3-16 Is there anything else Barnes & Noble and the book publishers should be doing to stimulate more business? Borders Group (including many former Waldenbooks rebranded as Borders Express)

liquidated its assets and closed all of its locations in the second half of 2011. The previous year had already seen the demise of B.

Dalton, a Barnes & Noble subsidiary since 1987.

Since 1991, eleven major U.S. bookstore chains have been whittled down to six, and nearly 3,300 stores to just over 2,200 in 2011.

Still in the lead after over 20 years of domination, Barnes & Noble was often painted as the bully, driving both regional chains and small independent bookstores out of business with its aggressive pricing tactics and unbeatable inventory. Before e-commerce reshaped the landscape, its superstores forced smaller rivals into “most titles offered” wars.

As smaller chains struggled to keep pace, support from publishers was not forthcoming. This shortterm, bottom-line strategy would come back to haunt publishers.

B&N kicked around the idea of selling books online, experimenting with Trintex, a 1980s Webretail prototype, selling books on CompuServ in the mid-1990s, and opening an online shop on AOL.

However, it was not until 1997, fully two years after the arrival of Amazon, that it launched its first Web site. Data from numerous emerging e-commerce markets now verifies that books are an ideal initial product to draw first-time buyers. B&N was already behind the curve.