For purposes of economic policy and the general governance of the nation it doesn’t matter if some company did or did not break any laws in the past. All that matters is what is desirable for the future.
Moreover it appears to be arguable that they are exposed to antitrust activity under current laws if only the government wanted to pursue it: https://www.markhamlawfirm.com/amazon-become-antitrust/
One of the ironic things about the US corporate structure is that it strongly disincentivises public companies from doing hard pivots to their business model - the general view is that such pivots are inefficient and investors are better served by maximizing profits on their way down while they split their investments into other, more innovative companies.
Pure retailers like B&N and Toys R’ Us days are numbered and won’t change their business model until the economics are there (e.g. they can write off a lot of debt as part of a bankruptcy filing)
No doubt you’re right, but in this case I doubt B&N survives chapter 11 and may not experience one at all. They are already being taken apart by their own board, seemingly in preparation for liquidation, not reorganization.
My only concern really with shipping from the local store is that people have already glommed all over that book on the shelf, whereas from Amazon’s warehouse of doom you at least have a shot at getting a fresh copy.
In re monopolies, breaking up monopolies is a good idea, but it only works in the long run if the society (i.e., government) actually has the interests of the people in general in mind, and stays on the case. In many industries, simply getting rid of monopolistic or near monopolistic concentrations could very well leave consumers with no goods or services. Only if you work to create the conditions under which actual competition could take place–and insure that there is a way for consumers to affect the choices these new competing companies make, rather than just being subjected to a race to the bottom–does trust-busting work very well. The breakup of AT&T was accompanied by efforts to make sure people could get into the business despite the control of the infrastructure Ma Bell had maintained. I doubt there’s the will for that now.
And I agree with Dave Long about healthcare; the single biggest threat to American’s employment now is the high cost of healthcare, and the model of employer-subsidized insurance. Equalizing the benefits and burdens via a public health system could do wonders for the ability of private businesses to actually innovate and compete in good ways.
But there is also technology. Some things do not benefit from competition. Operating systems? Remember the days of having to master two, three, or more OS’s? As well as different disk formats, hardware, etc.? No fun. The near monopoly of DOS/Windows (later made a duopoly with Apple’s OS) saved us from digital hell. Electric car charging systems today? No one really wants a proliferation of proprietary systems.
Getting rid of a monopoly doesn’t mean liquidating the company and stopping operations. It means breaking them into pieces and enforcing their competition, and/or creating conditions that motivate entry from other competitors. Antitrust activity against Amazon, if warranted, wouldn’t stop them and their successors from delivering goods and services either before or after a court decision.
But yes, there’s no will for it at all in the current government, and even under Obama and Clinton there was little interest in regulating markets to be competitive.
I’ve gotten plenty of stuff from Amazon that looked like it went through a tornado. There’s no guarantee no matter where you house it. For the sake of costs, it makes a ton of sense to use these mini-warehouses you’ve got all over the country as your shipping points for your products.
B&N doesn’t just sell books either. They recently remodeled their stores to put in geek memorabilia stuff same as Gamestop have done. They have a whole area that used to be dedicated to music and movies that has become Funko Pops, Pac-Man lamps and Harry Potter everything. That’s where the comic book graphic novels are located now too.
I’m really not onboard with the people who think this means they’re about to close up. They’re just changing their makeup of in-store employees to suit the current (shitty) world we live in where you can’t afford health insurance and healthcare. It will affect some of their operation among the hardest core visitors to their stores, but a guy like me is still coming in to buy magazines, get a coffee and a snack, and hang out for awhile and sometimes buy more than that. It’s not going to cause me problems if someone is walking around pulling books for Internet orders, and there was always a chance the book you wanted was sold out to start with so you’re not going to know if it was a guy in Nebraska or your next door neighbor who bought the last copy of Console Wars. They’ll just order you another one. As most note, you can’t go anywhere else in most towns for books even if you wanted to! Another reason I don’t think they’re closing up… the market IS there.
I think people are reading too much into the fact that Chapter 7 bankruptcy is called “Liquidation”.
That doesn’t mean that they will liquidate everything they have - just enough to payoff their debts. I suspect that it will result in a lot of stores and inventory being wiped out though. Hopefully they give up on electronics and become more of a lifestyle services brand.
