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Hi everyone! I eagerly went into one of the local B & N stores today. It was early and I was literally the first to walk in. I figured fewer folks would be there and I would be able to social distance as needed much more easily and besides I had planned to take a quick peek around anyway grab a book or two and go.
Shocked is too mild of a word really for what I saw. The floor set up was completely changed around. There was a semblance of a main aisle but flanking the aisle just about ALL of the bookcases were rearranged to resemble a square with one way in/out. You walked into the square and the bookcases were on three sides of you. This was repeated throughout the store with varying sizes of the square.
The first thing I thought was that it was a horrible layout. It will encourage a poor flow throughout the store and most of all encourage standing groups of people and density. I mean come on there's a pandemic happening. The set up discourages any type of distance between people and encourages closeness
A worker approached me to ask if I needed help. I expressed my surprise and shock at the new arrangement and said I thought it was a very bad idea in the climate that we're in now. Turned out he was the manager and he began to explain that the new arrangements were "rooms" and they will essentially help people settle in more or something to that effect.
Come on!!! We want to do the opposite of that now. That maaaay work in the future but in the present? He then said that'll we'll see. What????? Seems so irresponsible to me. It's an annoying set up even if the country were pandemic-less. But now when people are craving familiarity and some normality they change the store and make it worse!!
I left without buying anything. I had been so hopeful in wanting the brick and mortar stores to stay open and provide a pleasant experience especially for books. I love the bookstore. I started a thread years ago asking why did Barnes and Noble remove all of the comfy couches. That obviously was the beginning of the end.
Last edited by oldhousegirl; 05-24-2020 at 09:29 AM..
Sounds like something planned long before the virus got here and now being positioned as a response.
Most used bookstores tend to have rooms or niches instead of endless aisle shelving. I prefer that model. I guess if I wanted to beeline in and out for a book, well, I'd use Amazon.
Sounds like something planned long before the virus got here and now being positioned as a response.
Most used bookstores tend to have rooms or niches instead of endless aisle shelving. I prefer that model. I guess if I wanted to beeline in and out for a book, well, I'd use Amazon.
That's a great point. I used to like used bookstores and used books overall but I like to read in bed and the past few years or so even the books that look pretty clean are not. Nothing like cuddling up in bed and having stray hairs or other stuff that didn't come off your body fall into the covers
B&N is finished anyway, its hanging on like a zombie company.
Too true.
On the other hand, as much as I love/d bookstores new, old, small, large, used, new and specialty... I can lay hands on any title [repeat list] in a matter of minutes and at a price I choose to pay. I'm glancing up at a whole shelf of books acquired for research that might have taken me years to find in bookstores, all acquired more or less as-wanted from Amazon or ABEbooks. And almost as many came from Google Books. (They're old and in some cases, vanishingly rare; one may be the only copy in private hands.)
I feel the nostalgia. I fear the monopoly, especially on information. I can't think of a third objection to what we have these days for book acquisition. You can even "browse" almost as freely as if you're standing at a shelf.
This doesn't sound like a good idea. I can understand the underlying reason to do this (to encourage people to linger and hopefully buy something) but in the current climate, some customers might silently panic if they're corralled into an area and unable to make a quick, socially-distanced exit when some thoughtless person(s) decide to linger in the one entrance/exit point. They may not be inspired to complain about it, but it will stick in their minds and make them less likely to linger, not more.
Fiance' & I love going to B&N quite often, gather some magazines, sit for a while at a table, and go through the mags. Then we leave. We rarely buy anything. It's a fun little way we spend part of our day amongst strolling the shopping malls these stores are usually in.
I don't like the sound of this new layout. Sounds more cramped up. I'll have to see for myself though, but I probably won't like it.
I don't know, how big are these 'rooms'? Are they maybe meant for just one person at a time to browse in? If so that would actually make sense if people bothered to follow social distancing guidelines. I think tight aisles would be more likely to put people too close together moreso than little enclaves.
It reminds me of when Montgomery Ward made a last-ditch attempt at survival by going from their general department store layout of long aisles generally open to each other to a "stores within a store" model of closed boxes with a reduced number of connections. (Sort of proto-Ikea but without the need to pack lunch and a GPS.)
It didn't help. Probably helped drive away some number of remaining customers, though.
That’s a horrible layout and not one that Barnes & Noble can defend in any way. It is so boneheaded and tone deaf, that it’s mind boggling.
If it was planned before the pandemic they’ve had plenty of time to get their arses in gear and figure out another way. I love going to B&N that layout is a no go.h
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I can understand the underlying reason to do this (to encourage people to linger and hopefully buy something) but in the current climate, some customers might silently panic if they're corralled into an area and unable to make a quick, socially-distanced exit when some thoughtless person(s) decide to linger in the one entrance/exit point. They may not be inspired to complain about it, but it will stick in their minds and make them less likely to linger, not more.
