A glowing article about Barnes and Noble and how well they're doing. Except...there are no stats, just the assertion. (They are privately owned.) They did open 30 stores, which is a sign of something, but maybe not what the article claimed.
Supposedly, new management has revived B & N.
Maybe--but they couldn't do worse, right?
But what I think is really happening is that Covid was, weirdly enough, very helpful to bookstores, at least ones that were open to receiving the benefits. People didn't spend money on movies, concerts, going out to dinner, etc. etc. But they could go into a bookstore (like I said, if they were "open") and buy a book.
Never mistake a wave for your own efforts. We saw a wave of business that had nothing to do with management.
We will probably revert back to normal over time. Fortunately for us, it gave us a chance to reinvent the store, make it more attractive to book buyers, and to really flesh out our inventory. We'll probably see a small decline over time, but I don't think we'll go back to pre-Covid levels.
We were down a little this Christmas--less than half as much as I expected and budgeted for. We managed to save the same amount of money, though, and to keep the inventory up.
My job right now is to not get in my own way. Continue to make incidental improvements, but keep the store functioning without disruption. Don't need to make major changes, though that's always an impulse of mine.
Carry on...
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