For summer reading, Barnes & Noble recommends The Diary of Anne Frank. So here's the presumed scenario: The sun is out, you're under your candy striped umbrella at the beach, children in the near distance are making sandcastles on the shore, and you are immersing yourself in the magical world of WWII-era Amsterdam, through the eyes of a 13-year-old Jewish girl whose family was forced into hiding, and who later perishes in a concentration camp. If this is a bit light for you, Barnes & Noble suggests Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales as a summertime alternative, so you can brush up on your Middle English, like you've been meaning to. Or if Objectivist philosophy is your thing, an anthology of Ayn Rand's previously unpublished writings - The Early Ayn Rand (only 508 pages)- is a welcome member of the B & N "Summer Reading" display.
Really?
By now it's old news, if it was ever news at all, but in this year's edition of City Pages' "Best of the Twin Cities," Barnes & Noble Booksellers took "Best Bookstore (New)" in the reader's poll. In a city with as many funky community bookstores as ours, this was a bit surprising to me, because in terms of customer experience, I've always found B & N a bit lacking.
I don't want to rant about how B & N is bad for the universe and promotes global warming and cannibalism and pedophilia. We've all heard it all before. So I'm going to try and make a good, old-fashioned pro/con list consisting of the chain's merits (which it certainly has) and demerits, and see if maybe one outweighs the other.
I assume there might be some crossover in readership between City Pages and The Rake - possibly even some with this blog - so I invite anyone and everyone to comment with why they like (or don't like) Barnes & Noble, and to educate me as to what I may have missed - probably a substantial amount.
So here goes:
PROS
Squatter's Rights - You can sit in a Barnes & Noble for as long as you want, without feeling guilty. (I tend to start feeling guilty after about fifteen minutes in Magers & Quinn if I don't find anything I want.) It's kind of like a library, but with newer, better smelling books.
Bathrooms - I'm pretty sure that most B & Ns have bathrooms that are functionally, if not explicitly, open to the public.
Author Events - Probably the biggest benefit B & N brings to its communities is their ability to get big-name authors in otherwise-skipped-over towns. The branches Downtown and in the Galleria are especially good at getting some writers of note to Minneapolis and St. Paul. To name a recent few: Keith Gessen, Darin Strauss, and, thank God, Mario Lopez.
Discounts - When it comes to the bottom line, B & N is the best on giving us fairly significant price cuts on our favorite magazines and books.
Kids' Sections - I suspect this may have had a lot to do with its City Pages ranking. Maybe the one thing that many indy bookstores lack is a decent children's section (though check out Birchbark Books in Kenwood). It seems B & N caters as much to youngsters as to any other demographic, fully aware that they still have imaginations to be stoked and exploited.
Har Mar - More than any other B & N I know of, the branch by Har Mar mall serves as a neighborhood hub. They have one of the corporation's rare ‘used' sections, and are willing to host a Chinese conversation group. Also, I've heard it's a good spot for singles to meet.
And the CONS.
Before I start, I want to say that I'm going to try and keep the cons to problems encountered within the actual bookstores. Whatever B & N's global ramifications may be, the CP poll was about user experience, not where we shop with the cleanest conscience, or where we shop because everywhere else has been mysteriously put out of business.
More Discounts - No, I don't want to save another ten per cent today by signing up for a new credit card. Nor give you my zip code in order to buy a magazine.
Selection - It's often hard to find the book I'm looking for. Despite their vast shelving space, B & N's management mandates that branches constantly cycle through their shelves, weeding out the books that don't sell as well as they're supposed to. Because of this, it's difficult to come across older books. A lot of the time they'll have an author's best-seller, but none of the rest of that particular author's output. Perusing the Calhoun Village branch, I was unable to find any books by Celine or Bernard Malamud, and they had only one book each of Chekhov, Grace Paley, and Proust. The poetry section is even more barren - a sort of Blockbuster video approach to stocking. Only one collection each by local heavyweights Robert Bly and Louis Jenkins, and several omissions (There were, however, several copies of the poetry collections by Jewel and Ani DiFranco.)
Books, but not Reading - This is my biggest beef: B & N promotes books, and the selling of materials bound in traditional book form, but only minimally and incidentally promote any actual reading. Their ‘Summer Reading' display, for example, is simply preposterous, and shows the company's complete lack of attention to their readers.
