Chair Grouping

I view B&N kinda like a library. You go there to read or look over
books. So why would you want to be grouped together with a bunch of
other patrons?

Do they think it will encourage discussion about the books or
something?

I agree that they should probably not leave it like that, but there
must be some directive that caused them to make this change. Unless a
lot of people complain, it will likely stay that way.

I'm honestly not trying to be snarky here, but isn't Barnes & Noble in
the business of selling books? With that thought in mind, I honestly
don't understand why they have coffee bars and comfy chairs - - seems
like this is encouraging people to read the books without buying them.
It sounds to me like this particular location has moved the chairs to
a central spot in the front of the store so they can perhaps more
closely monitor people that aren't making a purchase.

And I'm with the other posters - - personally I wouldn't want to pay
full price for a book that has been previously read and may have
crumbs and coffee stains.

perhaps these places have coffee/snack bars to encourage people to
stay. If an average coffee plus pastry costs seven dollars (these
places are wicked overpriced) and a particular customer comes in every
day for a week to read a particular book, that is $49 worth of revenue
from that customer. If said customer had purchased the book on day one
and went home to read it, he would have brought in perhaps $15 worth
of revenue.

I think it benefits these establishments to have a comfortable place
to sit, so long as the customer "pulls his weight" by visiting the
snack bar. With food being so overpriced it is made to offset an
occaisional damaged book or make up for a customer who makes no food
purchase.

Perhaps by moving the chairs they are trying to encourage people to
not sit and take up space all day. Like all retail stores, in order to
stay in business, they actually have to sell merchandise. I know the
bookstore I used to work at had that problem and corporate would not
do anything about it. Customers would come in when the store opened,
grab a book to read, and stay the whole day reading, never buying
anything except a coffee or snack from the cafe. We would often find
bookmarks, folded pages, etc. that customers would use to mark their
page. I have seen customers spill food and drinks on the books and
magazines and refuse to pay for them. In my opinion, if you want to
sit and read a book all day, do it at home or go to the library.

This is exactly why I dont buy books at bookstores, especially barnes
and noble.

I dont want to buy a used book with cookie crumbs, folded pages, and
torn book covers.


Good Day

that they provide chairs at all, right? Unless they have lazy or weak
employees, there is no reason to have large or small chairs dotted
around the store. If a customer is able to ambulate into the store,
it stands to reason they can find what they are looking for and leave
without sitting down.

My guess it is not a priority for them to provide a comfy environment
where customers can turn new books into slightly used ones without
buying them.

Did they give you any reason as to why the decision was made?

I can guess at some reasons, including perhaps people treating the
store like a library, and maybe some reading stuff without buying it?
So they were purposefully trying to make it less inviting? If so,
it's understandable if not very good for other customers like you.