My recommendation to Barnes & Noble | Hacker News Reader

My recommendation to Barnes & Noble

jeffvincent.posterous.com

22 pointsRBerenguel17 comments

My 2 cents is to create a 'Local' section that features local writers, artists and anything else local - local Websites, and get a cut for providing local merchants with a space to market their wares.

I'd like to have an app on my iPhone that gave me the ability to search local store inventory.

Not sure if it's like this everywhere, but one thing I like about the local Borders vs. the local Barnes and Noble is that Borders has kiosks around the store where I can search to see if a book is in-store, and can order it from there if it isn't.

The Barnes & Noble app does have this feature. I've used it before. You can even reserve the books when it finds them.

Our website does this too. (I work part-time at a B&N.)

Simple things: 1. Price match in stores 2. Better customer service 3. Enhance the experiences (signings, poetry, etc) 4. Become a community nexus, much the way the library once was.

In south Florida we have an independent chain called books n books which is overpriced(compared to amazon) but they do well because of the last 3 in my list.

Wrong. Why would I need a dedicated app when I have a smartphone? Just make a great mobile site. I check Amazon all the time when I'm out and about, no app required.

And while some place great value in "holding a book in their hands" as a way to evaluate it as a good purchase, I've long since found more value in AMZN reviews and links to "related books you might like" (both on the AMZN book pages as well as in customer reviews). These are way more valuable to me than trying to speed read in the store to get a feel for the goodness of a book (this has often proven faulty, at least for me). To say nothing of the terribly limited selection in any retail store...

So I skip B&N and Borders retail stores altogether (even though there is a Borders store 1 block from my workplace, at least for now). AMZN Prime rules! (and I am just a customer).

Even this doesn't fix the fact that I purchased book 2 of a trilogy for my wife for 17.99 in the store and then went out to my car and bought book 2 and 3 on amazon for 16.50 and then took my original purchase back when they came in the mail. They were the same price on the b&n website but they refused to match in store.

Man you're fucking evil. You're killing the store. Don't you want a place to browse books and magazines, physically? You a) failed to buy b) /took a book back/ because of a $1.50 difference? Don't cry when the only place you can buy books become mall kiosks with pulp, like airports are.

Evil?

I just want a book. If they are charging for ambiance they should do it directly. Coffee shops do this well.

In what way do coffee shops do a better job of "directly" charging for their ambiance than bookstores do of charging for the ability to walk in and browse anything in the store? I really can't work out what you're trying to say here.

Huh? I've never been in a coffee shop that 'charged for ambiance' "directly" as you put it. They charge me $4 for a cup of coffee that probably costs about $1, plus a few minutes of someone's time to make it. They let me sit in their trendy digs and drink said coffee.

Bookstores - they give you the convenience of getting it right then as opposed to ordering from online and waiting. You're paying for the convenience.

You obviously wanted/needed the book right then, so pay the $1.50 extra. You wasted a hell of a lot more than $1.50 of fuels between you driving back to the store and Amazon shipping it probably halfway across the country to your doorstep.

WTF.

edit: "I just want a book." No... you wanted a cheaper price on a book but you also wanted it right now. You can't have both (unless perhaps you want to pick up the latest Sarah Palin bestseller from WalMart). Pick which is more important to you - price or speed. Buy accordingly. Don't abuse the retail store. And don't give me the "they have a policy in place to return stuff." Policies like that are getting changed/eliminated/reduced because of people like you. You want to save 8% on your purchase? Buy from Amazon and wait 2-3 days.

I wasn't the previous poster.

There are two or three coffee stands in the town I am from. These are 20 square feet. There are also McDonald's drive throughs. (McDonald's has won nearly every blind taste test.)

By going to a shop I am choosing ambiance in addition to conveniece. They offer little else over any other method of getting coffee (which all generally offer just convenience).

I have no interest in sitting in a bookstore. There cannot be a 20 square foot bookstore that offers only convenience. So yes, I buy my books online. (Actually on a Kindle.)

Bookstores are going out of business because the ambiance they are selling to compete with coffee shops comes with much greater costs. Guys like the first poster are not putting them out of business. The internet already has.

Yes, Evil. I think you missed what he did. He bought a book at B&N, then moments later ordered the same book from Amazon for slightly less. When the order from Amazon arrived, he returned the B&N purchase.

No. I ordered 2 books on amazon for the price of the 1 book I bought in B&N. What I did was save my self $17. I'm diabolical.

I typed on my iPhone, so maybe it wasn't clear. I got 2 books for .50 less than 1 book. The books were something like 55% off on B&N and Amazon's site. If B&N had matched the web price I would have been more than happy to buy them in store and keep them. Instead they tried to sell me a $25 membership to get 20% off.

Here is the book:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Catching-Fire/Suzanne-Colli... and http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Mockingjay/Suzanne-Collins/...

They were even cheaper at amazon but I would have been more than willing to pay the web price in store and walk out with both for $20. Instead, I ordered some coffee that I needed anyway and got the price above $25 on Amazon for the free shipping.

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