Barton Biggs, a legendary money manager wrote a book called “Hedge Hogging”. Since my sister gave me a gift card from Borders (sis, if you are reading this, thanks again!) I decided to use it on this book. Before I took an advantage of this nice spring afternoon walking to a Borders that is not too far from me, I checked the price online quickly. The difference between Borders and Amazon is about $10.00! I normal do all my purchases online, but I have to use this card. I didn’t feel good about it knowing I could get it cheaper.I am not sure how these brick and mortar bookstores can compete with their online counterparts. The store I visited is at a prime location, and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know that they are paying tall premiums for this space. I came back with the book. I went online and scanned through the stock charts on the traditional bookstores such as Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, Hastings Entertainment, and Borders Group, Inc. Only Barnes & Noble trades near its all time high, while the rest just hobbling along.
So, who shops at these brick & mortars, except for getting the last minute gift ideas during the holiday seasons??
A funny link…(at least I think it is funny)
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10 comments:
I do. I'm in Borders every week to pick up foreign newspapers and magazines for our shop. Nobody else sells 'em.
I'm also one of those people who, when I decide I want a book, I want it immediately. Today it was buying the French Laundry Cookbook because I'm trying to figure out this Thomas Keller fixation that so many top baristas have. And I didn't want to wait until next week.
Must be a lot of others like me because B&N and Borders both keep opening more stores.
And people do have birthdays 365 days a year.
I have no doubt that they can provide those hard to find periodicals. I remember there was a mom and pop place that had all kinds of magazines and newspapers from every corner of the world, and I loved the place, but it ran out of business when the bigger national chains came in. That was in late 80’s and early 90’s.
Now we have the online stores that are much operational efficient than the traditional brick & mortars, and I believe the online stores have the advantages over the traditional bookstores. In the consolidated statement of cash flows, the net cash provided by operations from Borders’ annual report shows decreases year over year for the last 3 years, while Amazon shows increases year over year for the same period.
To Border’s annual report: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=65380&p=irol-annualreports
To Amazon’s annual report: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-reportsAnnual
:)
sis
I only go to a b'n'm when I am in desperate need _NOW_.. Unfortunatly most of those times they don't have that esoteric book you want anyhow. There are still though a mass of people who aren't online savvy, don't trust online transactions, or just like to touch real things. I'm not sure what the future of bricks are but I'm sure they'll stay around much much longer than anticipated and even then the role will never be abdicated.
FYI, Borders gift cert works online through Amazon I believe.
the thing i notice (to my great irritation) is all the people who sit around in borders & B&N and read magazines for free. it is not a library! they provide the opportuninty to look through something before you buy it, and that is a luxury that, unfortunately, ends up costing extra. i don't buy many books so i'm not the best person to defend B&N or borders; but they do provide a service to the community by having all those books and magazines to scan; the least we can do for that is buy something once in a while. life is not always about "what's the cheapest", is it. if you believed that, you would be drinking folger's or buying 99-cent coffee from 7-11...
My line of work is among the first casualties of the dot com boom. People left us to sign up with the online brokers for their low, low commissions. The clients who initially stayed with us besides the banks and the financial institutions were those older, not very computer savvy investors, (they still call the computers, MACHINES!)
Today, even those old fashion investors are embracing the technology and leaving us on the daily basis, needless to say, the future of this business is bleak.
I don’t think these brick & mortars will be gone in the immediate futures, but some sort of consolidations will most likely to happen.
The fine print on the gift card limited my purchases to their stores not online, and the source of this rant…hehe..
If there is an "identical" item with $10.00 difference, I will pick the cheaper one... : )
If there are two "identical" items with $10.00 difference, I will pick the cheaper one... : )
This post reads more correct, no??
Strange that you couldn't use it online. Thats poop! The one factor not taken into account by many is the shipping factor. You might save 7 bucks from amazon and then pay 7 bucks in shipping. It's all a shell game anyhow.
Watching people on ebay pay 5% below retail then pay double or triple shipping always always always astounds me.
/me listens and hears, 'Moooooo'.
I saw some guys on ebay tried to outbid each others, and the winner paid way more than the “buy now” price...LOL!
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