Stopped at a Barnes & Noble to relax before meeting family for lunch. Not sure if this bookstore is going out of business, but the book selection is dire. One small shelf for romance. A half-full shelf for science fiction, including fantasy. - ThreadSky

trickweekes.bsky.social • 88 days ago

Stopped at a Barnes & Noble to relax before meeting family for lunch. Not sure if this bookstore is going out of business, but the book selection is dire.

One small shelf for romance. A half-full shelf for science fiction, including fantasy.

Comments

ageofuprising.bsky.social•88 days ago

"The reports of their death have been greatly exaggerated."

alsedes.bsky.social•87 days ago

Ours has a large selection but the cafe sucks. You can't ever get a seat, it's just people watching videos without headphones and sitting there for hours and hours.

thepmann.bsky.social•88 days ago

My local store has separate sections for SF and F, along with a very healthy romance section. Hoping that's still true next time I go there.

jeffcross5000.bsky.social•87 days ago

That appears to be standard company-wide as I go to multiple locations. Does yours have a totally separate section for mass-market paperbacks as well?

thepmann.bsky.social•87 days ago

Mine barely has any MMPBs. The format is on its last legs. :(

jeffcross5000.bsky.social•87 days ago

Probably solely for profit reasons: $8 mass-market versus $15 trade.

himham.bsky.social•87 days ago

They've been restructured because they were failing. Consider it a new bookstore and evaluate it from there.

janbellina.bsky.social•87 days ago

You went into a bookshop just after the Christmas panic-buy and before the new year deliveries arrive. The empty shelves are a sign that the bookshop might just survive the amazon onslaught.

barble.bsky.social•86 days ago

Bought some books on line from them Dec 5th. Still not delivered. Running out of places to go. Except library of course. Trying hard not to Amazon anything.

chaoticprettyok.bsky.social•87 days ago

Our Barnes & Noble in Estero Florida has an excellent selection, even has a 'Banned Books' section featuring all the books the Florida Department Of Education has banned from public schools.

coremudgeon.bsky.social•87 days ago

My wife and I went to the one in Tampa and it was half the size of the one I would go to. It was depressing. One more store killed by some mediocre CEO (like Radio Shack) or some private equity parasites like Toys 'R' Us.

shinyswashbuckler.bsky.social•87 days ago

Same thing down here in Florida. Guess which section is the largest? And definitely NOT diverse?

nanciemcc.bsky.social•87 days ago

Go to your local library. Much bigger selection and all free.

historyteachernerd.bsky.social•88 days ago

My local B&N is packed with a huge variety of books, AND they’re opening another in my area

houdak68.bsky.social•88 days ago

The B & N in my town (Roseville, Northern California) is beyond full with books and crowded! I think it is the opposite where I’m at.

ososalsosal.bsky.social•87 days ago

Every mall bookshop is:
- calendars
- biographies of rightwing talking heads
- children's franchise series

And nothing else

draccah.bsky.social•87 days ago

That’s really odd. They usually have LOADS of romance and a lot of fantasy too. Wonder if they’re empty post Christmas (which would mean lots of folks got romance books for the holidays!)

bardbetta.swifties.social•87 days ago

Barnes & Noble is actually doing well! Most bookstores are struggling, but BN is showing an increase in profit margins over the last few years, and are opening new stores. I’ve noticed the new stores are smaller, more manageable & they’re diving hard into BOPIS sales and ebooks, like other retailers

maolmuire.bsky.social•86 days ago

My Barnes and Nobel has a romance section that you could deploy an army brigade to. The science fiction and fantasy section could easily accommodate a good chunk of Fangorn.

Have you tried looking around the end of the shelves to see if like, there's more shelves out back of them?

trimsongrondag.bsky.social•87 days ago

I lament the replacement of book shelf space with toy shelf space at all of the B&N I go to (other book stores too). I get it…Trinkets and gewgaws sell, and that keeps the lights on. But at some point you’ve got to remember that you’re a BOOK store…

gondwanaland.bsky.social•87 days ago

I miss Borders. As an MD, it’s hard being a Doctor without Borders.

moon-dread.bsky.social•87 days ago

My local B&N is epic. Huge fantasy and sci fi sections, with knowledgeable staff too.

drpuppymd.bsky.social•87 days ago

I used to work at a BN and the end of the year is when we would have to do inventory. Many books were pulled and sent back to publishers for various reasons. Complete sections got moved or changed. End of December is a weird & ugly time there :/

silverliningguy.bsky.social•87 days ago

Really? My local BooksAMillion has oodles of romance and fantasy. At least 2 rows each. I’ll have to stop by B&N to see if they’re more rundown than last I checked.

jjl62.bsky.social•88 days ago

The Smithfield, RI store was very busy in the last few weeks.

eobmada.bsky.social•87 days ago

Maybe it’s location? Because, the fantasy sci fi section at mine are full 🤷🏻‍♂️

gara30.bsky.social•88 days ago

B&N is always packed. Maybe it's just that store.

