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On Monday, February 12th, Barnes & Noble fired a number of employees.
From CNBC:
Barnes & Noble is trimming its staff, laying off lead cashiers, digital leads and other experienced workers in a company-wide clearing, CNBC has learned from sources familiar with the matter.
The news came abruptly for many workers who showed up Monday morning at various Barnes & Noble locations to be notified that they no longer had a job, the people said. The number of affected workers couldn't immediately be determined. As of April 29 of last year, Barnes & Noble employed about 26,000 people.
"[Barnes & Noble] has been reviewing all aspects of the business, including our labor model," a spokeswoman told CNBC about the layoffs. "Given our sales decline this holiday, we're adjusting staffing so that it meets the needs of our existing business and our customers. As the business improves, we'll adjust accordingly."
From The Digital Reader:
The initial report said B&N had fired "lead cashiers, digital leads, and other experienced workers", but what that report missed - and why this was worth bringing up a day later - was that B&N also fired nearly all of its receiving managers in what current and ex-employees are calling Bloody Monday.
[...] When B&N fires a digital sales lead, it means they'll sell fewer Nooks. This is no big deal given how B&N's digital revenues have fallen since 2013. When B&N fires a head cashier, it means you're in for longer waits at the register.
But when B&N fires its receiving managers, it means that B&N won't have the merchandise to sell you because the person who was responsible for making sure shelves get stocked does not work there any more.
Previously: Barnes & Noble Reports Holiday Revenues Down
Barnes & Noble Pivots to Books
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:20PM (10 children)
Firing lead cashiers in a digital age is hardly an indication of longer lines or less sales.
Top of the food chain lead cashiers can be replaced by automated checkout. Everything in B&N has a bar code already. Scan and go.
Go to any grocery story or even Home Depot. One checkout guy managing 6 or 10 self checkout stations.
B&N's problem is too much infrastructure in high rent districts. But they HAVE TO be there, because they are not a "destination store" any more, so they need to be in malls to get the casual impulse sales. Why drive to B&N whey you can get that book sitting on your couch?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:57PM (1 child)
No, they can't. Barnes & Noble is selling an Experience, not "books." Same exact reason that B&N must be in higher scale locations than the mall. You need to feel like this isn't going to Whatever's to find earrings or Gamestop. They're killing off the ONE advantage they had left over Amazon - the friendly live helpful person giving a welcoming and knowledgeable experience promptly yet you can spend hours browsing and sitting - in the name of quarterly bonuses. RIP B&N.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday February 14 2018, @11:52PM
Hate those people.
Surfing the shelves, getting immersed in the book or two, and suddenly you have to shift into the other half of your brain to make pleasant talk with some busybody. I know how to find help if I need it, and would go to a public library if I needed help, rather than to a 20 something who was selling cell phones last week, and ear rings the week before.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday February 14 2018, @07:05PM (7 children)
> Why drive to B&N whey you can get that book sitting on your couch?
It's full of filthy humans! Yuck!
I'm going to sell my car and never drive anywhere, because why would I do that when I can get food and entertainment delivered to my house ?
Time to get rid of "cities", "downtowns", and any other unhealthy concentration of humans like "work", "theaters" and "playground". It's cheaper, more convenient, and safer to stay naked inside your home at all times!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @07:22PM (6 children)
Your mocking and irony filled statement is absolutely correct; some people like the interpersonal interactions and experience of going to a place with other humans.
However, your cherry-picked quote misses the entire point of the GP. The GP was noting that people don't make a special trip to B&N, so they need to have casual impulse sales (and thus need to be in expensive locations). I think I mainly agree with that. If people can wait, they'll order online where it is cheaper and more convenient.
