are 2+2 and barnes and noble not friendly?

[Byrn]

This is weird. I ordered my copy from B&N online on 1/8 (pre order at the time). It shipped 1/14. I usually have no problem with B&N. I have one of those "member" cards (gets you extra 5% off online and 10% in store), but I highly doubt that made me any kind of priority.

[playersare]

I'm a B&N card member too, but I've often found that Amazon's everyday prices are lower than what BN.com charges, even with the 5% discount figured in. Though more recently I have started to notice that both companies are now doing the 30% off thing up front on more books that they compete head to head with. I guess I'll keep an eye on the market.

I will buy books both online and off depending on my mood and urgency, but B&N for me is mainly offline. I bought HoH on amazon and it was delivered at the time it was originally promised.

[CORed]

There are very few 2+2 books at the Barnes and Noble B&M store nearest me. However, I got a couple of B&N gift cards for Christmas and was able to order SSHE and TPFAP from B&N's web site. I would imagine that what books are stocked at the B&M stores is a decision made by the store manager. I also suspect that they would order the book you want if you asked them to. If they get enough requests for special orders, they may start stocking them.

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Cored:

No. Decisions to stock books in a store are generally made by the Book Buyer for that field, and he's located in New York. Store managers do have some input, especially for books of local interest.

As an aside, Barnes & Noble has ordered over 5,000 books from us so far this month which is a little higher than last year's pace.

best wishes,
Mason

[BarronVangorToth]

Something else to keep in mind with various retail industries is that in this day and age of computers many stores are keeping their actual in-store inventory as lean and humanly possible (1 or 2 copies of a book) as they can order any book that "sells out" (i.e. sells the 1 or 2 copies that they have) so that it will be restocked the next day.

Obviously when John Grisham busts out his new book, they'll have a wall of them, but after a few weeks, they reduce their quantities.

Not finding any given book in any given bookstore will often mean that it simply "sells out" every day as they sell their copy or two and the next day another or two will be in, as their computer has yet to inform them that Book X should be in stock in quantities of, say, 3 or 4 to avoid constantly having the empty shelf space.

Especially when it comes to poker books, perhaps buyers are being wary if they believe that it is a bit of a fad so they don't want their stores to all have a half-dozen copies of every book sitting on the shelf, especially when they aren't educated enough to know there is a vast difference between Book X from Publisher Y and a 2+2 release.

Barron Vangor Toth
www.BarronVangorToth.com

[playersare]

mason,

I work in music retail which is somewhat similar to the book industry. in my business we get a majority of the "popular" titles and big company items from a major "one-stop" warehouse which generally has everything a mainstream store could want, and a lot of the inventory and shipping control is fully automated and computerized. For example, when a Virgin Megastore scans a barcode of the new Eminem album at the register, chances are a UMVD warehouse hundreds of miles away is immediately notified to grab another copy off the shelf and box it up with anything else shipping out that day. I'd have to assume that is a similar thing goes on when someone buys a copy of Jon Stewart America or Tuesdays With Morrie, correct?

At the same time, I have a large number of "indie" record companies and artists who are not affiliated with the big warehouses and distributors. Their stuff sells good as well, but if I want to restock their items, I can't log on to some B2B wholesaler and drop their items into a virtual shopping cart, check out and expect fedex to arrive the next day. Instead I e-mail or call them directly, place a manual order and then wait for them to go to mail boxes etc or the post office to ship them out.

so does 2+2 have any "major" distribution partners that would help keep better automated stock in brick and mortar stores? Or are you guys strictly "indie" waiting at the fax machine for another purchase order while the books are stored in David's attic (LOL just kidding!). I see that you guys are somehow affiliated with ConJelCo but they look pretty indie as well. I guess the main advantage of having automated distro is that is it not as necessary to have a human sales rep constantly in contact with a human book buyer. if a book sells it sells, and the computers do the rest.

this is basically a long winded post to say that...i'm just curious.