What’s in store for our Barnes & Noble bookstores?
Associated Press photo
In the past few years we’ve seen the closure of several independent bookstores in the area, including Ram’s Head and Printer’s Ink Bookstore.
Then last year Books-A-Million closed its store at Blacksburg’s First & Main shopping center.
While no announcement has been made regarding the fate of the Barnes & Noble stores in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Christiansburg, the store’s futures are definitely in question.
A Barnes & Noble executive told the Wall Street Journal that it will shutter a third of its stores over the next decade.
The company operated 689 stores as of last month. Mitchell Klipper, chief executive, told the WSJ that in 10 years they will have 450 to 500 stores.
The story reported that Barnes & Noble hasn’t opened many new stores in recent years because consumers are using digital books more and more, and because of the lack of new shopping centers.
Barnes & Noble stores are still profitable, and Klipper estimated that less than 20 stores are losing money, according to the story.
What do you think is in store for the future of our Barnes & Noble book stores? Do you still shop at book stores, or do you shop online? Have you made the shift to digital books?
February 1, 2013 - 5:00 AM
I’m one of those people that just like the feel of a book in their hands. So no, I haven’t “gone digital” with books yet.
I tend to buy most new/full-price books via Amazon where they’re usually quite a bit cheaper. Gotta make my money go as far as possible! I do love the discount tables at B&N and Books-A-Million though. I buy many books off from those tables.
A great franchise. Very much enjoy every time I go. Nothing like getting a good cup of coffee and a moring bun and sitting down with a dozen or so interesting magazines or even a few books. HEY, maybe I’m on to something. Maybe they need people to actually buy stuff rather than using then as a library. Well, anyway, I hope they stay in Roanoke for a LONG time.
We live in the NRV, but we were at our condo in Myrtle Beach when I heard the news of the closings. It was heartbraking. I work as a financial planner/motivational speaker, and I write, having published four novels. My favorite place to visit is surely B & N. I can spend hours there, 2 or 3 times a week. But it’s people like me that’s responsible for the closings. I go in, buy a cup of coffee, then read the books and magazines. I seldom buy anything at the store. Instead I find something I like, go home and order it online. Maybe they’d let us pay a
“in-store membership” of maybe $100/year, for people like me that are now feeling guilty.
Interesting. That’s two readers who say they go often to read, but not buy. Anyone else?
We buy from the B&N in Christiansburg somewhat regularly. We like being able to browse the stacks, scan through the books, and select what we’re looking for. If we’re looking for something super specific, we get it on Amazon though. If we’re really not looking for anything in particular, we’re getting books from thrift shops at a very, very small fraction of the price. We love books, and have a wall full of them to prove it. I’m just not big on e-books. I have some, but it’s more for travel convenience. If I’m at home, I’m reading a real book.
I go to browse than buy on my Kindle
I know I’m the problem. I do love the discount tables and buy often from it, but again to really going to make them profit.
This is exactly why our local stores are closing. People USE them and then give their business to online retailers where none of the money they spend goes back into the community they reside in. Shameful & you should feel guilty for wasting their time & using their resources without paying for them.
Go but don’t often buy. Unfortunately my guess would be that the Tanglewood location will close soon.
What happened to the rumored resturant to be built in the parking lot in fromt of B&N? B&N has to change their business model, just like the RT has.
I buy a lot of books from Amazon or the Paperback Exchange but we do show at Barnes and Noble also. I bought several things there for Christmas. I especially like the kids section at Barnes and Noble.
One thing I’ve never understood is the concept of people going into the book store and sitting there reading the newspaper, magazine, or book for free. I know the store thinks this is a good way to get customers in but these freeloaders are not going to buy anything. I agree with the newspaper stands in New York. Don’t pick up the magazine unless you are buying.
I wrote them off this past Christmas. Poor customer service and poor return policy. I prefer reading on my Kindle, but there are some books that I want a hard copy of. I won’t be buying them from B&N.
