Barnes and Noble observation: On the way home from work this afternoon, I happened to stop into a Barnes & Noble for a few minutes. Noticed a "Current Affairs" table in the center aisle on which EVERY single book was an anti-Bush administration book. I kind of figured they might have some books on or about Reagan prominently featured - that would be topical since the funeral was today. But no, didn't see any. Just a table filled with nothing but anti-Bush books. Then I come home and log on and find their CEO, Leonard Riggio, is a big Democratic contributor. I have to assume this is just another way to help out his political cause.
OK, its a free country (and I'm free to patronize Amazon more than I have in the past too). But I have to wonder if this kind of thing is good for B&N and its shareholders business-wise. I mean this store is on the border of Houston and Spring - Bush country IOW. If this had been San Francisco or Burlington VT, that table wouldn't have been surprising. But Spring TX? Looks like the CEO's politics comes before intelligent marketing.
Ah well.
BTW, I see B&N also has a relationship with the NY Times:
What If You Couldn't Trust The New York Times?
By Matt Welch, OJR Staff Writer and Columnist
Everybody trusts The New York Times. So much so, that nearly two years after America's paper of record signed a landmark agreement to post Barnes & Noble "buy" buttons next to its online book reviews, much of the criticism regarding the ethics of the practice has sputtered out, and the news industry has largely followed the Times' lead into e-commerce.
.....
In one remarkable 35-day stretch in February and March, the Times ran five articles and two opinion columns, clocking in at a whopping 13,800 words total, effectively sullying the reputation of Amazon.com -- Barnes and Noble's biggest and most feared competitor.
In only one of those articles did the Times disclose its influential agreement with Barnesandnoble.com, and the subject did not come up in a lengthy profile of B&N Chief Executive Leonard Riggio published April 18.
.....
mattwelch.com |
