locations a year, and will continue that rate even as it tests new prototype stores.
Barnes & Noble (BKS), which has struggled for years to reinvent itself for the digital age, plans to close up to 30% of its physical stores over the next decade to shed costs in order to better compete against Amazon (AMZN) and other online rivals.Mitchell Klipper, chief executive of Barnes & Noble's retail group, told The Wall Street Journal that the New York chain will have 450 to 500 stores in 10 years, down from its current 689 locations. The company also owns a chain of 674 college bookstores.
The only thing surprising about this announcement was that it took Barnes & Noble this long to make it. It's hard to remember at time when Barnes & Noble wasn't struggling, and this past holiday season was no different.
During the time retailers earn most of their profit, Barnes & Noble reported an 8.2% decline in comparable store sales, a key retail metric measuring the performance of locations opened for at least a year. Sales of the company's Nook e-reader, a key part of its digital business, fell short of expectations.
Wall Street hasn't thrown in the towel on Barnes & Noble. The average 52-week price target on the stock is $17.75, about 37% higher than where it traded Monday. Microsoft (MSFT) last year agreed to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Barnes & Noble's digital business. Its road ahead, however, is not easy. (Microsoft owns and publishes moneyNOW, an MSN Money site.)
According to the Journal, Barnes & Noble expects to shutter about 20 locations a year. Until about 2009, it was opening 30 or more a year. Monday, a spokeswoman told MSN Money that Barnes & Noble has historically closed about 15 stores per year. Some of those were unprofitable while others were relocations. The company opened two prototype stores last year and will continue testing store formats this year, she added.
The new stores likely attempt to address the sea change that the book business has undergone in recent years. Amazon announced in 2011 that sales of electronic books surpassed printed editions for the first time. There's no way the book business will go back to the way things used to be.
While e-books are cheaper and more environmentally friendly because they don't sacrifice trees, shopping for them just isn't as fun as traditional books. When my 6-year-old son gets older, he probably won't believe me when I tell him of the times I spent leisurely strolling through stack after stack of freshly printed books at my local Barnes & Noble. He may laugh when I tell him that the chain sold a wide selection of caffeinated beverages to encourage people to hang out.
Things change -- but not always for the better.
--Jonathan Berr does not own shares of the listed stocks. Follow him on Twitter @jdberr
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figures, just another victim of the obamanation economy, meanwhile here's a little tidbit for you idiot, oops I mean "low information voting public', it appears that when the nightmare obamacare finally hits it's stride and is implemented in all it's destructive power, you morons that smoke will have to pay a penalty for your vices, to the tune of $5100. enjoy!!! hahahaha!! hhahahahahah!!! ahahahahahaah!!!hahaahahHAAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
like I always say, you're gonna burn big time, you've gained nothing and lost even more, gotta wonder how many chain-smokin' azzwipe obama voters exist, especially the celeb idiots and here we go!!! stay tuned people, more to come for the rest of us, smokers or not, more taxes looming right 'round the corner, hey you ****'s obama supporters that voted him in again, you better quit smokin' to pay the new taxes or pay the new taxes and quit smokin' or better yet, GET THE RICH TO PAY FOR YOUR CIGARETTES OUTRIGHT!! how 'bout that one azzholes?? FREE SMOKES!! oh I hear bill 'douchbag' deblasio wants to be mayor, and he outright says he's gonna tax the RICH, again, hmmm wonder how many times the democraps are gonna yank on that stick, didn't that just happen? hmmmmm.....
I know this is a story about Barnes and Noble and I, too, lament the fact that we are losing so many great book stores, including the little Mom & Pop stores. There's just something about touching and smelling a new book that "hooks" a bibliophile. However, don't forget about our libraries. In recent years what with the decline of decent television I have moved to reading instead of watching TV so I go thru a LOT of books per month. Even with big box places like Costco and Sams Club, with their deeply discounted prices you can't always get what you want and they still cost a pretty penny.
