How to save Barnes and Noble and improve American way of life

August 12th, 2010 § Comments Off on How to save Barnes and Noble and improve American way of life § permalink

Eslite Bookstore in Taichung Chung-yo Departme...
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Was reading this article on how formerly greatest bookstore is doing to improve and accommodate for the future. I’m thrilled to hear they are doing something, because I really enjoy visiting bookstores, and theirs are one of the best. But…
The main question they are focusing on is “how to get more visitors?” – very contemporary 🙂 and their answer is: by putting stuff other than books on the shelves – games, toys,… All good and well if it works, but I’d rather see two other tactics being employed to make bookstore more appealing.

  1. give me good coffee and I’ll spend hours browsing around these urban oasis. Bookstores are the quietest, most pleasant environments in a big city, where you can be with yourself. Now if they also spoiled me just a bit… 🙂 Learn from Bar And Books.
  2. stop thinking of yourself as a store, bookshop of the future is actually a storefront. Don’t bother with the counters, just let me buy digital editions by using a camera on my smartphone. I would buy many many books if I didn’t have to carry them around and get bad conciseness while waiting in line to pay. Think iTunes, micropayments, cheaper editions, audiobooks bundles…

Basically, what I’m saying is: Leverage the best attributes that amazon can’t copy and build on them. Otherwise We’ll start browsing trough your stores and buy online.

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