Panasonic Youth rob sanheim writes about software, business, ruby, music, stuff and things

A missed opportunity for Barnes and Noble’s web site

I frequent barnes and nobles (and borders) in my town a lot. When I find a good book, I’m usually too impatient to wait the shipping delay to save the few dollars via amzon. Yet I only use amazon’s site for all my online book needs. Beyond the obvious advantages amazon has (read: customer content), Barnes and noble web site has one unique opportunity it continues to miss: a “find this book in my area” feature.

I would love to be able to search for something at their site, choose something like “hold this book for me at my favorite store” and just be able to drive five minutes and get it. Then go the extra mile and hook up that purchased book to your recommendations and rating system.

Come to think of it, amazon could add this via their Borders integration. What is the hold up?

Where is the local store search?

This might explain it. From ‘99, no idea if it’s still relevant.

“Steve faced a choice: Use the superstores’ marketing muscle and charge sales tax, but discount the books even further to match Amazon’s end prices; or forgo using the superstores entirely, and save a bit of the margin on each book sold.

Riggio chose the latter path, ceding what may have been his principal asset in the war with Amazon.”