Comments on: Bricks and mortar (and Lego Men)

By: Salviamo

Salviamo — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:41:26 +0000

Keep these atrilces coming as they’ve opened many new doors for me.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:22:25 +0000

Agreed. Good, personal customer service and knowledgeable staff are key benefits to physical stores.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:18:54 +0000

I’d really like there to be a solution to THIS problem in particular, but I can’t think of it.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:14:12 +0000

Awww, I love Legos as much as the next guy, but that’s just unfortunate. Nothing wrong with the library, though!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:07:52 +0000

I think one of the saving graces for bricks-and-mortar retailers, at least for now, is that the online retailers are still figuring out how to design well for browsing.

That said, I think that someone’s going to crack that code, and (despite my serious frustrations with their user experience design) I’m sure Amazon and Apple are both hard at work finding the solution, so it might be a temporary plus for the physical retailers.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:59:58 +0000

Yarn! I haven’t noticed that, but it’s very smart. I’m not crafty, but crafty people are everywhere these days. And judging by the number of craft and craft-themed books published annually, they’re book buyers.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:57:54 +0000

I think it depends on the store. The Union Square B&N is just so huge that it’s got giant sections for many things, not just Legos (and many of the Lego sets don’t seem to me to be for kids either). The cafe and event spaces are bigger, I’d think, and certainly geared toward adults. I think in smaller stores, it depends a lot on the clientele. I can think of some indies that don’t seem very kid-friendly at all.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:54:07 +0000

Thanks for those insights!

That first anecdote is really surprising! Huh. I hope that’s not a common occurrence.

Regarding your second, I prefer instant gratification myself, but not enough to prefer e-books to print books. That’s why I’m still a bricks-and-mortar customer in most things I don’t buy digitally–I hate to wait for shipping. Everyone has their preferences though, and where I’m a fan of the digital experience (mostly music/software), I’m a download-only customer myself.

On the plus side, instant gratification is one area where B&N has adjusted to customer needs, since the Nook could presumably have solved your problem as easily as the Kindle. B&N would happily have instantly sold you that e-book as well, I’m guessing!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:31:38 +0000

Yes, it will be interesting to see how that turns out. Content curated by an author you trust adds an interesting dynamic to the idea of bookstores.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:30:38 +0000

Agreed on the preference for physical books, but I must say that as much as I like the IDEA of bookstores as a community hangout, I’ve never gotten into it in practice. Maybe it’s because by the time that was a viable option, I worked in one, and the romance of bookstores is somewhat killed by being yelled at by customers so frequently.

My family did use the library that way when I was growing up, though. We lived within walking distance, so it made a lot of sense, but I’m not sure how much non-kid community outreach they had.