As is now well-documented, the books that appear up front and on the chain's various ‘favorites' tables aren't selected by staff; publishers pay to have their books in those spots. This means that advertisers determine what we see, not people that care about what we're actually reading.
Because of this, some mismatching authors appear linked together. I especially liked how the new cardboard Ernest Hemingway display is next to the display with Mary Higgins Clark and James Patterson's books. It's kind of like putting Skittles next to the organic fruits.
Call me condescending. But I assure you there is no way in Hell I'm more condescending than the Barnes & Noble executive who commands that there be a rack for "Magazines America Loves" in his stores.
I think that's all I've got. It seems the list is weighted toward the pros, though I have to say the last two cons are really the clinchers for me (I don't live anywhere near Har Mar, nor do much shopping for kids, which effectively mangles my personal pros). Again, we here at The Rake are all about opinions, we thrive on them, so if you've got one, or many, throw it out there, yo.
Really?
By now it's old news, if it was ever news at all, but in this year's edition of City Pages' "Best of the Twin Cities," Barnes & Noble Booksellers took "Best Bookstore (New)" in the reader's poll. In a city with as many funky community bookstores as ours, this was a bit surprising to me, because in terms of customer experience, I've always found B & N a bit lacking.
I don't want to rant about how B & N is bad for the universe and promotes global warming and cannibalism and pedophilia. We've all heard it all before. So I'm going to try and make a good, old-fashioned pro/con list consisting of the chain's merits (which it certainly has) and demerits, and see if maybe one outweighs the other.
I assume there might be some crossover in readership between City Pages and The Rake - possibly even some with this blog - so I invite anyone and everyone to comment with why they like (or don't like) Barnes & Noble, and to educate me as to what I may have missed - probably a substantial amount.
So here goes:
PROS
Squatter's Rights - You can sit in a Barnes & Noble for as long as you want, without feeling guilty. (I tend to start feeling guilty after about fifteen minutes in Magers & Quinn if I don't find anything I want.) It's kind of like a library, but with newer, better smelling books.
Bathrooms - I'm pretty sure that most B & Ns have bathrooms that are functionally, if not explicitly, open to the public.
Author Events - Probably the biggest benefit B & N brings to its communities is their ability to get big-name authors in otherwise-skipped-over towns. The branches Downtown and in the Galleria are especially good at getting some writers of note to Minneapolis and St. Paul. To name a recent few: Keith Gessen, Darin Strauss, and, thank God, Mario Lopez.
Discounts - When it comes to the bottom line, B & N is the best on giving us fairly significant price cuts on our favorite magazines and books.
Kids' Sections - I suspect this may have had a lot to do with its City Pages ranking. Maybe the one thing that many indy bookstores lack is a decent children's section (though check out Birchbark Books in Kenwood). It seems B & N caters as much to youngsters as to any other demographic, fully aware that they still have imaginations to be stoked and exploited.
Har Mar - More than any other B & N I know of, the branch by Har Mar mall serves as a neighborhood hub. They have one of the corporation's rare ‘used' sections, and are willing to host a Chinese conversation group. Also, I've heard it's a good spot for singles to meet.
And the CONS.
Before I start, I want to say that I'm going to try and keep the cons to problems encountered within the actual bookstores. Whatever B & N's global ramifications may be, the CP poll was about user experience, not where we shop with the cleanest conscience, or where we shop because everywhere else has been mysteriously put out of business.
More Discounts - No, I don't want to save another ten per cent today by signing up for a new credit card. Nor give you my zip code in order to buy a magazine.
Selection - It's often hard to find the book I'm looking for. Despite their vast shelving space, B & N's management mandates that branches constantly cycle through their shelves, weeding out the books that don't sell as well as they're supposed to. Because of this, it's difficult to come across older books. A lot of the time they'll have an author's best-seller, but none of the rest of that particular author's output. Perusing the Calhoun Village branch, I was unable to find any books by Celine or Bernard Malamud, and they had only one book each of Chekhov, Grace Paley, and Proust. The poetry section is even more barren - a sort of Blockbuster video approach to stocking. Only one collection each by local heavyweights Robert Bly and Louis Jenkins, and several omissions (There were, however, several copies of the poetry collections by Jewel and Ani DiFranco.)