I have re-discovered my local library and I'm glad I did. I have found new (to me) authors and actually I can usually find anything I need and if I can't the librarian will order it for me. Our library gives me three weeks to read what I choose and I can always renew if need be. I usually check out about 15 books at a time and I am even able to get quite a few popular titles in large print for my 84 year old mom, too. If I find a book that is particularly compelling, something I know I will want to read again and again, I can always purchase it at a book store later and know it is a book that won't "go to waste" since every book is not necessarily a winner.
Besides checking out books from the library, my library has four big used book sales every year put on by a library "friends" group. I can buy sacks and sacks of books for little money and have even found several antique and rare books at the sale. I read both hard back and paper back books and some of the books I buy are brand new with $30 price tags and I get them for $1, a really great deal!
In short, yes, it's sad that we readers are losing a very big part of our reading life. But remember your local library, I think you will be glad you did.
I find it a poor excuse to place blame on Amazon for the failure of B&N stores.
The fault does not lie in Amazon, but in B&N PR campaign. They put sooo very much focus on their Nooks that they neglected that they are the world's largest BOOKstore!
Personally, when I used to enter a B&N and find that I was entering into a NOOK PR statiion where books once were---- was a turnoff and I would walk right back out the door.
They hurt themselves by placing too much emphasis on their own Nooks then on their Books.
Hence the blame game prevents them from dealing with their own downfall and fixing the actual problem.
Wow,
it did not take Fahrenheit 451 to kill off the books just the internet
no wonder we do not find written books from the pre ice age humans that built all the huge megalithic monuments around the world before the last ice age. They had developed high tech tools to make and move the stones. But they had also invented the internet 20,000 years ago and all the books were discarded and nothing survives to this day.
When you read the silly texts modern Egyptians (about 5,000 years ago) wrote saying how they built the pyramids they were just lies put down as their construction techniques were not able to account for how the pyramids were built. Even the length of time 25 years only gives 9 seconds for each block of stone to be placed before the next one was put in place. And for only having about 30,000 workers and 5,000 needed to move each stone that works out to about 6 stones placed every five to fourteen days. Pretty much info that some ruler made up just to say he was the one who built it.
and of course cave men with stone tools built Puma Puncu about 4,000 years ago when the site is at least 17,000 years old.
pretty much before the last ice age we had humans with tech as good if not better than the tech we have today. It's just without written records modern scientists say cave men did it.
Pretty much humans have been around for anywhere from 250,000 to 50,000 years I am betting it's closer to 50,000 years as when you look to see how far we have come in the 12,000 years since the last ice age you wonder why the people before the ice age did not do what we have done.
They were just a smart as us and were just as physically developed as we are so why did it take them 250,000 years to get to where we are today?? I say they got to where we are today at least once in the past and the ice age killed off their tech and what cities they had are now under 300 to 500 feet of water. Even today 90 percent of humans live within 500 feet of sea level. so the ice melting what cities were left were destoryed by the ice melting or the ice forming and moving and dragging the old cities to rumble.
Be interesting to see if the debri field of old ice glaciers have an abnormal amount of metals in them compared to the rocks used to make the debri field. That metal probably came from the ancient cities destoryed 17,000 years ago.
Save the Barnes and Noble store in Arlington, TX. We like to read and see books outside the Big Apple, too.
Browsing in a bookstore gives us a chance to serendipitously find new, interesting books (and handle them to be sure they really are interesting) and new books by favorite authors as well. My interests, both fiction and non-fiction, are fairly broad and I can't keep up with the new books in these areas without looking at the books first-hand.
You know, paper is actually pretty good. No need to charge, ever...drop it by accident and it still works....works in bright sunlight...easy to share with a friend.
While I do appreciate being able to have 10 books on my Kindle for travelling, I do also love the books I have in my home. They add a character and civility to life.
Similarly, I suppose I can buy all my food prepared and frozen - but I personally prefer to have the choice of a small restaurant or making a fine meal myself.
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