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Welcome to my latest feature - The Stupid Files. Basically, I examine something that I deem to be stupid and call it a blog post.
For today's edition of The Stupid Files, I present Barnes & Noble Booksellers.
Here's what happened:
Today, I had an appointment for my car's second oil change in less than a month. The service garage is within a short walk of a large Barnes & Noble bookstore so I decided to spend my time looking for books rather than sitting in the waiting room of the garage. As some of my readers may know, I've recently added woodworking as a hobby to go along with my baseball cards. I bought a table saw at the beginning of summer and was fortunate to add a bunch of my grandfather's old tools to my fledgling collection at the end of the summer. Since the time of the table saw purchase, I've made a three-tiered shelf for my garage, a raised vegetable garden bed, a bookshelf for inside, and most recently, a recycling center for the garage.
As you can see, I've had a fair bit of success building some simple (and not-quite-so-simple) things - so I figured I'd take a gander at Barnes & Noble's selection of woodworking books to see if anything looked interesting to me. Of course, as is always the case when I walk in a bookstore, there were plenty of things that looked interesting to me. After a fair bit of hemming and hawing, I finally elected to purchase the most expensive woodworking book they had (which also happened to be the most complete in terms of both techniques and woodworking plans) - a book aptly titled The Complete Book of Woodworking.
Now, money is quite tight for me right now with all the driving that I'm doing (not to mention the reduced paycheck) so I decided to see what the book was selling for online by using my phone. A quick scan of the bar code and I find out that the book is available online for the following prices:
Amazon.com: $19.77
Barnes & Noble.com: $22.02
Books-a-Million: $24.28
In the store, the book was listed at retail price for $29.99.
Now, when you are looking at a $30 purchase, a savings of $8 is quite a bit - and if I had elected to purchase the book from Amazon, the savings would be even more. However, I wasn't trying to be greedy - but I wasn't going to be stupid either...so I took the book with me up to the cashier and asked why the book was so much cheaper online and if they would price match. Her reply?
"Sorry, we don't price match our own online store."
I asked why not (logical question I thought)...and she replied:
"The online prices are lower but you have to pay for shipping so it evens out."
That would make sense, to an extent, except Barnes & Noble offers free shipping for orders over $25.00. So I could have purchased the book, plus a greeting card or something else cheap, and got the book (plus something else) for less than what the store was trying to sell the book for...and Barnes & Noble would have had to "eaten" the cost of shipping. So a quick check of the math:
Option 1: I buy book for list price off shelf: $29.99
Option 2: I buy book from B&N online, plus something else to equal $25: $25.00 after free shipping
Option 3: B&N price matches their own website, I pay $22.02 and no one has to ship anything.
Now, you may think that's the stupid part (and it is stupid of course), but it gets worse. According to the Barnes & Noble website, I can choose the "Pick Me Up" option where I buy the book online, and within 60 minutes of placing the order, I show up in the store and pick the book up from behind the counter...
And yet, the lady wouldn't do a simple price match when that's exactly what "Pick Me Up" is for anyone with a smart phone and Internet connection...
What ended up happening you ask? Well, I told the cashier that the policy didn't make any sense and that I'd return the book back to the shelf. She offered to do that for me so I left her with the book and Barnes & Noble lost a sale. Not only that, I'll be doing all my book shopping with Amazon.com - not only does Amazon offer the best prices, they don't make me angry with stupid policies.
For today's edition of The Stupid Files, I present Barnes & Noble Booksellers.
Here's what happened:
Today, I had an appointment for my car's second oil change in less than a month. The service garage is within a short walk of a large Barnes & Noble bookstore so I decided to spend my time looking for books rather than sitting in the waiting room of the garage. As some of my readers may know, I've recently added woodworking as a hobby to go along with my baseball cards. I bought a table saw at the beginning of summer and was fortunate to add a bunch of my grandfather's old tools to my fledgling collection at the end of the summer. Since the time of the table saw purchase, I've made a three-tiered shelf for my garage, a raised vegetable garden bed, a bookshelf for inside, and most recently, a recycling center for the garage.
 |
| Many of those books came from Barnes & Noble. Don't expect that to continue. |
 |
| The recycling center after adding the three drawers. This was constructed without any true plans. |
 |
| The final product! |
As you can see, I've had a fair bit of success building some simple (and not-quite-so-simple) things - so I figured I'd take a gander at Barnes & Noble's selection of woodworking books to see if anything looked interesting to me. Of course, as is always the case when I walk in a bookstore, there were plenty of things that looked interesting to me. After a fair bit of hemming and hawing, I finally elected to purchase the most expensive woodworking book they had (which also happened to be the most complete in terms of both techniques and woodworking plans) - a book aptly titled The Complete Book of Woodworking.