Speaking for myself, I and some other people I know were vaguely interested in that "Fire and Fury" book, and we did a quick search for it when we happened to be passing by a B&N. They didn't happen to have ti in stock, but if the B&N store hadn't been there where we were anyway, we wouldn't have even tried to get it.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday February 15 2018, @06:36AM (5 children)
Actually, I disagree. What they need to do is have lots of really small local stores that have LOTS of single copies of books, and if you buy it they'll ship you a copy to your home for free (i.e., shipping cost included in price). The only way to sell me books I'm not already looking for is to let me see it, but I'm usually quite willing to wait a day or two to actually get it. (I suppose they could let you buy the shelf copy for a premium price. Somehow the instantly printed books never took off, maybe they used shoddy paper or binding.)
If I'm going down to the local coffee shop I'm quite likely to stop by the convenience market or hardware store to pick up something. If I'm making a special trip somewhere I'm much less likely to buy something besides what I was after.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 15 2018, @07:19AM
There is a place like that. They actually let you read those books too, for free. It's called a library.
(Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Thursday February 15 2018, @10:49AM (3 children)
I work in digital printing.
If it's done well, then a digital print book (your 'instant printing') can rival a traditional offset book in terms of quality. The trouble is, even with digital, there is a set-up cost, and the run cost is way higher. If you've invested huge amounts in automation, then that set-up cost might be 30 seconds of an operator clicking "print this book" - (call it 20 cents), and 1 minutes of someone else collecting it and delivering it to the counter 5 minutes later (30 cents (grunt workers are paid less)).
On top of that, digital print, in black and white on cheap paper, runs from 0.3 to 0.8 cents per page. Colour runs up to 50 cents per page.
Then you have to amortise the cost of that automation across the on-demand books you sell. You just can't compete with offset.
The traditional offset printing business is ruthless, mature and commodity. The prices are way lower than people think - the actual cost to print, bind, and ship an offset (traditional printing) paperback book is between 20 cents and 2 dollars per copy depending on size and print run. $2 would be a huge book (>1000 pages) or really short run (< 1000 copies)
All those people complaining about e-books being as expensive as paper versions, the rest goes to the author/publisher/distributor/bookstore. Given the cost of editing and setting up PDF/epub/mobi/html/txt versions and relative sale volumes, the price is pretty much a wash.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday February 15 2018, @06:27PM (2 children)
OK, that's *why* instant printing never took off. And it's a good reason. But shipping from a warehouse should often get the stuff delivered in a day or two (which was what I was proposing). It means you'd need several large warehouses, but that's a lot cheaper than a large store in every city.
The problem is the fancy book stores focus on instant delivery, which means they need a large supply on hand. That increases sales, but also expenses. Having a copy or two of the most popular books, and being willing to order ANYTHING would be a big plus. I'm not sure it works when combines well with a coffee shop...though that might work, if you model the contents of the store on a library. (There's a bookstore in Salem, Oregon that does that, though they basically sell used books, but they advertise that they'll order the book you want.) My most local bookstore is just a bookstore, but it will order any book I ask for. The problem with their model is that if they ship it to my house it adds about $10 to the cost...well, and they don't carry anything I'm interested in. Both of those stores have the problem of not having any parking, and in both places it's a real problem (though not for me, as I don't drive).
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday February 16 2018, @07:11AM (1 child)
Other than the ideological reasons of not making Bezos richer and hating their work practices, I don't really see much difference to Amazon. They got there there first with the most, and now have an established dominance with huge economies of scale.
If you are going to order it from a warehouse, you may as well do that while sitting on your couch in your undies. No need to make a special trip to what is effectively a kiosk to order a book.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday February 16 2018, @06:06PM
The difference is that you could see and touch the book before buying it.
Sorry, but to me that's important. 2/3 of the reason I patronize my local bookstore rather than Amazon is that I can see and touch the books first. And this despite the fact that they don't carry much that I want. Whether or not it makes Bezos richer doesn't enter into my calculations. When I lived nearer to bookstores that had more of what I wanted I bought a lot more books. Often 2 or 3 per week. These days I buy less than 2 per average month. And it's because I can't see and feel and look at a couple of pages of the things I might want.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.