It would be interesting to know the % of customers in 1980 who visited a bookstore without purchasing anything as compared to the % of those who do now. I’d venture the gap is smaller than many expect. People have been visiting bookstores for years without buying what they just partially read. Standing bookstores will be around for a long time, but they must certainly evolve. Nobody watched ‘You’ve Got Mail’ way back in the 90′s?
I seldom visit bookstores any longer. When I say seldom, I mean once every few years. I buy all my reading material via Amazon or through subscriptions in the case of magazines. The balance between Kindle & old school books is skewed a little towards the books. It just depends on the book. Amazon discounts so deeply and provides such value otherwise as to remove the inherent value of live service from a bookstore. When I did buy books in person back in the 90′s, it would be at ‘used’ book stores.
Like so many other forms of retail, B&N needs to find a winning vision.
@david: Nothing yet on the “rumored restaurant” in Tanglewood’s parking lot. I checked on that earlier this week.
I love to browse in B&N and typically end up purchasing a book or music cd. I’m the type that likes to read a book I can hold in my hands. I purchased a bunch of books when the B&N classics were buy 2 get 1 free. I plan on continuing to buy from them, but since they don’t have that discount anymore, I just won’t buy as many as I used to.
@Jean Unless B&N wants to start matching Amazon and other online retailers I am will go with the cheaper price 99% of the time. I don’t feel bad for a big national corporation who can’t adapt to the changing market. That is the beauty of the free market adapt or go away.
I absolutely love walking into the B&N in Christiansburg, wandering the stacks, always leaving with new design and arts magazines; books on photography, landscaping, architecture, and the like. While people are reading more fiction and non-fiction on tablets you absolutely can not sit and browse and enjoy a book of Richard Avedon’s photography or the finest architecture and design on a tablet. The scale is too small, the quality of the image not as strong as it printed on amazing quality book paper. Send these to B&N on behalf of all of us – keep our stores open. We are not in a market where there is overlap of store locations – if you must close, do it in the top tier markets where you have several B&Ns within close proximity.
…there’s an old saying which is absolute true…and its why we as a society are in some of the lousy situations we are in today: You Get What You Pay For. (If it’s cheap – then that means it is cheap – not worth having, no quality, just disposable…)
Orig. Greg: I agree. Why stores allow people to just come in & sit is beyond me. This started several years ago when laptops were big. Guess it was to promote a homey atmosphere & they “hoped” people would buy stuff. “Customers” at Panera near Tanglewood are great for hogging small tables, setting up their laptops, then not ordering anything. PC usage is ok, but they need to limit the time so, esp., at busy times, other customers who want to EAT can have the tables.
Elena: I go to the BN at Tanglewood more than the one at Valley View. The staff there has always been very helpful (esp. the Nook experts & the girl in the music/movie dept). Have never had a problem with bad service since they opened some years ago. With the BN membership, you get extra discounts plus free e-coupons for additional (15-30%) off. I use my e-reader a lot, but also buy a lot of books (many at this store). I think there’s still a place for real books & the digital ones.
I’ll agree with Keith F on pricing…I find myself browsing in just about any store, be it Walmart, Lowes, Best Buy, etc…finding something I want to get, and then checking the Amazon app on my phone to see if I can save money. If the savings are enough, I just order it on Amazon…and with my Prime membership…I almost always have it 2 days later, sometimes the next day. Some stuff though, I only buy in a store because I want to get a solid look at it before I take it home. I’ve had a couple bad experiences with products getting damaged during shipping…and sometimes it’s worth it to me to pay a little more and avoid the hassle of having to return and re-order.
The landscape of this country would be greatly improved if people could get their “nail art” cheap online and had to buy books at bookstores.
Amazon has cheaper prices, but by using it, you end up paying more in the long run.
