Barnes & Noble Stores are (Finally) Price-Matching Their Website
For the longest time now B&N has been annoying their few remaining loyal customers by charging a higher price in store than on their website. This negated most of the value in buying a book in a bookstore (hence the ever declining same-store sales ).
B&N has not removed that policy, but they have revised it. A source told me, and I have confirmed with the B&N store in Manassas, that starting today B&N is matching the prices on its website for purchases made in store.
This is not an advertised sale, so there won’t be any signs or emails. But I was told that it is only available to B&N club members when they request it, and that this special will only run through the tenth of December.
So if you are one of the hundreds of remaining B&N club members (membership costs $25 a year), now is a good time to go shopping.
Coincidentally, Amazon has a very similar policy in its bookstores; Prime members get to pay the online price when shopping in an Amazon Books, while everyone else pays list.
Amazon is using this to promote its $99 membership program, but it’s not clear what motivates B&N. If Barnes & Noble were really interested in boosting sales then they would have done this ten years ago.
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