I think the common answers to this question are a good illustration of people inventing logical reasons post factum for something they don't understand, much like described in the Black Swan.
My experience is exactly the opposite to what most people are saying. I know of plenty of Borders locations, and almost no Barnes & Noble location. Borders stores are always excellent - well stocked, pleasant atmosphere, etc. The checkout lines are always full, people browse for hours and buy a ton of stuff.
I suspect the problems have much more to do with the economics of running their operations which you can't see with a naked eye. Their customer experience is top notch - they just couldn't do it in a scalable way long term.
BTW, what exactly is Barnes & Noble's eBook strategy? How many people do you know that bought a Nook?
The economics of their operations was a common thread in the #1 answer:
* costly rent
* costly operations
* slow restocking
I guess you know so many Borders locations because they picked great locations in expensive malls. That's not a great way to run a glorified distribution centre.
I actually know more people with Nooks than with Kindles. Most of them have color Nooks and most use them to read books and boot into Android to get a cheap, color, wifi-enabled tablet.
See my post below. I don't think it was just behind the scenes "operations" stuff but mostly had to do with "finance" ... Bill Ackman's hedge fund was involved.
My experience is exactly the opposite to what most people are saying. I know of plenty of Borders locations, and almost no Barnes & Noble location. Borders stores are always excellent - well stocked, pleasant atmosphere, etc. The checkout lines are always full, people browse for hours and buy a ton of stuff.
I suspect the problems have much more to do with the economics of running their operations which you can't see with a naked eye. Their customer experience is top notch - they just couldn't do it in a scalable way long term.
BTW, what exactly is Barnes & Noble's eBook strategy? How many people do you know that bought a Nook?