Bookstore Wars Revisited--because I've been meaning to comment on the previous post all week

I visited Barnes and Noble a total of three times in the first week the store was open. I don't expect this to be a continuing trend, but I have thought that it might be a good place for me to spend an hour once a week for the sake of a change of scenery, and perhaps the opportunity to do more writing. I still have an incomplete in Theory of the Novel hanging over me, after all, assuming I ever actually go back to the University.

Last Sunday as I was trying to return a slightly overdue item to the public library before church, I couldn't get the problem out of my head. I was listening to a story on NPR concerning the lack of American long distance runners competing on the international level, and so the sports analogy has stuck with me.

What does BAM do the moment the rumor is confirmed that B&N is coming to Tuscaloosa in 2007? At that point have they already been defeated so that all they can do is maintain their current level of business until that fateful day arrives? In that case hasn't the owner of BAM in Tuscaloosa already defeated him or herself?

Surely entrepreneurs do not go into business hoping that their major competitor never makes their way into town. You are right, BAM will probably go out of business. Tuscaloosa recently lost all competitors when Cobb Theater opened a few years ago. The Bama Six held on for a short time as a $1.50 theater, but even they eventually folded. The remodeling BAM did not long ago seems a poor attempt at improving their image. I don't know whether or not this was a "global" change, or only a local attempt.

There was something else I wanted to say about this but I've totally lost it. And considering I'm supposed to be recovering from a cold, it's already way past my bedtime. That's got to be what Michael is thinking at this very moment.

Bookstore Wars

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?