topaz-bird.bsky.social•88 days ago

I'm STILL mourning Borders

jeffcross5000.bsky.social•87 days ago

Borders waited until it was too late to do a loyalty discount program.

rappazzo.bsky.social•88 days ago

Was recently in a B&N that actually had a lot of books, and was genuinely surprised. The one near me is mostly a toy store these days

laurancn.bsky.social•87 days ago

There is a sale going on until Sunday. 30% off all hardbacks & 50% off selected hardbacks. Maybe that location has a lot of sales today.

berserkercoach.bsky.social•87 days ago

might be this store
One near me has an entire shelf devoted to just Sarah Maas, (!) maybe 30 feet of shelves for YA fiction, etc.

themidnightoil.bsky.social•88 days ago

Might be that store or a Canadian thing. In the states, almost every B&N I've been too lately is absolutely packed w/ people thanks to Booktok and has a ton of stock.

Could also just be a soon after Christmas thing, but not a great experience for you for sure

jermonster.bsky.social•87 days ago

For sure just that location.
All the ones around my area are huge.

debbienorthway.bsky.social•86 days ago

Christmas rush?

conehead2099.bsky.social•88 days ago

No my barnes and noble has more sections dedicated to Legos than science fiction and fantasy combined

leganto.bsky.social•87 days ago

I worked at a failing small-town bookstore years ago. The owner was wondering out loud why people weren't buying the books. I had the impertinence to suggest he stock the books people came in asking about. His reply: " I know what sells!"

dreamingatthewake.bsky.social•87 days ago

Just went to one yesterday and I had a hard time finding stuff as well but I blame the 30% off hardcovers sale, which I also took part in raiding the meager remains

megrosejoy.bsky.social•88 days ago

I’m sure the wellness and diet and woo section was fully stocked, though.

fboom55.bsky.social•88 days ago

Wow that’s sad , ours is exploding with mass books omg

chen-style.bsky.social•87 days ago

Strangely enough, the B&N in Eugene Oregon is guilty stocked and well attended.

girlstandstill.bsky.social•88 days ago

I used to work for Barnes & Noble & it is very unusual for any B&N to look like that. My guess is they are probably closing or preparing for a renovation of some sort.

prisoner80.bsky.social•87 days ago

and a supersmall philosophy section under 'religion' 😞

listenwell.bsky.social•87 days ago

That’s alarming!

marscardua.bsky.social•88 days ago

oh? Maybe that bookstore in particular, the one closest to my place has several shelves for each of those genres. Maybe it's the local demographic?

skyquake.bsky.social•88 days ago

I haven't worked there since the Waterstones owner purchased B&N but I was told he gave significant new purchasing powers to local stores. This at least sounds great in theory because we def had a problem with the previous execs indiscriminately dumping titles on us.

skyquake.bsky.social•88 days ago

(It sounds like it may also have downsides r.e. the B&N of the top tweet depending on if that selection was based on community desires or a 'quirky' store manager.)

megrosejoy.bsky.social•88 days ago

Hopefully. My B&N has big fantasy and scifi sections. I try to shop local but I find the local book shops in my area have abysmal fantasy sections. I did manage to buy the first two Stormlight Archive books at one but they had them in the back, not on the shelves.

dhampirvampire.bsky.social•88 days ago

Hopefully just post Christmas stock or maybe that location? The few I have been to in my area are filled to the brim and have actually re-organised the store to fit more shelves of everything.

frodabaggins.bsky.social•88 days ago

That is distressing! I suspect it’s a “local market” thing though, cuz my local B&N has several shelves of sff and several more of romance.

joyholden.bsky.social•87 days ago

Awe, that’s sad. The B&N by me is big and boomin’!

xiaoxoxo.bsky.social•87 days ago

All the ones in my area are thriving.

trickweekes.bsky.social•88 days ago

Again, maybe just this store, but woof. Bright spots of a nice little manga section and stuff for young readers, but apparently adult readers mostly just want biographies or “political theory”.

dajensen.bsky.social•87 days ago

Our local one still has a large inventory, but it is less than half of the inventory it had when it opened a few decades ago.

taylorson.bsky.social•88 days ago

halversons29.bsky.social•87 days ago

Probably just that store in particular. I go to a lot of B&Ns all over in Michigan and there’s such a wide variety that it’s hard for me to choose what I want sometimes.

I do dislike how it feels like there’s certain stores where it’s more toys than books.

trashabellanar.bsky.social•88 days ago

Definitely not reflective of book industry at large. I work at a large format bookstore, romance, fantasy, graphic novels are all so huge and growing so fast I keep having to rearrange half the store to make more and more room for them!

dacomstock.bsky.social•88 days ago

We had a Hastings for years and it finally went by the wayside. I bought so many books when they went out of business.

fahrnfahrnfahrn.bsky.social•88 days ago

B&N is doing quite well and has added 60 stores this year (https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/16/business/barnes-and-noble-is-back-again/index.html).

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