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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: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Wednesday January 10 2018, @05:37AM
My problem was I did like to browse when in a physical bookstore... but the local B&N has nowhere to sit!
I noted some kids that were quite a bit more limber than me ( I'm closing in on 70 ) were trying to sit on the floor, but roving security guards kept rousing them.
I can only stand for so long before blood starts pooling in my legs. So, slowly but surely, I had to give up the bookstore for Amazon and Alibris.
And that's coming from one that notoriously has held on for way too long over doing things the way I've always done them. Yes, I still have a WIN95 system, and every year come tax time, I still drop to DOS to run VisiCalc, put my new numbers in, and transcribe it back via pen and ink to the tax forms. Just like I have done every year for the last thirty years. Then copy the whole directory, executable as well as all data files, back onto ONE floppy disk, to put back in the binder along with hardcopy, for next year. That's right, the executables AND thirty year's worth of my tax files... and the floppy disk is still less than half full.
I tried the "buy a coffee" route, so I could sit in the cafe area, but they were watching the clock and after so long, I was deemed "loitering".
Even though no-one was waiting for the seat.
Old habits are hard to break, but businesses can find leaders who know how to break them.
To make it better for all of us, I don't go there anymore.
I understand. Rules are rules. Rule-makers are paid to make rules, customers like me are kinda a pain-in-the-ass.
Oh yes, another thing. Last time I tried to buy a book there, they had all sorts of "discounts" offered. I tried to get one. Nothing for me. I guess they were testing me to see how much I would take before I finally walked out without buying. Although they lost a customer, I guess they did get valuable marketing information for the decision makers higher up. I fussed and fumed about it, but the register people I guess were told to get a complete burnout to prove the point.
The switchover started when I first started learning of things Arduino. I used to buy ALL of my Arduino books there. That's when the fuss started over whether or not I could sit, and how long I could sit at a table with coffee browsing the books to see if they had stuff in them I considered worth around 40 bux to have a hardcopy of. Most of the books I saw had little new in them... just rehash of what the one I already had, but occasionally someone would publish something with new stuff in it. And, of course, I always had to check for the latest copy of "Circuit Cellar". Once in a while, I'd get one if they featured a nifty little thing I wanted to build or understand how it would work.
I finally had to "join the modern crowd" and get an Amazon account. I still do not have a Google account, nor Facebook. Well, for me, "social media" is here, and a diesel truck forum.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]