Barnes & Noble is Removing Nook Kiosks From Stores
A couple sources have told me, and I have confirmed first hand, that B&N has removed the Nook kiosks that used to occupy prime square footage in most Barnes & Noble stores.
Existing Nook hardware has been moved to the customer service desk towards the rear of the store, and the Nook kiosks have been replaced by a display featuring new releases.
I have seen this myself in a couple stores, including my local B&N in Manassas VA, which used to have a Nook kiosk right where this island now sits.
My local B&N has had that kiosk since at least 2011. It was installed back when the focal point of B&N’s digital strategy (when it had one) was to put the Nook front and center in all of its stores.
They installed honking huge kiosks directly in front of the entries to most of its stores which looked something like this:
This was a great idea right up until the Nook imploded during the 2012 holiday season, and ever since then the kiosks have been an embarrassing reminder of B&N’s failure.
Now the kiosks are being removed, and the Nook relegated to an afterthought on the customer service counter.
Frankly, at this point, that is where it belongs.
B&N’s ebook division has been mismanaged for so long that it only generated $111 million in revenue last fiscal year. At its peak it saw revenues of over a billion and a half dollars each fiscal year and thus deserved being the center of attention, but that hasn’t been true for a long time.
No Comments