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Barnes & Noble reported their sales from the 2017 holiday quarter, and the news is not good.
B&N today reported holiday sales for the nine-week holiday period ending December 30, 2017. Total sales for the holiday period were $953 million, declining 6.4% as compared to the prior year. Comparable store sales also declined 6.4% for the holiday period, while online sales declined 4.5%.
Entering December, the Company was encouraged by the comparable store sales improvements throughout the second quarter and into November. However, sales trends softened in December, primarily due to lower traffic.
The Company's book business declined 4.5%, outperforming the overall comparable store sales performance. Declines in the gift, music and DVD categories accounted for nearly half of the comparable store sales decrease. The Company said it remains focused on executing its strategic turnaround plan, which includes an aggressive expense management program.
The keywords are "aggressive expense management program," which translates to "lowering" the cost of employees, and closing and downsizing stores.
Previously: Barnes & Noble Pivots to Books
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 09 2018, @02:38PM (4 children)
My generation has aged. I pick up a book, skim over the title, intro, whatever pictures, get to the first chapter, and start reading - except, I can't see shit. Depending on how you define the boomers, maybe I'm the very last of them, or maybe I'm whatever came right after the boomers. But, it's very difficult to read dead tree books today.
The next generation will be the last to even want books. Generation X and everything after would rather read a screen of print - if they even like reading. Everything is videos now. Why go to the effort of reading to comprehend something, when someone on Youtube is happy to show you how to do it? Reading is for old people, and the old people are dying off.
(Score: 4, Informative) by TheGratefulNet on Tuesday January 09 2018, @02:55PM
I'm mid 50's and have neck and joint pain. anything I do, these days, often has some bit of pain to it (arthritis never goes away once you get it). holding a book, moving my neck or even my bad eyes to read the thing takes effort and at the end of the day, I'm tired from the day job and reading paper books is the last thing I want.
I do find it easier to read screens, though. generated light vs reflected light. dark term windows and green or amber text helps me see better and I can control the font size and window size.
I did read a lot when I was younger, but physically, it takes effort and sometimes a mild amount of pain.
besides, almost anything technical is out of date once its printed. to stay current and employed I need to spend all my spare time maintaining my tech background; pleasure reading of fiction does not fit into my schedule. I can just barely stay current as it is, in tech; and that's with all my spare time reading up on tech articles and similar subjects.
finally, books take up a lot of space, get dusty over time and cost real money to have to pack and move (I'm in an apartment and so I'm often moving every few years). boxes of books are NO FUN to move.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:49PM
Generation X still reads, a lot. But we grew up during the computer boom and screens began to displace books for some. So now most have switched to e-book but a friend is still an avid dead tree collector and reader.
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Tuesday January 09 2018, @05:00PM
I am a Generation X person that spends most of my time in front of a computer screen (I am a sysadmin).
I like e-books due to the portability of them (1000's on a single device), but I still read a lot of physical books.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday January 12 2018, @04:37AM
Don't blame 'em either!
Although I still have a mechanical typewriter, its been ten years since I used it.
The only time I pick up a pen is to either sign something, make notes in books, make quickie sketches of circuits I may dream up...
Even my brother and sister get typewritten notes from me. Not because I am so prim and proper ( laughing ), but because my penmanship would earn me a F- by ANY teacher. I can barely read it, I certainly do not expect anyone else to.
Neither do I see too many people stitching by hand either. I sometimes try to repair fabric by hand, and boy is it obvious.
Used to use a 300 baud GTE/Lenkurt analog modem ( all tuned by coils and capacitors, no less! ) on the BBS as well.
The mental bandwidth of video is several orders of magnitude over reading. Why use such slow methods? Oh God, I remember all too well of the tedium of reading some of that crap my English teachers assigned me. Charles Dickens. It took a seeming eternity to fish through his verbose communication to try to get to the nugget of info he was trying to convey. Might as well be looking for needles in haystacks. But it was what was necessary to get a passing grade. I can't even list all the other things I would have much rather been doing than trying to read such a boring tome.
It takes me several weeks to read a novel. But the neat thing about it is I can read a page at a time, lay it back down, and when I pick it back up, I am precisely where I left off. Great for toilet reads.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]