B&N Announces Holiday Half-Off Sale

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From Publishers Weekly:

In another initiative to drive customers to its stores and website, Barnes & Noble will discount more than 100 books at 50% off from today until December 24 in its bricks-and-mortar locations and until December 25 online, provided supplies last.

. . . .

“Nobody knows books like Barnes & Noble, and this holiday we want to delight our customers with many of the year’s best books at half-price for their seasonal shopping,” Tim Mantel, B&N’s chief merchandising officer, said in a statement. “Whether you’re getting a book for a family member, a friend, a co-worker, or just looking for a good read for the holiday, there’s sure to be a perfect book in our selection of 50% off titles.”

After a long stretch in which quarterly comparable store sales have fallen, B&N has repeatedly said that it expects same store sales to increase in the holiday season.

Link to the rest at Publishers Weekly

9 thoughts on “B&N Announces Holiday Half-Off Sale”

  1. Just for fun I looked at the PW article and checked on the first sale title I noticed (it was by Justin Timberlake).

    A quick comparison showed that the hardback was $20 (sale price) on both BN and Amazon and that the Nook e-book was nearly twice the cost of the Kindle version. Still the BN exclusive edition apparently includes 16 pages of never before seen photographs which I guess some people might find attractive.

    Then there’s The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons with a “standard” edition at $43.46 on Amazon and the BN exclusive edition with a frameable cartoon print at $50 (plus a deluxe edition on Amazon at $560.48 which is clearly not aimed at the same market).

    A sample of 2 is hardly scientific but it does suggest that “half off” may not be a strong inducement to brave the Christmas shopping crowds.

    • I clicked on “Barracoon”.

      BN.com:

      Hardcover is 12.49 – on sale, half the 24.99 list price.
      Paperback is 16.99
      Nook is 12.99

      Amazon.com:

      Hardcover is 11.50 – not specifically on sale
      Paperback is 16.14
      Kindle is 12.99 — agency delivers again!

    • I also tried “Year One”, by Nora Roberts

      BN.com:

      Hardcover is 25.19 – apparently not on sale
      Paperback is 14.39 – on sale, 20% off
      Nook is 9.99

      Amazon.com:

      Hardcover is 17.10
      Paperback is 14.38 – oddly (snark) 1 cent less
      Nook is 9.99

    • I had to make a short business trip today and got into part of a nearby down I don’t often visit. There was a Barnes & Noble in a strip mall across from a major indoor mall. I had thought it had gone out of business a decade ago.

      There were maybe five cars parked in front of the B&N. I suspect they were employees… so much for being saved by the “holiday shopping season.”

  2. Lots of smoke, no fire. Somewhere around a hundred books in a sale is unlikely to drag the customers in. B&N can’t win at this point so far as publicity is concerned. If it sold all its books at 50% people would call it a Fire or Liquidation sale, probably not without some basis.

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