Barnes and Noble in Defeat

Well I guess it was bound to happen, or at least begin to happen. After all, Borders collapsed some time ago, and before that Blockbuster and Hollywood Video went down in flames. Now it looks like the biggest book store in the country is going to follow their tragic path,

"In a round of company-wide layoffs, Barnes & Noble has cut lead cashiers, digital leads and other experienced workers. Workers discovered the news when they showed up to work on Monday only to learn they no longer had jobs, CNBC reports."

I can't say I'm surprised. Nor should anyone who has watched their sales,

"During the 2017 holiday season, sales dropped more than 6 percent to $953 million from last year’s. Same-store sales fell 6.4 percent, and online sales slid 4.5 percent."

While I rarely go to Barnes and Noble, or any other book store for that matter, I do enjoy going there. There's a nice vibe to grabbing a cup of coffee, browsing through various books and pretending to be cultured. But, like many others, I get almost all my books from Amazon (or Audible if we count the audio versions). That's obviously where the market's headed and it's hard for the old brick and mortar stores to keep up.

That being said, online retail still only makes up about 8 percent of the total market. While that is focused heavily in books, which would hurt the likes of Barnes and Noble the worst, I suspect there's more to it than that. Indeed, I think mismanagement plays a key role as well. That's especially true for Sears.

That being said, of course, online retail certainly doesn't help.