Parker and Granna and I recently made a trip to the new Barnes & Noble. Unsurprisingly I almost immediately found a book I had been looking for for months, The Rhetoric of Fiction, by Wayne Booth. I couldn't afford to actually buy the book at full retail price--I'll either buy it used through Amazon.com or else wait and see if I get my own copy for Christmas--but holding the book in my hand, and knowing, through actual perusal, that it really was the kind of book I was looking for was wonderful.
I've been worrying about the bookstore issue lately. What is Barnes & Noble going to do to Books-a-Million's business. I don't generally like Books-a-Million, because they only ever carry the latest or most popular books by any given offer, but I'm still concerned about their future. Just as I am also concerned about the future of various shopping centers in town since the new really-nice shopping center has opened up. Other shopping centers are already losing business as shops move to the more attractive location and it hasn't even begun to fill up yet.
It doesn't effect me either way. I'm not willing to pay retail, so neither one is likely to get my discretionary dollars.
Some customers will continue to use Books-a-Million to avoid the crowds, I'm sure, or because they have a grudge against the competition (because they don't like Starbucks's public relations policies, for instance). Books-a-Million may have its good points too. Michael says that competition is always good for the consumer. I'm just curious what BAM can do to market itself better, besides the remodeling they have already done. Parker and I visited them on Wednesday, before we ever went to B&N, and Parker found a sock puppet there he really liked.
So this brings up another question of mine. How do you think the internet ordering market-share is distributed between the old standby Amazon.com, BAMM.com, Barnes&Noble.com and the others? What others are there?
5 comments:
I know I pretty much only ever order books from Amazon.com. Borders is another huge book retailer, but it appears that their online store is somehow affiliated with Amazon.
Living in Atlanta now, there are at least four bookstores within three miles of our apartment. Two are Barnes&Noble, one is an independent store, and one is a gay book store called "Outwrite."
Also, at one of the Barnes&Nobles, you can go in, get Starbucks coffee, and then step outside and see two more Starbucks locations in the same shopping center, sharing one huge parking lot.
I like to go in bookstores, but rarely buy anything. I like to get a hands on look at what I want to buy on-line. I buy most of my books from E-bay and Amazon.com. I've bought some things from half.com and abebooks.com.
Wes and I just had that same conversation this week about B&N and BAM. I really think that BAM will eventually go out of business. I just don't think that T-town can support two bookstores that size. I REALLY enjoyed looking through B&N kid's section this week. It was pretty awesome.
There is also a freestanding Starbucks in the same new shopping center. My hope is that BAM will not go out of business, because that would defeat the whole competitive process. All the same, I'm not about to help BAM stay in the game so I guess I don't really have any right to complain whatever happens.
It's true that not buying from any local stores may devalue one's opinion of the situation: no action equals (virtually) no impact. But that's what competition and market share are all about: getting people to buy from you. The bottom line is ultimately going to decide whether BAM stays here in Tuscaloosa, but momentum can significantly influence that.
Two big book stores establish something (I'm not sure what) about a town, sort of like a town getting its first Super Wal-Mart. Growing business and growing population seem to feed off each other, and Tuscaloosa has been growing in the past couple years. If BAM improves the quality of their store over the next year, the local customer base may grow enough (in size and demand/attitude) to keep both stores afloat. The newness of B&N will wear off eventually. But if BAM doesn't try to build positive momentum they have a real chance of going out of business here. That would be their own fault, as well as ours. Going out of business means WE have chosen to bring our money somewhere else, because the failing business didn't give us a good reason to choose them over the competition. But again, if we won't buy from them anyway our input doesn't really affect the situation.
Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see 25% to 50% of local stores go out of business in the next generation, simply because of the internet. Big chain stores have a chance of surviving, but only if they make wise decisions in keeping up. Small stores with outstanding service may also have a chance.
Then again, people could change their own attitudes about how they shop. We can choose to support local businesses. The question is, why do we or don't we do that now? I can tell one thing for certain, I have no interest in shopping some place that has a Starbucks.
half.com and overstock.com are sites I've used in addition to Amazon.
I agree with Tina about BAM.
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