Barnes & Noble (and other stores with storefronts in our area) contribute to the local economy. Every purchase there produces local sales tax, creates local jobs, and at a more basic level, gives us the kind of local society (shops to visit, rather than empty buildings) that make us feel good about the area and our town.
Internet purchases usually don’t include local sales tax. As a result local and state governments have to raise our taxes elsewhere (meals tax, income tax, property tax) to cover the shortfall.
Likewise, a purchase through Amazon supplies someone a job somewhere, but it’s almost guaranteed to be outside Virginia. (This link has a list of their call center locations and distribution centers; only one is in Sterling, VA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com) And every dollar spent online is a dollar that could have gone into helping keep a local store in business — it’s easy to see the result by taking a stroll through Tanglewood Mall, among other local shopping centers with numerous vacancies.
If you think you’re getting a “deal” by shopping online, you’re mistaken if you’re only considering the price and nothing else.
(my bad – there are 3 in Virginia —– but none in our part of the state)
I typically buy something at B&N when I go. I often get birthday and Christmas gifts there, usually DVDs or CDs. Hopefully the Christiansburg store can stay, there is not much in the way of bookstores in the NRV
People have been standing at the location of anywhere books, magazines or comic books (remember them?) are sold for several decades. It’s what people do – they look at a magazine, maybe read most of an article or scan the samplings, and then decide to buy. Or not. That will NOT change, and no retailer with any sense is going to try to eliminate that completely.
If B&N prohibited people from reading while in their stores? They’d close in six months. Completely bankrupt. The idea people won’t read in bookstores is as ridiculous as the idea so many had that JC Penney was doing a great thing by dropping their prices and eliminating sales.
Bookstores have to evolve. They have to find value added services that offset their higher prices than Amazon. They seem to being trying, but not as hard as they really need. It’s one thing to pay 10% more for a book because it’s a local retailer. It’s just dumb to pay 40% more. The bookstores have to do a better job of evolving their business model to succeed. It would be interesting to have that question posed to them and get their responses – what they’re going to do to survive against Amazon, et.al.?
I buy books, DVDs, and more almost exclusively from B&N largely because they have a physical presence in the community. Although I quite often use the website to order on-line, I purchase from B&N rather than Amazon or another competitor because there is a location that I can visit when I wish to browse, return a purchase, or just get a cup of coffee.
3rdFred – I agree about the people in Panera. My husband & I went to lunch there a few weeks ago with our infant in it’s carrier and had to stand around (with another family with kids) for people to eat their lunch and leave so we could enjoy our lunch. Nevermind there were multiple 4 people tables being taken up with 1 people on a laptop. So frustrating and rude
Back on topic, I LOVE my trips to B&N. I rarely get a chance to go (1-3 times a year) because of a lack of free time but it’s one of my favorite places to go “get lost” in. I always purchase something when I am there and usually do a bit of Christmas shopping there.
I once saw a couple sit down with coffee at Panera, then pull a loaf of bread, peanut butter, and a knife out of a tote bag. They proceeded to make themselves peanut butter toast using Paneras toaster.
Amanda, I go to Tanglewood B&N often, and thoroughly enjoy it. I most always buy a book or magazine,(and coffee), and like to buy gift cards there for my family and friends. I like the atmosphere, it’s very calming. No digital books for me. I would miss it so much if they leave our area!
I found this news by B&N as no real surprise. Actually that store closure number is kind of optimistic. The whole chain could be gone in 5 years if they decline like Borders did. One smart thing they are doing is they have stopped opening stores for the most part. Ironically, one new store is in Fredricksburg in an old Borders loctation. Beautiful new store design BTW!
They need to be creative regarding the stores. First of all they should somehow devise a way to use web traffic to generate store traffic… Like, buy a book online get a free, or discounted book in the store only?!
As for the SWVA stores we’ll see… I have no idea how the stores preform in comparison to other stores in the region. I’ll guess w/o other competition the market isn’t saturated they’re probably ok. Would love to know gross sales of the retail stores compared to online sales in the market. That would tell a huge story about the stores future.
