Barnes & Noble Booksellers

 

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Brandon B.

Sacramento, CA

I love bookstores. The smell of the books. The aisles and aisles of colorful, shiny, unbent book covers. The soft music playing overhead. And more magazines than you could shake a stick at.

Barnes and Nobles and Borders (arguably two of the biggest Brick and Mortar bookstores left standing since Al Gore invented the 'Tubes) are pretty much one and the same to me. In fact, for the first few years I lived in the area, I couldn't remember if it was a Barnes or a Borders.

Brand recognition aside, bookstores are a wonderful place to spend a Saturday night if, like me, you lack the coolness to know where the latest milkshake social is being held.

I like that in a bookstore, I can pick up a book, thumb through it, read a few chapters, and smell it. I like that it's easy to glance at covers and open a variety of books quickly, skimming the text to decide if this is something that might grab my attention.

If so, then I go home and buy the book on Amazon.

Look, I know, that sounds awful. I'm the worst type of customer (technically not a customer), and I know this.

Occasionally, I've purchased books in the store -- in fact, about two months ago I purchased over sixty bucks in books, and last month I spent another twenty. This type of spending is rare, and the fact is I find it difficult to justify the in-store prices.

Book store prices are very high. And the selection is limited, to put it nicely. Often, I can't buy the book I want as it's not in stock, and their offer to have it shipped to the store a week later (so I can drive back down to pick it up?) is dumb. Being nagged every time if I want to join some discount club gets old, too. And like I do on Yelp, I write and enjoy reading reviews about the books I'm considering, and would say the well-written reviews on Amazon highly influence my purchasing decisions on authors I've never heard of.

Yes, I grew up on the Internet, and once I discovered there were naked girls on the Internet, I quickly became pale and socially challenged. And like people who grew up writing checks as a primary form of payment (you know the ones, they're in front of you holding up the line while you're waving your debt card around and bouncing on your toes), I instinctively click Add to Cart when I want to buy something. (Yes, I could click Add to Cart on B&N.com, but the prices on their website are still higher than Amazon's list price on just about everything: books, CDs, trade paperbacks, movies...)

The physical bookstore is an awesome place to browse and find good books to read, but they aren't competing with online resellers. When I see a deal or a book I don't want to wait for Amazon to ship, I'll buy it from a store. But if B&N shut down, all because I wouldn't buy books from them, I wouldn't feel guilty. With a link to Amazon on my phone, the Brick and Mortar stores -- all of 'em, not just bookstores -- need to adapt and find ways to convince me, the Internet demographic, why I should wait in line (OMG!) and spend double on a product when I can tap my phone and have it on my doorstep in three days for half the price.

So far, they're pretending the Internet is a passing phase, and by the time they realize what's really happening, it'll be all over. Hell, why do you think there are only two reviews (as of 07/09/08) for this place?

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Aslan L.

Fair Oaks, CA

I have never been disappointed when coming to this bookstore.  Not only do they usually have the book that I want, I always find at least 3 more that I must have before I leave.  Most of the hardback books are discounted by 20% ans if you have a Barnes and Noble membership you get an additional 10% off.  They also have an excellent children's section where they do a story time(check store for details.  One major bonus is there is a Starbucks right in the store.

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