Barnes and Noble new stores

[FrankMoore99]

I just learned this week that Barnes and Noble is planning on opening a store in Kimball Junction (Park City), Utah. I think this is really cool since I am a fan of Utah and love to visit Utah. But I am curious about retail data that demonstrates Park City's ability to support stores that usually require over 300,000 people to operate. How do you like Barnes and Noble's new store strategy?? Do you think the markets they are opening at good choices for locations? https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com/

[pseudo3d]

I just learned this week that Barnes and Noble is planning on opening a store in Kimball Junction (Park City), Utah. I think this is really cool since I am a fan of Utah and love to visit Utah. But I am curious about retail data that demonstrates Park City's ability to support stores that usually require over 300,000 people to operate. How do you like Barnes and Noble's new store strategy?? Do you think the markets they are opening at good choices for locations? https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com/

Barnes & Noble opened a 25k square foot store in College Station in the late 1990s when the entire county was at 150k people.

[SamSpade]

The Park City area has only grown over time and is a regional retail center. I suspect they have good zip code data from their (now free) membership program that shows a lot of people were driving down to Sugar House (nearest Salt Lake City major retail stop once down I-80 from Park City/Kimball Jct. area) to utilize that location.

The new stores are quite beautiful and I don't recall if Park City had an independent book store on Main St.

[ClownLoach]

I just learned this week that Barnes and Noble is planning on opening a store in Kimball Junction (Park City), Utah. I think this is really cool since I am a fan of Utah and love to visit Utah. But I am curious about retail data that demonstrates Park City's ability to support stores that usually require over 300,000 people to operate. How do you like Barnes and Noble's new store strategy?? Do you think the markets they are opening at good choices for locations? https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com/

Who says Barnes and Noble requires a population of 300,000? I can think of many metro areas where they exist just fine without anything close to that. San Luis Obispo has only 47K and one of the best performers in the B&N chain. But if you know anything about San Luis Obispo, then you can probably figure out why that store does so well and what kind of demographics B&N might be targeting when they decide to open or close a store.

All specialty retailers as explained on another post have specific criteria that they determine and keep as secret as possible. There could be a million population area that lacks what they are looking for, and a 100,000 population area that warrants multiple stores. It is all demographic based. I don't know what they're looking for, and they're not going to tell you or me. Furthermore if they're looking for the wrong things, then they are not going to be in business very long.

Take an advanced level marketing class. It's fascinating to see how many of the decisions a company makes come from the marketing department.

Population only decisions are only made by mainstream retailers like grocery stores and pharmacies, and even they segment further (for example if the population will support a grocery store is it going to be a price impact warehouse format like Food4Less or does it need to be a mainstream like Kroger or does it need to be a deluxe like Gelsons?).

[Brian Lutz]

Park City is obviously best known as a major tourist area (Sundance, the ski areas and the Utah Olympic Park but it also has significant tourism the rest of the year as well) and Kimball Junction has a large outlet mall that brings people in from the Salt Lake area, and quite a bit of retail that has grown up in the vicinity. Real estate has also started to get very expensive there as well, so it's become a significantly higher income area than it used to be.

[FrankMoore99]

Park City is obviously best known as a major tourist area (Sundance, the ski areas and the Utah Olympic Park but it also has significant tourism the rest of the year as well) and Kimball Junction has a large outlet mall that brings people in from the Salt Lake area, and quite a bit of retail that has grown up in the vicinity. Real estate has also started to get very expensive there as well, so it's become a significantly higher income area than it used to be.

How does the Best Buy store do in Park City??

[FrankMoore99]

I just learned this week that Barnes and Noble is planning on opening a store in Kimball Junction (Park City), Utah. I think this is really cool since I am a fan of Utah and love to visit Utah. But I am curious about retail data that demonstrates Park City's ability to support stores that usually require over 300,000 people to operate. How do you like Barnes and Noble's new store strategy?? Do you think the markets they are opening at good choices for locations? https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com/

Who says Barnes and Noble requires a population of 300,000? I can think of many metro areas where they exist just fine without anything close to that. San Luis Obispo has only 47K and one of the best performers in the B&N chain. But if you know anything about San Luis Obispo, then you can probably figure out why that store does so well and what kind of demographics B&N might be targeting when they decide to open or close a store.

All specialty retailers as explained on another post have specific criteria that they determine and keep as secret as possible. There could be a million population area that lacks what they are looking for, and a 100,000 population area that warrants multiple stores. It is all demographic based. I don't know what they're looking for, and they're not going to tell you or me. Furthermore if they're looking for the wrong things, then they are not going to be in business very long.

Take an advanced level marketing class. It's fascinating to see how many of the decisions a company makes come from the marketing department.

Population only decisions are only made by mainstream retailers like grocery stores and pharmacies, and even they segment further (for example if the population will support a grocery store is it going to be a price impact warehouse format like Food4Less or does it need to be a mainstream like Kroger or does it need to be a deluxe like Gelsons?).

San Luis Obispo County has 260,000 people in the area. But still an interesting retail setup and dynamic in the county. And some really good points. Does the marketing class talk about this subject as I learned in GIS and I want to learn more about: https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/retail/overview.??