Now, money is quite tight for me right now with all the driving that I'm doing (not to mention the reduced paycheck) so I decided to see what the book was selling for online by using my phone. A quick scan of the bar code and I find out that the book is available online for the following prices:
Amazon.com: $19.77
Barnes & Noble.com: $22.02
Books-a-Million: $24.28
In the store, the book was listed at retail price for $29.99.
Now, when you are looking at a $30 purchase, a savings of $8 is quite a bit - and if I had elected to purchase the book from Amazon, the savings would be even more. However, I wasn't trying to be greedy - but I wasn't going to be stupid either...so I took the book with me up to the cashier and asked why the book was so much cheaper online and if they would price match. Her reply?
"Sorry, we don't price match our own online store."
I asked why not (logical question I thought)...and she replied:
"The online prices are lower but you have to pay for shipping so it evens out."
That would make sense, to an extent, except Barnes & Noble offers free shipping for orders over $25.00. So I could have purchased the book, plus a greeting card or something else cheap, and got the book (plus something else) for less than what the store was trying to sell the book for...and Barnes & Noble would have had to "eaten" the cost of shipping. So a quick check of the math:
Option 1: I buy book for list price off shelf: $29.99
Option 2: I buy book from B&N online, plus something else to equal $25: $25.00 after free shipping
Option 3: B&N price matches their own website, I pay $22.02 and no one has to ship anything.
Now, you may think that's the stupid part (and it is stupid of course), but it gets worse. According to the Barnes & Noble website, I can choose the "Pick Me Up" option where I buy the book online, and within 60 minutes of placing the order, I show up in the store and pick the book up from behind the counter...
And yet, the lady wouldn't do a simple price match when that's exactly what "Pick Me Up" is for anyone with a smart phone and Internet connection...
What ended up happening you ask? Well, I told the cashier that the policy didn't make any sense and that I'd return the book back to the shelf. She offered to do that for me so I left her with the book and Barnes & Noble lost a sale. Not only that, I'll be doing all my book shopping with Amazon.com - not only does Amazon offer the best prices, they don't make me angry with stupid policies.
As a shopper I understand your frustration but as a former bookstore employee I'd have to disagree with your logic. Bricks and mortar is a different model than online with different costs. There's a bottom line reason that Amazon (and BN.com) can charge less. While it's the same company it's not the same profit margin. In this competitive market BN would love to charge less in the store but they have to make a profit to stay in business. If you don't care about being able to browse in a physical store take your business to Amazon. It's your choice.
ReplyDeleteI mostly agree with hackenbush - there is a difference in the businesses, and it's there some level of value to consumers on the whole to buying at brick and mortar. If I go to barnes and noble, and I see a book I want - I probably am buying it there, even though I know I can go order it on-line, wait a week and save 5 bucks. In my case - I think that means the week wait and the mini-hassle of going online and ordering it is worth the extra 5 bucks. This isn't true for everyone, but it is for plenty enough that they can keep this policy.
ReplyDeleteAll that said - it is very difficult to reconcile when you consider the "buy it now online and you pick it up in 60 minutes" option. You could have ordered it on your smart phone, and then asked the same employee for the book 30 minutes later :)
Also - on the Amazon comparison. I've noticed Amazon does tend to be cheaper. I'm not an expert and could be a little off here, but I think their business model is a little different.
ReplyDeleteWhen you buy from Amazon - you could be buying from any number of different venders. Not directly from Amazon. When you buy from B&N - you're buying directly from B&N. My wife has bought things from Amazon and it's much more likely to need a return because of quality issues. We tend to buy from B&N when there's a choice, but that depends on the price difference.
If money is tight, you're only hurting yourself if you buy from Amazon.com when B&N.com sells for cheaper, "stupid" policy or not.
ReplyDeleteI've lost faith in Barnes and Noble after they made the decision not to carry certain DC graphic novels.
ReplyDeleteI just wait and look for the books at Good Will, Ollies, Odd Lots and Half-Price books.They may be a little outdated, but for some things that doesn't matter, and I spend from $2 to $5 or $6 per book. By the way, nice work ! I love woodworking also.
ReplyDelete