Yeah I feel for you too Tara I could remember when the Borders bookstore closed in my area I was upset. I mean all those people who lost their jobs because physical books were not being sold enough. I think that libraries may soon end up being history.
Libraries are actually doing a decent job of figuring out what draws patrons in and latching on. Many of them are loaning books online, and increasingly investing in bestsellers. Some are even getting coffee shops. But still, the biggest draw is the computer area. Plus, don't forget that libraries are publicly funded institutions; our government holds on to things forever.
It is going to be difficult for it to survive, but deep down in my heart am hopping that the company finds a way to survive, though it is hard ,because its main unit is going down.
I was sad when the Barnes and Nobles I knew closed down too. It's still so surprising to me how little bookstores are there locally in the USA, at least from what I saw when I was there. Here at home you can find a bookstore almost at every corner. In a city that is probably 20 times smaller than New York, we have at least 30 bookstores. That I know of. There may be 50 or more, who knows.
I think they made a bad decision to turn away from the Nook business. While there will always be a market for paper books I think they could have done quite well with Nook especially being second place to Amazon who has been receiving bad press from there competitive tactics with publishers. They could make an offer to publishers to pay them slightly more - sell the books at the same price, take a slight profit loss and have everyone protest Amazon.
Barnes and Nobles should have looked closely to that Nook from Amazon. I think in the end Barnes and Nobles did not stack up to what was out there so they probably just thought nothing was going to work. I feel sorry for them along with Borders that had closed down in my area.
Barnes and Noble is going to go under eventually, there's no way for them to stop it. They can sell all they want but they run their business too user-friendly and they end up not making anything off of that, just like Borders. The only difference was the Nook!
I resisted the use of any E-reader for the longest and then my girlfriend bought me a kindle two years ago. I haven't bought a physical book since I am ashamed to say. All digital and mostly free downloads is cheaper and quicker for me. I feel guilty knowing I am contributing to the death of books.
As far as I can see the younger generation is doing little to no reading (they now have the internet for research). Also, the little amounts of people who do read either get free books at the library or have some sort of an e-reader or iPhone app (where they can read from).
