The other day, I was in one of the last remaining big box bookstores. Halloween Costumes I noted a couple tables of discounted books, and several rows of empty shelves. I also noted several tables right up front selling E-Book Readers, and much of the store had been converted to popular trendy items which the retailer was moving rather than actual books.Now then, I see a real problem with this merchandising strategy, and an ever-increasing downward spiral for big box bookstores, almost to the point that this niche is no longer viable in our society, and the consumers have spoken. Okay so, let's talk about this for a moment shall we?Bookstores had a niche customer - it was the intellectual in our society. Eventually the big box stores brought those books to the masses, and they had put out of business all the little bookstores. Now the big box stores are battling it out, and one of the largest, Borders has filed bankruptcy, liquidated, and shut down. Barnes & Noble is closing many stores, and now leaving some towns without any large bookstores, or very many small ones either.

Worse, as the big bookstores are trying to find a way to stay in business, they are moving away from the intellectual, which had supported them, and going for a mass marketing strategy. This won't work, and let me tell you why. First, if you go to Wal-Mart, or Target you will notice they have increased the rows of new books for sale, and the number of magazines. They also sell at a discounted price, and the big box bookstores in their great big locations will not be able to compete in that market.Okay so, perhaps an executive might believe that they can bring the big bookstore into profitability by going after the mass market in the short term, but at what expense. As an intellectual reader I am quite turned off with the selection of books, the quality of titles, and all the debris and junk that they are trying to sell to the average consumer. Much of which is not selling at all anyway, it just looks really nice on the shelf. Indeed, this marketing strategy is going to fall short, along with the shareholders equity and quarterly profits.

The coffee shops cannot support that much floor space, and that much inventory of things that people don't wish to buy, and these big stores cannot compete with all the other department stores, and big warehouse discount stores, there's just no way, nor do they have time to make that transition anyhow. Worse, even if let's say Barnes and Noble meets its goal of selling 40 Nook eReaders per store per day, Amazon is selling millions per month, and they have zero retail cost structure or high rents to deal with, see that point.It's a no-win situation for Barnes and Noble, especially with their two current strategy focuses. Could I do a better job running that company, absolutely, but I am not interested in such a job. So, it appears that this is a slow-motion train wreck in 2012, and I predict the consumer, especially the intellectual book reader will be the one who loses in the end. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.