Books, but not Reading - This is my biggest beef: B & N promotes books, and the selling of materials bound in traditional book form, but only minimally and incidentally promote any actual reading. Their ‘Summer Reading' display, for example, is simply preposterous, and shows the company's complete lack of attention to their readers.
As is now well-documented, the books that appear up front and on the chain's various ‘favorites' tables aren't selected by staff; publishers pay to have their books in those spots. This means that advertisers determine what we see, not people that care about what we're actually reading.
Because of this, some mismatching authors appear linked together. I especially liked how the new cardboard Ernest Hemingway display is next to the display with Mary Higgins Clark and James Patterson's books. It's kind of like putting Skittles next to the organic fruits.
Call me condescending. But I assure you there is no way in Hell I'm more condescending than the Barnes & Noble executive who commands that there be a rack for "Magazines America Loves" in his stores.
I think that's all I've got. It seems the list is weighted toward the pros, though I have to say the last two cons are really the clinchers for me (I don't live anywhere near Har Mar, nor do much shopping for kids, which effectively mangles my personal pros). Again, we here at The Rake are all about opinions, we thrive on them, so if you've got one, or many, throw it out there, yo.
Wow, I stumbled upon this while I was looking for information for an upcoming Barnes and Noble event in our area and was quite surprised by the vitriol leveled at the Calhoun Village store, where I currently am employed. While there are aspects of my job that I don't particularly love, I resent the implication that because I work at Barnes and Noble and not Magers & Quinn I continually shill crappy books because I don't know any better and/or as a bookseller, I only care about the bottom line. That really couldn't be further from the truth. About ninety percent of the population that comes into Barnes & Noble is looking for the latest Oprah pick or the latest novel that was optioned for a movie. If we don't stock the shelves with five different translations of the The Cherry Orchard, it's because nobody buys them, not because we're trying to dumb you down. Lastly, it strikes me as kind of ludicrous to say that we don't promote reading, only buying. If our selection isn't as high brow as some independent book stores in the area, that's one thing. However, I remember a pre-Barnes & Noble era when the most people didn't have access to such a store and had to rely on the little B Daltons in the malls to get their reading material. For a book lover like myself, Barnes and Noble coming to town when I was 12 represented the first chance I had to browse for hours, and if I've outgrown some of the title selection since then, I can order whatever I want or (gasp) hightail it to Hennepin Avenue myself.
You are right concerning the turnover of books that do not sell. B&N is not your, or anyone else's, pantry of books. If they don't sell, the books are shipped back to the publisher or distributor for credit that can be used for fresh inventory. B&N is not a charity, after all. Nor are they clairvoyant in terms of what you or anyone else may decide to purchase on a whim. May I suggest there are plenty of online booksellers that can fill your wants after a slow selling book is removed from the shelves of B&N and placed on the shelves of other merchants of literature.
I know you weren't getting into the "Barnes and Noble is ruining the universe" arguments. But, as an author who has to make a living by his writing, I'd like to say, "Barnes and Noble is ruining the universe." Think of the implications for the writer and you can extend this to implications for the reader: if your book doesn't sell, it's yanked -- just like a brand of tomato juice or potato chips. So, when you go to your publisher, their first thought is not about the literary or intellectual merit of a book, but about whether or not it has "market hots." All that other stuff is just "value added."
A story: I spent four lonely years researching, crafting, and caring about a book that ended up being sold as "Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce." It was a good book, and I'm proud to have done it. But my editor -- a good man -- and I had some real struggles with it, and, hence, with each other. At one point I said to him, "If we wanted a book that would really sell I should just give this up and write, 'Seven Leadership Lessons I Learned from Chief Joseph.'" The voice on the other end, as weary as mine, said, "Don't say that, Kent. The truth hurts."
Well, the truth is driven by Barnes and Noble. Their marketing practices -- all non-spine out shelving is purchased -- and their economic Darwinism of shelf space going to those who feed the beast means that you get an unholy number of books by folks with a forum and idea to sell, but absolutely no idea how to shape a thought or craft a sentence.
Because of B and N, a book has become a sandwich: two slices of cover with something in between. This does not bode well for any of us, and it should not be taken lightly.