BTW I know of one library here in Richmond that tried a coffee, snack bar and it failed. Interesting that the concept of reading and coffee drinking is only a model for a retail chain, not a library…which I admit I use B&N as, a library!
The new Roanoke County library has a coffee shop/snack bar– my son and I go there a lot, to check out books and enjoy a cozy snack while we read.
I’m one of those people that just like the feel of a book in their hands.
I do go to B&N and if I like a book, I then go to Amazon.com and buy it much cheaper.
Well, I do buy some things some time but hardly “always”. It’s a great place to spend time while the other half is looking for shoes! Actually, my bet it their business model encourages “loafers” like me in hopes we actually will make a purchase. Let’s face it. THEY put the Starbucks in the store and THEY put it right by the magizne rack. THEY also provide the chairs outside of the Starbucks area. I’ll bet they have carefully studied the consequences and know exactly what the cost/benefit amounts to. As to “cheap”, I have purchased many things on Amazon. Always been excellent producy, excellent service and free shipping. Matter of fact, just the drive to B&N adds considerably to my costs.
So those snarky workers at b&n might be out of a job soon? GOOD.
I am a writer and I read voraciously. Recently someone gave me a B&N gift card so I went to the one at Tanglewood and bought a guide book for Ireland. But otherwise I buy all my books on-line except for the really good used bookstores like Too Many Books in Roanoke and Mermaid in Williamsburg. But you won’t find anything in B&N except books from the big-name trade publishers and these are usually so sanitized, academic, or big-name focused as to have no realy value as literature. Also, it was a Sunday afternoon when a bookstore should be crammed with people. There was hardly anyone there. Even the employees seemed bored. A place like this can’t last.
I agree with crooked road. People will always look at books and other materials in any brick&mortar location. Prior to Nooks and Kindles people did that. This is nothing new. My issue with B&N is more that I don’t want to fight mall traffic for a parking space, when I can be in the comfort of my home and order exactly what I like off line. Further, I enjoy that sites like Amazon gives suggestions of other books that may suit your tastes/research needs. As a PhD student, the local B&N wouldn’t have the books I need — but a larger scale site like Amazon does, so I am already a Prime member for textbooks alone. Sites like Amazon (and I have had BOTH a Nook and a Kindle, and by far the Kindle is a better value with more books to purchase) also provide e-books instantly, sometimes as a student I need one specific text RIGHT NOW — and perhaps I can find that on a Kindle, when I couldn’t find it in an actual store. At W&M the school bookstore IS a Barnes & Noble, and perhaps that is where they should funnel their sites. What if the B&N’s here hooked in with Western, Roanoke, and Hollins to provide their textbooks?
If need be, close the Tanglewood Barnes & Noble and keep the one at Valley View & Christiansburg open. The one in Christiansburg does extremely well and is a great center for college students of both Virginia Tech and Radford University to come shop for books or do homework at Starbucks Cafe.
Many years ago I loved B & N so much we would drive to Charlottesville to their store since there was not one in Roanoke at the time. We spent hundreds of dollars over the years in B & N. I love home decor books and gardening books and I like to hold a real book.
Over the years after Roanoke got two B & N stores I still visited and bought lots of books but it was a real turn off to me for people to be sitting over coffee, etc with books they were not going to buy. Several times I ask to order a book they already had on the shelf because I did’t want to buy a bent or soiled book and really got a questional look from the clerk.
I do flip through a book when looking to purchase one but I have never sit for hours in a B & N to read instead of purchase and I have never had any coffee or dessert while looking at a book or magazine. It is more like a library only thank goodness they don’t allow food or drink at the library.
NIce attitude, james west.
