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Saving Barnes & Noble

Its a beautiful Tuesday afternoon, and instead of working from home I decided to run over to Barnes & Noble to have a change of scene.  I have 4 books on the table beside me, and I want them all!  I’ve had a chance to look at each one, read a few chapters, and really get a feel for the value they’ll bring to my book collection.

Writing this at B&N

One problem, all together they are about $106, its an investment sure- I’ll learn a lot from these books, and I don’t have a problem paying that much for them assuming thats the best price I could get for them.  But here I am, online, connected to the vast bookstore where everyone is competing with each other to sell it to you, and guess what… I got all the books I wanted for $34 (with shipping) from Amazon.

Here’s the problem, the joy of sitting here looking at these books, experiencing them and getting to review the material is not worth $72 to me.  I think everyone has a certain number that its worth to them, would I be willing to pay an extra $5 or $10 for the “experience” of buying the book at the store? Sure!  But not $72!

I love Barnes & Noble, I pay $25 a year to be a member… I spent over $700 here last year actually, I consider myself a loyal customer- but considering the difference in price between the two options, I find myself listening to my wallet instead of my loyalty to them.

What could they do-  A price match guarantee to anyone comparing to Amazon’s price?  I’m not sure how the numbers would work out, of course B&N has probably 10x the overhead as Amazon, but I’m thinking they’ll need to figure something out.

My question to you is, whats your price?  At what point do you opt to jump online and grab what you want as apposed to buying it online?  $72 is way to much of a difference for me to ignore, but find a way to make it less then $20 and I’ll stay in the store!