Do you still go to the Barnes & Noble bookstore in your town?
Apparently not enough people do nationwide.
Company executives told the Wall Street Journal they plan to close 20 stores a year over the next decade.
No specific stores have been targeted yet for closure.
In the East Bay, there are five Barnes & Noble stores. They are in Emeryville, El Cerrito and Pleasant Hill.
If no new stores were opened, that would reduce the number of Barnes & Noble stores nationwide by a third, the Huffington Post reported.
Since 2003, the company has been closing 15 stores a year, but they've also been opening more than 30 a year.
Last year, however, Barnes & Noble closed 14 stores and didn't open any, the Huffington Post reported.
One reason is a steady decline in book sales. Print book sales have decreased 22 percent over the past five years, according to Nielsen BookScan.
If your Barnes & Noble closed, would you miss it? How can bookstores compete more effectively in this electronic age? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Without complimentary bags being issued for purchases, shoppers may wind up buying less anyway and that it turn will affect how this store performs. Besides groceries, other retail outlets, like Radio Shack here in Livermore over on First with the surly clerk on weekends, are also withholding bags for purchases. So I can't see very many businesses flourishing in Alameda County for very long with the "Bag Ban" in place, let alone B&N.
Soooooo... why are they shutting stores? Because they don't have enough business you say? No matter. They are a corporation. Just heap more costs on them. Then wonder why they shut down one by one.