Last week, this article went viral. The New York Times’ David Leonhardt opines the fact that monopolies have been allowed to thrive since the 1970s. He notes that it is ironic that Barnes & Noble, who once pushed out independent booksellers, now needs help to not be closed down by Amazon, but he feels the chain is too important to lose. In other words, as the headline so aptly states, “Save Barnes & Noble!”
Corporate behemoths like Amazon can hold down wages, avoid taxes and squash their competitors. That’s a problem for the American economy — and American society, says @DLeonhardt. https://t.co/XZYvVda4tT
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) May 7, 2018
Barnes & Noble has emerged as one of my favorite punching bags subjects on this column. That’s because Leonhardt is right: Barnes & Noble going through major restructuring, bankruptcy, or, worse case, liquidation would create an enormous black hole in the book market for many communities. Publishers like VIZ Media may be able to get Boruto stocked at mass merchandise chains like Walmart and Target, but readers likely won’t be able to be find Kodansha Comics’ Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight or One Peace Books’ Kuma Miko. Even with Amazon and Right Stuf, it doesn’t help much for a teenager who is interested in My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness and doesn’t have PayPal or a credit card. I know I was surprised that The Heroic Legend of Arslan isn’t stocked in my area despite being drawn by the author of Fullmetal Alchemist.
But even without the behemoth known as Amazon, Barnes & Noble created some issues of its own. Look at the various articles, and both writers and commenters complain about the overload of non-book merchandise, the together-but-separate nature of their online, store, and education divisions, and the quality of their Nook app. I also miss their larger percent-off coupons, and the fact they cut Manga Mondays from five titles to four is another sign of their tightening belts.
One previously aggravating thing was that if something was cheaper online, well, too bad for you! But now you can buy online and pick up in store when previously all you could do is reserve it and pay the store price. Well, of course, in the rare instance where something is cheaper in store, you can’t have the store hold it. That’s much rarer though, so this is a step in the right direction, right?
Well, unfortunately, they took away one great feature: the ability to see multiple stores at once. So if you have several stores in driving distance, you have to change the store before you can see whether that location has the item. Before, you could type in your zip and see stores within a 50 mile radius all at once. It’s dumb they removed that feature.
Also, they still haven’t fixed their annoying “item in our stores” feature. So you may see something on sale, get all excited, and then learn you can’t buy it online.
It makes me frustrated and doesn’t encourage me to look or buy when so much is unavailable. Seriously, one added filter about “available to ship in 24 hours” or something is so hard to add?
But, okay, so how does one go and “save” Barnes & Noble?
Obviously, spending money is the obvious answer. First, spending money also differs depending on whether you are buying something online or in-store. Even if you buy for in-store pickup, for most stores, that counts as a sale for the web division and not the brick-and-mortar location. If you are trying to keep your local branch open, you’ll need to go to the store and pick something off the shelf… which may be more expensive than if you had made them pick it off the shelf for you. Essentially, you could be giving a struggling but still a multi-million dollar company a donation.
But perhaps you could support Barnes & Noble by buying items at the café. It may not give manga or any other publishers money, but you can always sample a book while eating a slice of cheesecake. As they debate their restaurant format, though, you could be making a statement that eating is an important part of the reason you visit instead of, you know, the books.
I also want to add that the test idea of 20% off books for Members and 10% for non-members stopped around February in my area. It was extended several times since it was originally scheduled to end in October, but one day, I showed up to make a purchase, and it was no longer. (And yes, I ordered online since it was cheaper. That 10% makes a difference, and the manga would have to be shipped to my home in either case.) Obviously, I have no idea whether executives were happy with how the test went or not. Since I haven’t heard any murmurings of making it permanent, I’m guessing it was one of their many failed experiments like the Nook, and perhaps their restaurant business isn’t too far behind.
Other analysts say the key to beating Amazon lies in customer service. That could be an issue at stores where a significant part of their staff has been laid off or where special events are limited. Plus, they have one of the most restrictive return policies in the business at fourteen days and plus whatever additional restrictions a physical store wants for BN.com returns.
So, by all means, participate in the campaign to save Barnes & Noble. But they could also help themselves to avoid Borders’ and Toys R Us’ fates.