I heard Barnes and Noble is opening a second store in Murray, Utah?? Is that true??https://www.parkrecord.com/news/barnes- ... -junction/

I thought it was interesting since Barnes and Noble already has a store in Murray and Midvale, and I initially thought they closed the Sandy store to consolidate to the Midvale store. Analyzing the business scene. Only to learn they are reopening in Sandy at the former Bed Bath and Beyond. Why did Best Buy choose to close the Murray store?? Is Barnes and Noble relocating also to make way for the redevelopment that is replacing Best Buy. Is Best Buy planning on opening a smaller store for that market? Or is West Jordan, Salt Lake City, and Sandy enough for them?

[ClownLoach]

I just learned this week that Barnes and Noble is planning on opening a store in Kimball Junction (Park City), Utah. I think this is really cool since I am a fan of Utah and love to visit Utah. But I am curious about retail data that demonstrates Park City's ability to support stores that usually require over 300,000 people to operate. How do you like Barnes and Noble's new store strategy?? Do you think the markets they are opening at good choices for locations? https://haydenbusinessblog.blogspot.com/

Who says Barnes and Noble requires a population of 300,000? I can think of many metro areas where they exist just fine without anything close to that. San Luis Obispo has only 47K and one of the best performers in the B&N chain. But if you know anything about San Luis Obispo, then you can probably figure out why that store does so well and what kind of demographics B&N might be targeting when they decide to open or close a store.

All specialty retailers as explained on another post have specific criteria that they determine and keep as secret as possible. There could be a million population area that lacks what they are looking for, and a 100,000 population area that warrants multiple stores. It is all demographic based. I don't know what they're looking for, and they're not going to tell you or me. Furthermore if they're looking for the wrong things, then they are not going to be in business very long.

Take an advanced level marketing class. It's fascinating to see how many of the decisions a company makes come from the marketing department.

Population only decisions are only made by mainstream retailers like grocery stores and pharmacies, and even they segment further (for example if the population will support a grocery store is it going to be a price impact warehouse format like Food4Less or does it need to be a mainstream like Kroger or does it need to be a deluxe like Gelsons?).

San Luis Obispo County has 260,000 people in the area. But still an interesting retail setup and dynamic in the county. And some really good points. Does the marketing class talk about this subject as I learned in GIS and I want to learn more about: https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/retail/overview.??

I heard Barnes and Noble is opening a second store in Murray, Utah?? Is that true??https://www.parkrecord.com/news/barnes- ... -junction/

I thought it was interesting since Barnes and Noble already has a store in Murray and Midvale, and I initially thought they closed the Sandy store to consolidate to the Midvale store. Analyzing the business scene. Only to learn they are reopening in Sandy at the former Bed Bath and Beyond. Why did Best Buy choose to close the Murray store?? Is Barnes and Noble relocating also to make way for the redevelopment that is replacing Best Buy. Is Best Buy planning on opening a smaller store for that market? Or is West Jordan, Salt Lake City, and Sandy enough for them?

SLO is a very spread out county that spans a massive area. The point is look at the immediate area: ton of college students and educators. High income area. Higher than average number of retirees. High disposable income. Those are some of the factors they likely are looking for when they select a location, not just the total population.

Barnes and Noble has been actively reducing the size of their stores and taking advantage of blowout pricing on real estate with closures of other chains. Their new stores are beautiful in my opinion, but upon further inspection they are also very low frills, low cost with concrete floors and warehouse ceilings. They seem to have stopped doing Cafés as well. I expect they will continue to close expensive leases in stores that are too large and relocate to smaller more convenient locations, and I also expect that we will continue to see them sometimes close the old store and liquidate it many months before the new one opens. It is expensive to move books, they're heavy and get shelf worn. They are private so they are unlikely to reveal much of their actions publicly. I have had email conversations with the CEO personally however in the past and he seems to be a first class individual with a lot of good ideas. In my opinion he is the rare case of a CEO who saved the entire company on his own.

[SamSpade]

They seem to have stopped doing Cafés as well.

That is a point. The latest store in the Portland, Ore. trade area is at Cascade Station, a large box retail plaza near the airport and "anchored" by the only IKEA for hours/miles. It does not have a cafe.

[ClownLoach]

They seem to have stopped doing Cafés as well.

That is a point. The latest store in the Portland, Ore. trade area is at Cascade Station, a large box retail plaza near the airport and "anchored" by the only IKEA for hours/miles. It does not have a cafe.

They are obviously focused on cutting their real estate and construction costs first and foremost. They relocated from Irvine to Tustin moving to a closed Best Buy that had been previously occupied by various furniture stores. They are only using about half the sales floor with visible drywall partitions about ten feet tall creating about a 20K sales floor. They did not put a Café in and when asked on social media they specifically said the building didn't have the electrical and plumbing for one and it would be too expensive to add it. It seems like the new store reused all the previous furniture store hanging track lights as well. But the look is very nice with their bookshelves that all have signage and in rack lighting, and helps overlook the cheapness of the setup.

I'll take all of that because I'm sure they had some very expensive leases on many of their older stores that were built for a different era where they had to compete with Borders and others. The Barnes and Noble situation is similar to Best Buy, now that they have wiped out all the competition they can relax and move to cheaper storefronts to reduce their overhead.