The Death of the Bookstore Has Been Greatly Exaggerated: A Gamers Suggestion to Goose Sales at Barnes and Noble

Well if they can get that Nook problem off their backs the retail sales at Barnes and Noble seem to be growing.

In the fiscal year ended April 27, the retail business, which includes the website, generated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $374.2 million. That was a 16 percent increase even as sales declined 5.9 percent to $4.57 billion. Meanwhile, Nook had a loss by the same measure of $475.4 million on sales of $776.2 million. 

It is pretty much a profitable business with an anchor around its neck in the form of the Nook. This part of the article is interesting:

Still, the chain will need to keep changing to remain relevant over the long haul. While the company won’t discuss its plans, it’s already refashioning itself as a family destination. It’s broadened out and increased its assortment, replacing products such as CDs and DVDs with more toys, games and gifts and is devoting more square footage to play areas.  

What they need to do is create a game night where they put up some tables and encourage people to try some of the games they are peddling. I have noticed that the Barnes and Noble at Ala Moana has increased their board gaming section quite a bit. I think it would be cool if they have some people that work for the store demo some of those games.

A weekly Settlers of Catan tournament would draw in quite a few different people that might not be going to Barnes and Noble. Even having a trivia game night at the Starbucks would bring in people by the boatload. Hopefully, some of those gamers and trivia players would pick up some graphic novels or something while they are there. I would certainly do so if I was there.

What Barnes and Noble can do is make themselves into more of a destination place in the mall. Not just for buying books but for listening to live readings (story hour with kids) hosting book clubs, game nights like I outlined above, and maybe even having lectures from professors from a nearby University. That is all stuff that you cannot buy from an online store. Amazon won the technology war by killing the Nook so Barnes and Noble needs to win the value-added war to keep people coming back to the bookstore.