Borders or Barnes & Noble: Where to Shop For the Avid Reader

Borders or Barnes & Noble: Where to Shop For the Avid Reader...

I read a lot - I would rather read than watch television. I only have television for my cartoons and a very few choice shows: CNN, The History Channel, etc. Reading is my serious hobby and as a single parent, I also like to get a bargain with it as well! I do enjoy visiting my library but I also enjoy owning books and then selling them. Both Barnes & Noble and Borders are in the area where I live, Poughkeepsie NY.

I shop for books quite frequently so I thought up an experiment for myself: Shop at both of these stores for twelve months (1 year) and see just how much I save. Borders has a free Rewards program that I am a member of. I am also a Barnes & Noble Reader’s Advantage that I pay a membership fee of $25.00 annually to join. Both Borders and Barnes & Noble have their receipts to indicate the savings on the purchases made. Neither store shows a cumulative computation of what has been saved. Borders receipts does not indicate to the member how much more needs to spent to $150.00 to get the reward.

In 12 months I visited both stores frequently. Borders provides members with emails of coupons for up to 40% discounts on merchandise, sometimes a minimum purchase has to be made but for the most part the savings is off of any regular priced item. I received these coupons about every 6-7 days with a standard 20% coupon found on the Borders web site these coupons can also be sent to your cell phone as well. Barnes & Noble sent me both coupons via email and postal mail, I would get these quarterly. Here is a quick breakdown of both stores:

Barnes & Noble Borders
*Reader’s Advantage Membership *Rewards Membership - Free.
$25.00 annually. Rewards Perks Membership is $29.95 annually.
*Coupons are given out sporadically with *Coupons given out quite
emphasis on Members with Master Cards. frequently up to 40% savings.
*Offers Members 40% off on hardcover *Offers members 30% off best
best sellers, 20 % off adult hardcover, sellers - no coupon needed.
10% off everything else.
*No reward for shopping frequently. *Borders Rewards Members
get $5.00 off every $150.00 spent with
rollover of amount spent.
*Free shipping with online order of $25.00. * Free shipping with online elitist of $25.00.
*Additional savings offered on featured authors. *Additional savings offered on featured authors.
*Return Policy - 14 days with store receipt. *Return Policy - 30 days with store receipt.
*WiFi Available as well as café services. *Wifi Available as well as café services.

Both stores offer online services. Reserving merchandise can be done with both stores via phone or on line. Borders offers kiosks so customers can do searches themselves, Barnes & Noble does not have this feature.

Drawbacks: Barnes & Noble requires a $25.00 membership fee paid up front in order to get savings for one year (12 months from date of sign up). The B&N customer has to spend in order to get back that $25.00 membership fee. Coupons came too infrequently and endorsed Master Card - I have Visa. Barnes & Noble stays open until 11PM, Borders is open until 9PM. Borders does not carry a large inventory, so pre-ordering helps besides placing orders via internet or phone with a 5-7 day wait time for book to arrive. Barnes & Noble gets books in faster 3-4 business days. Borders has a smaller magazine selection than Barnes & Noble. Borders does not have as many places to sit and lounge in their store as Barnes & Noble does. Neither store carries a positive selection of African American book selection, I have stated this obvious exclusion to the managers of both stores with no improvement noted. No Kwaanza merchandise but tons of Hannuakh merchandise. The African American books are blended in making them hard if not impossible to find, book selection for African Americans is very stereotypical with Barak Obama being the representation for all African Americans in all aspects of black life. I found Barnes & Noble to be a bit snobby or even elitist in their attitude; I guess being a big chain promotes this behavior. Borders is more customer friendly: I had an incident where I could not print my coupon, I called Borders and I was instructed to copy down the promotion code and bring it to the store so I could still get the savings. I feel as though Borders wants to hear what I have to say as a customer.

Attractions: Borders has kiosks throughout store so the customer can do look ups themselves.
Borders does get new releases faster and puts them on the shelves when allowed. Barnes & Noble is slow to shelf new merchandise. B& N staff is not ready to offer to go in the back and get a book for you; you are asked to come back later. Both stores participate in community activities that are diverse to a point. Both stores have café’s with coupon offers. Barnes & Noble has the customer make a purchase in order to get free offer. Borders does offer a customer satisfaction survey when completed the customer gets a 15% off coupon.

Staffing: For the few rude and obnoxious staff I have encountered at BOTH stores, the helpful and courteous ones diminish the negative ones. I cannot understand why B&N hires introverted people; this job requires some people skills and lots on people interaction. Some B&N staff would rather stick a pen in their own eye rather than talk with you. Both stores need staff that are knowledgeable on the merchandise being sold. Waldenbooks in the Galleria was great before it closed because of a staff person - Natalie had the African American section up to date with positive books and when talking with her, she knew tons about the subject because she is an avid reader as well. It was a sad day when the bookstore had to leave the mall.

Borders does have better savings in coupons and promotions for the avid reader. In a 12 month period I saved $279.10 at Borders with a free membership and I earned $20.00 in Reward Bucks. I saved $96.32 at Barnes & Noble with a membership fee of $25.00 making my actual savings total $71.32. I made 40 purchases at Barnes & Noble in 12 months and I made 34 purchases at Borders in the same time.

I saved more at Borders than I did at Barnes & Noble. I must admit that the other merchant I frequent is Amazon.com. I enjoy the availability of merchandise and the everyday savings of 20% or more. Amazon also offers free shipping on orders of $25.00 or more and I can also sell my books as well. I believe Barnes & Noble offers a way for merchants to sell their books through their web also. Borders want to hear - but what is done with communication is something else. Hope this little experiment is helpful to others as it was to myself!
Denise Bolds, MSW