I’d prefer to keep the one at Tanglewood and get rid of VV. The parking on that side of the mall is one big cluster**** and every time they plop another chain restaurant down in the middle of the lot it gets worse. Sign me up as one who prefers a book book as opposed to an ebook…I like the feel of a book, the look of my bookcase with books in it, the jacket art and everything else about real books. A country that can’t support its book stores is a sad place.
I’m of two minds on the issues surrounding B&N bookstores. On the one hand, I absolutely love the feel of a book in my hand. I love to read, passionately, as evidenced by the 5+ books I go through in an average week. I also review books for fun and a little profit. But for those of us who like instant gratification, the ebooks and Amazon are wonderful I’m introduced to new (to me) authors through sites like BookBub, read a sample, then go find their back-list. Most of the time, the libraries don’t -have- much by some of the newer/less reviewed/self-published authors. Barnes and Noble certainly won’t have any self-published books in their stores. They may have them on line, but it’s iffy. While I like some of the things that come out of major publishing houses, they’re not the only game in town anymore. It’s also a factor of not wanting an algorithm to tell me what I SHOULD be reading. The stock in Barnes & Noble and other chain stores is just the tip of the iceberg with regard to what’s really out there. If I only wanted to be reading what the algorithm says I should be reading, I’d go to Wal-mart for my books. I’m introduced to a broader range of merchandise through sites like Amazon. While yes, buying on Amazon means that some money is not going back into the community, I try to offset that by making it a point to shop at local retailers other things they offer. I’d much rather support local businesses like B&D Comics, Oliveto, Too Many Books, Given’s Books and Baylee’s Best rather than give my money to a chain retailer that may or may not promote a fair working environment for its employees and may or may not have an active, engaged presence in the community.
While I’m also not a huge fan of hours-long-loitering in businesses, I can certainly understand it. Like people have said – as long as there have been bookstores, there have been people who’ve hung around, read, and maybe made a purchase. Like with everything in life, there are people who take advantage of what’s offered to varying degrees. In my family, we’re all readers. When we go into a bookstore, I know we’re going to be there for no less than an hour. So places like the B&N Cafe’ are great. I don’t take much time to find what I want, so I can go have a drink with the books I know I’m buying while everyone else takes their time shopping. Yes, it DOES bother me when I see people who are abusing the treat (the ability to sit and read IN the store). However, if the practice didn’t have its advantages for the company, B&N would have folded the chairs up and poured the coffee out years ago.
I also refuse to go into the Valley View B&N store unless there’s a good reason – IE: An author I like signing there. I’ve never had a positive interaction with the staff in that store, parking and navigating the mall isn’t something I enjoy, and I’ve always found that the Tanglewood store has the better selection (and more engaged staff).
Seems that many consider B&N more of a library than a books store.
I buy locally when I can. I like to look around the store, and I support the local economy. It’s important for me to buy locally when I can. If it’s not in stock, I’ll order on-line since shipping is quicker than if I have the store order the book.
One other problem that I’ve found is sometimes B&N has a book on-line for less than I would pay in my local store. So I purchase online instead of supporting the local store.
That said, people spending time in the store and taking advantage of what they offer locally would not seem to be as big a concern as would those who then leave the store and make purchases elsewhere.
Please come back to us, Ram’s Head.
I miss your great selection, well-read staff, and sections NOT marked “Paranormal YA Romance.”
Interesting discovery. On my last visit to B&N, where my lady spent over $60, I tried to get a cuppa c using my Starbucks gift card. They don’t accept them at the B&N Starbucks but they will accept a B&N card for coffee. Which tells me the Starbucks are operated by B&N as a part of their enterprise and they are not, “financially” connected to Starbucks. Point being B&N WANTS them there to draw potential customers even if some just look and loaf like I do mostly.
@Bubba Greene: The cafe at Barnes & Noble is not a Starbucks affiliate or franchise; they just sell Starbucks products. The other items, such as foods and sweets, are purchased from companies like the Cheesecake Factory.