Lots of orders from Barnes & Noble

Archive: Online bookselling

Been sick the last several days. Coincided nicely with my lack of web access. Can't miss the Internet when you are too tired to do anything with it.

Orders from ABE's Barnes & Noble program flooded in yesterday, the spate continued into today. The last time I noticed a similar burst of orders from Barnes & Noble was on a Saturday right after Christmas. I carelessly thought that lots of people must be in B&N's brick and mortar stores.

Reflecting, not very clearly, I'm still off-kilter and weary, that the occasional jump in orders from bn.com probably coincide with a promotion that makes traffic to their website jump.

If my abstract curiosity were stronger I might sign up for whatever newsletter they mail out to their web customers. I haven't been to bn.com in ages. Once I was a regular customer, they were aggressive with coupon deals. I remember buying a new CD for a $1.98 including shipping. My business with them faded with the loss leaders.

Like many other online booksellers I tend to begrudge my B&N sales at times. I resent the loss of 15% and the low shipping reimbursement. But many people take their slices. One of the best thing about the Barnes and Noble sales is the many times their customers buy something that has been around for a long time and I've all but given up hope of ridding myself of.

Mostly my mood is more pragmatic. If the books don't 'churn' as the statistically minded retail capitalists like to call it I might find myself bagging groceries or working at a Barnes & Noble.