I was surprised but not when I heard that Barnes & Noble is in some serious trouble.  According to a NY Times article published 8/30/2010, “Sales and store traffic have suffered as the book business has shifted online; Amazon has held its early lead in the e-reader war; and early this month, Barnes & Noble put itself up for sale and is now in the midst of a battle for control of the company with Ronald W. Burkle, the billionaire investor. ” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/nyregion/31barnes.html?src=mv).

Looking back at it, I could see the signs, although I didn’t see them in context.  I have received and still receive coupons in my email for all sorts of discounts, especially those tempting 30% coupons.  Throw in another 10% for having a member discount and I’m walking away with a book for 40%. For a hardcore bibliophile like me, it’s a way to feed my deep addiction to books.  However, I never sat down to think why I was getting coupons practically every week.  Now, I think that I have my answer.

Truth be told, now that I know, I’m not at all surprised about B&N’s troubles.  For one, when I have ordered their books online, it seems like their orders take forever much longer than the faster shipping that I’ve paid for, though not for my last few orders.  Also, when I was living in an apartment, it seemed that when UPS came to drop off my B&N purchase that it was always during work hours.  The only solution was to have it shipped to the nearest UPS shipping center.  For this reason, I pretty much don’t buy online from them but go to the store.

Another reason that I’m not surprised is their e-reader apps.  Now, I have an iPhone and so, sometimes, use e-reader apps to read books on the go. B&N’s app was the first e-reader app that I used on both my phone and laptops.  I would download my books and begin to read them.  I would bookmark pages, highlight text and makes notes.  However, every single time that e-books would sync, then everything that I had annotated would get jumbled up.  Basically, I had to delete everything and start over again.  Yes, they beat Borders and Amazon to putting out an e-reader app.  However, it never seemed to be any good.

Lastly, when I would look into buying a book online, even with a coupon and my membership, sometimes Amazon would beat the price, including shipping.  So I found myself asking a very important question, “If Amazon can beat B&N’s price and probably get me my book when I want it….who should I go with?” It was a no-brainer.

Believe me when I say that I’m not at all celebrating B&N’s woes.  For the record, I prefer B&N to Border’s.  Nonetheless, they will not survive unless they can, first of all, stabilize themselves.  Granted that the only offer to purchase it has come from Burkle, at least it shows that somebody is interested.  Lack of interest would be its death knell. Honestly, its future will lie in embracing new technology such as e-readers and be at the cutting edge not playing catch up. If they can supply readers electronic whims while doing so at a lower price, then I think that B&N will be back in business.  Don’t write them off quite yet.  I certainly haven’t.  Instead grab a bowl of popcorn, sit back and watch the show.  I’m as interested in the ending as you are.

Author: José A. Rodríguez