Barnes & Noble was winding down towards today's closure last night. Weeknight crowds were higher than usual, as bargain-seekers trolled the aisles for any remaining gems. Many shelves were bare after weeks of a closing sale (and likely transfers of inventory to other stores). After today, your only options are shopping online or going to Barnes & Noble at Montrose Crossing in the Pike District. Amazon Books will
open at Bethesda Row this summer, with a smaller selection of books.
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| Last time through the exit doors |
10 comments:
More sponsored content for Federal Realty.
Surely Dyer shed a tear while uploading this story.
Where are all the nannies going to hang out now? That's your scoop, journalist.
Did Redwood ever reopen?
Big, big closure.
1:16 PM - It was announced ten months ago, Birdbrain.
So how many post-closure articles on B&N can we expect to see on Dyer's blog?
I stopped by tonight thinking I would pick up a nice new hardbound novel. Randomly picked up a nice looking, brand new released book from an important author, and asked what the sale price was...but no, not it is not on sale, but I was invited to pay the full list price at $25.00 as printed on the back near the ISBN number. I decided to pass.
Outside the store I checked Amazon on my phone. Same hardbound book was $13.97, free shipping with Amazon Prime. With one click I could have it tommorrow delivered to my apartment concierge about 12 hours later. If I wanted it immediately, I could download it to my Kindle for $12.99.
I love to support my local brick and mortar stores, but at 41% to nearly 50% off a brand new book...B&N is doomed not only in Bethesda, but all other stores. I’m very glad we will getting only the second Amazon Books in the DC area. Certainly not the same vast bookstore with tens of thousands of titles, but geez, at B&N prices, and unwillingness to discount, they deserve to go belly up.
It's all Riemer's fault!
In fact the new Amazon Books in Bethesda will be only the 16th Amazon Books in the country. Thanks Federal Realty!
We also will get a three store high 30,000 Anthropologie & Co. Department Store out of the deal, with a large scale furniture department, women’s clothing and shoe departments, wedding dress salon, large cosmetics department, a garden department and a new Terrain Cafe with outdoor dining on Woodmont Avenue. We also get a new Urban Country Furniture Store on Arlington. I would say these three new stores will help defer the loss of the so called community space at B&N where many would read (but not buy) expensive books and magazines.
If you really want to read magazines for free, just sign up for an R-B Digital magazine subscription at the Bethesda Library and read hundreds of free magazines on your tablet and have a coffee at Joe and the Juice, Paul’s, Quartemaine, Bethesda Bagels, one of the three Starbucks, or at the new Starbucks Reserve under construction now in the Hyatt Hotel. Or maybe hand out at the upcoming Dean and Deluca Market and Cafe or the adjacent Capital Crescent Plaza Urban Park that will be built once the Purple Line is completed.
Lots of cool community gathering spaces in this community.
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