Barnes & Noble has had some tough years lately. This video talks about the history of the company while highlighting what I believe to be some of the biggest reasons behind its decline.It was about time that Company Man Mike covered Barnes & Noble, the flip side of the story he told in Company Man asks 'The Decline of Borders...What Happened?' A tale of the Retail Apocalypse for Flashback Friday. Borders died while Barnes & Noble lived. When I was first writing this blog, I would have said the wrong chain went under. Just the same, I'm not happy about the decline of Barnes & Noble. When I moved to my current location, there was a Barnes & Noble 2.5 miles away. It closed within a year and the property is being redeveloped. The nearest store is now 13 miles away. It's easier to go to Books-A-Million, which took over a closed Borders location six miles away more-or-less on my route to and from work. It's not the same. Sigh.
As for the lessons from the video, blaming Amazon for the loss of brick-and-mortar retail is a popular but slightly lazy reason, but in this case it might be justified. I first became aware of Amazon in the 1990s, when it sold books online.
Another cause I've written about in the past was of private equity buying public companies, which I wrote about most recently in 'Bankrupt - Ruby Tuesday' by Bright Sun Films, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse.
I listed a who's who of retail chains gutted by private equity in CNN Business explains retail bankruptcies and how private equity is gutting retail, tales of the Retail Apocalypse and again in Business Insider and CNBC explain the rise and fall of Chuck E. Cheese, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse and pandemic. In this case, private equity seems to have saved the chain, for now.The same could be said of private equity saving Barnes & Noble; the chain appears to be recovering under its new ownership and management. One can only hope.
That's it for today's brief post, which I promised yesterday. Stay tuned for a more elaborate entry tomorrow. On what, I don't know yet, but that's an adventure for later. Right now, it's time for me to go to my meeting. See you!
There's a Barnes & Noble less than three miles from me. I can't afford to go there very often, but they seem to be doing pretty well. I'd certainly rather spend my book dollars at a local place that employs local workers than at Amazon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. I'm glad you still have a Barnes & Noble nearby. As you could read, I miss the one near me that closed. I agree about buying local, which I could when Borders still existed. They were a Michigan company based in Ann Arbor, where I used to live. I can't say the same about Books-A-Million, which is an Alabama company, and currently the second largest bookstore chain in the U.S. Also, the chain's Wikipedia entry notes that "In 2014, Books-A-Million was identified by 24/7 Wall Street as America's worst company to work for." Yikes!
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