Ah, hell, are you a B&N employee, Yak? I hope you get through this okay.
I loved B&N back in the day. I spent a lot of time and cash there. I worked there for better part of a decade, putting my English degree to good use. I made a huge number of close friends there. I met and literally proposed to my wife there. When the store location I worked at the longest closed last spring, we past-and-present employees held a wake for it. I loved B&N.
But even though I used to be a book lover, my tastes changed too. Most of my reading time is spent staring at a desktop or phone, reading web articles or internet forums. In the past few years, most of my physical book purchases have been:
B&N couldn’t rely on me to keep any of their stores afloat. There are a few reasons I stopped hanging out in them, too. Some reasons began during my tenure as an employee.
It can be, depending on the fact pattern. Also it depends how you define the relevant market. Books, probably not a monopoly. E-books, probably a monopoly.
Yeah, it’s a bit of a conundrum. We favor the new, but for a while now there have been infinite words to read, even after filtering for “just the best”.
Common problem. I remember reading that more photos are now taken in a year than were taken in entire decades in the past.
I’d actually hypothesize that part of the reason B&N lasted as long as they did (as compared to Borders and Crown books) was the Nook. I’m sure there were other factors having to do with poor management at Borders, etc, but the writing has been on the wall for years. Heck, I was surprised to see that our local Barnes & Noble was still open last year.
I’m doubtful. The costs of research, design and development, and then marketing, retooling stores to have huge Nook sections, carrying inventory and warehousing, setting up web architecture to handle business volume that never emerged…I think the Nook stomped on the accelerator that took them over the cliff.
At the time, it was a differentiator from what happened to Borders however.
And one reason B&N has avoided Borders’ fate is thanks to the Nook, which has successfully grabbed a quarter of the e-book market away from Amazon.
The most interesting thing here (besides the asshattery) is that the projected salary savings from firing all the full-time staff nationwide is $40 million over a year. And they spent $15 million on two executive golden parachutes when they were each there for less than a single year.
B&N College Bookstores is a separate thing. I wonder if they will get affected too?
With the creation of the ebook market B&N really had to do something or just give up competing. But the project was doomed from the start if they didn’t come up with some kind of unique and obviously superior differentiator, which I think was impossible without enormous capital backing that B&N couldn’t afford.
The devices themselves should have cost them very little, because, you know, China. Marketing the nook and establishing this big chunk of store for it was more costly. But there was never any way they could provide better product to customers than Amazon, and never any way they could outbid Amazon with publishers or indie authors, so they would at best be a minor also-ran in the market. So: doomed. And they kept doubling down on it.
So in theory it shouldn’t have been that bad for them, just another step toward the edge. In practice, since they’ve been self-raiding their own corporation for executive and board payouts, they’ve been deliberately destroying themselves, with the nook being one of any number of suicidal moves.
Such a shame. I was in one tonight. Not sure when they decided to get rid of the “new” section in SF& Fantasy or history but it made browsing very difficult for me.
Anyway it sucks. I suppose I just hope Amazon gets some competition for online books sales. I like Amazon a lot, great company, but every company needs competition.
Ha yeah, I noticed that in my local B&N as well. No “new” sections anymore. They said some waffling thing about not having the space when I asked. I suppose it must be corporate policy if they intend not to actually buy much new stock starting now, so they have to hide the lack of purchases with old books.
Yeah it seems silly to drop one of the nicest features the store had. As you say though if they are not going to be buying as many books then hiding it this way might make some kind of corporate sense. I guess.
Not that I want to berate B&N’s exec team too much, I sure don’t have an answer to how to turn around their business. Its not easy.
If the board had any interest in running the company instead of cashing out by gutting it, then they should fire the officers instead of staff, and kill off everything in the stores but books, cafe, and comfort features for shoppers.
But I doubt that the officers have any other intention than cashing out as many bonuses as they can before total liquidation, and it looks like there are no large shareholders who can do anything about it. The biggest shareholder is a hedge fund/capital firm at 8% who I expect is somehow going to profit on vulture activity, though I have no idea how.