Sound like sour grapes? You bet. It's my life, and I work for B and N. That wasn't what I signed on for when I committed myself to the writing life.
Look for my next work, "Life Lessons I learned from My Cat's Angel", in a B and N near you. It should be out as soon as we can corral Britney Spears or one of the American Idol participants to write an endorsement.
I sadly have to concur with many of the criticisms listed here, i've usually ended up frustrated looking for a particular book to the point of my questioning the marketing decisions they make. i really only go there when i am "on a mission', except for the used section at Har Mar where i always seem to go out heavily burdened. Which tells me that the people who sell there books there have better interests and taste than the marketing guys who supply the floor. it is like books are produce with sell by dates. Give it up if you want to find the beginning of a series. But I had an almost impossible time finding a rough guide to taiwan when my daughter was leaving to go there, they only carried the more popular hot spots apparently. I found to my personal enjoyment however that in the used dept at Har Mar, many of the science fiction current books when they are down sized and taken off the shelves are put on the used shelves at about half price. it seems very odd. and i agree the kid's section is pretty amazing.
Why would you care to see Mario Lopez and all of his amazing stories from Saved by the Bell, when it seems to me that Magers and Quinn just sold out the Triple Rock with Chuck Palahniuk? Not to mention having another Bob Dylan event this month, Mike Farrell's second appearance, Tim Weiner discusses A Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, Nam Le reads from his short story collection The Boat and all the rest coming up when you follow this link: http://www.magersandquinn.com/index.php?main_page=event.
Then there is Books and Bars, a book club meeting at Bryant Lake Bowl discussing books across all styles, and everything over the drink(s) of your choice. So, thanks for the plug (by the way all your links are directing people everywhere except where the links should go) but please come sit in any of our chairs around the store, sit as long as you like, you may find everything you could ask for minus Mario Lopez!
I think that even in the largest best stocked stores, Barnes and Noble pretty much strip the joy out of the bookstore/book buying experience. You encounter very few surprises, and i feel like im walking around the cereal isle in a grocery store (there are the corn flakes, then the coco pufs, and then finally the token kashi cereals).
The comparison to the supermarket is apt. And that's not a negative. Cub has what most people want most of the time, as does Barnes and Noble. They do a good job efficiently. If a consumer wants a specialty item mentioned in the New York Times, whether it's a book mentioned in the Book Review or an ingredient mentioned in the Food and Wine section, that consumer can go to a specialty store. There's nothing wrong with providing what most consumers want most of the time. Consumers have an obligation, however, to patronize those specialty stores and restaurants they would hate to see close...or not whine if the do close.
I used to work at Barnes and Noble, until I realized that they don't actually care about books; they're just focused on profit. Cashiers are required to ask every single customer if they have/ want to buy a membership card. There is a lot of pressure on employees to sell a certain quota of these cards. But mostly, the stores don't schedule enough employees per shift so that the book associates can actually be available on the sales floor to help customers find what they want. Instead, managers cut employee hours so that they themselves can earn bonuses and the few employees actually scheduled end up stuck behind a register. Oh, yeah. And it's totally true; all of those book displays are planogrammed by someone at their corporate headquarters. I quit when I realized that I would never be allowed or encouraged to actually share my love of books in this environment. It was just all about sales. PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL, INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES!!!
At the beginning I realized you don't know about that which you write: the Summer Reading display you were browsing is for students who have to read a book for school during the summer months while they're not in school; the extra ten percent is not saved with a credit card but with a Membership card that is not a credit card...there is a credit card but that's not the card the B&N cashier is offering you; it's not good business sense to maintain stock that doesn't sell...you've obviously never owned your own retail store. Before you start complaining you should start understanding.
You may be right about selection, but using only the Calhoun Village store for your research skews it unfairly. That's only about half a store compared to most of the B&Ns in the Twin Cities. You'd make a better argument if you looked at the Galleria or downtown Minneapolis store and still found problems (and I think you would, at least in terms of keeping a writer's earlier works on the shelves).
The only time I buy anything at Barnes and Noble is when I make it over to the Har Mar store and get something from the used section. I think I'm missing something related to their good discounts because as far as I know Borders is where it's at for the good discounts.