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Barnes & Noble will shift to smaller stores and is turning to books to attempt to save its business:
The retailer had hoped that toys, games and other items would shore up its results, especially as Amazon.com Inc. ate away at its traditional business. But its non-book sales have flagged the past two quarters, and now the company is putting its focus back firmly on reading.
Barnes & Noble will "place a greater emphasis on books, while further narrowing our non-book assortment," Chief Executive Officer Demos Parneros said in a statement.
The failed foray is just one of the challenges bearing down on the chain. Customer traffic is down, and Barnes & Noble is losing market share. Though the release of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" reinvigorated sales a year ago, the company is now paying for that blip: Same-store sales fell 6.3 percent last quarter, with about half of that decline coming from the drop-off in Harry Potter demand.
Barnes & Noble's Nook e-book business also has languished, a further sign of Amazon's tightening grip on readers. It all added up to a loss of 41 cents a share in the fiscal second quarter, compared with a deficit of 29 cents a year earlier. Analysts projected a 26-cent loss for the period, which ended Oct. 28.
Barnes & Noble may benefit from short leases, allowing it to close or downsize stores as needed. New stores may be only about 40% as large as the average existing location.
Headline credit where it is due.
Also at WSJ:
"There's too much stuff in the stores," said Barnes & Noble Inc. Chief Executive Demos Parneros, in an interview after the company's earnings call. "We're drawing a line in the sand and reducing the assortment of gift items and what I'd call tchotchkes. For example, we love journals. But we have way too many. We're refocusing on books."
Related: Amazon Opens Physical Bookstore in Seattle
Amazon Books Opens in New York City
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @12:35AM
I see too many people using Barnes & Noble as a library. When someone is sitting in one of the comfy chairs and they are 3/4 of the way though a book, there is little incentive for them to purchase it. Get rid of the tables and chairs, and when someone is trying to read a book without paying for it, you keep interrupting them. "May I help you?", "Is there something in that book you are trying to find?", etc.
Independent book stores do not have any advantage. I was speaking to someone in a Comic Book store, and they had asked me if I knew the local Book store was closing. A "customer" came into the Bok store, and asked about a specific book. The proprietor located it in the store for them, and they proceeded to purchase on Amazon right in front of them, then walked out of the store leaving the owner flabbergasted. The proprietor told the Comic store owner that they cannot compete against that, and were shutting down.
Personally, I will miss going to book stores. :-(