On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 11:00 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> I worked at Barnes & Noble, across the street from a Borders. > > B&N is next, of course. They are frantically trying to rebrand > themselves by selling everything from cheesecake to board games to > Lego. > The article argues that the difference between Borders and B&N is that, at the same time Borders was doubling down on bricks and morter operations and outsourcing online and ebook operations, B&N was investing seriously in ebooks and online operations. Of course a big part of me takes some glee in the thought of both gigantic booksellers going belly-up, given the devastation they have caused to so many independent bookstores. It would be satisfying if online and ebooks rendered mega-bookstores obsolete, while still leaving a sustainable niche for the small local shops that not so long ago seemed on the verge of extinction. But the article does point out that there are lots of places in the US that don't have, and can not sustain, a good independent book shop, and B&N or Borders may have been their only physical access to a good selection of classic and best selling books. It reminded me of years ago when I wrote a post to another list I once belonged to bashing McDonalds (for all the obvious reasons) only to get a response from a list member in a small, poor country saying that McDonalds was one of the few places where he lived where his family could get an affordable meal confident that it was prepared in anything like basic hygenic conditions. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
