B&N's coffee shop is a generic coffee shop. At my (now closed) local B&N, it was a Starbucks. With very little seating. And too loud pop music. It was not a place somebody would ever go to sit and read a chapter of the latest novel.
It's interesting , do you think B&N is well aware of all these shortcomings yet they don't do anything(for whatever reason) or the management is not or doesn't care?
Isn't knowing exactly who customers are and what they want the priority of any business? (one might argue sometimes customers don't know what the want)
They have to know, right? If not, they're incompetent.
Of course, the current CEO presided over Toys R Us as they fell into oblivion and ended up purchased by Bain Capital. And Sears Canada, another example of failed "big box" retail shopping.
>At my (now closed) local B&N, it was a Starbucks.
It was probably a Branded Solutions Food Service store (http://www.starbucks.com/business the Food Service option, not a Licensed Store or Starbuck Office Coffee delivery service) that served Starbucks brands from the "We Proudly Serve Starbucks Coffee" portfolio.
Or it may have been a real store (licensed); I can't say for certain.
The B&N I live near also has a "Starbucks" inside it, except it is actually one of the food service branded stores on closer inspection. It doesn't take the Starbucks app or giftcards, small signs with the prominent mermaid logo have the smaller "We Proudly Serve" print instead of "Starbucks", etc.
I think the Starbucks that are inside Target stores are also these sorts of arrangements.
My B&N had this "Branded Solutions Food Service" coffee. It was not a good experience. They didn't have the usual Starbucks coffees and it wasn't even hot.
Starbucks never operated coffee shops in B&N. B&N runs the shops entirely, and just uses Starbucks coffee and recipes. Try using a SB gift card at a B&N coffee shop and you'll see.
Regardless, my comments about the atmosphere hold. The coffee product was overpriced and mediocre. The seating was next to non-existent. And the music selection and volume were annoying. It was not a comfy place to sit and read.
Not all Starbucks coffee shops are generic. Some of them have really nice layouts with cozy corners and comfortable couches and they play jazz or classical music at reasonable volumes. But those tend to be in high-end areas, and B&N is definitely not high-end.
> Not all Starbucks coffee shops are generic. Some of them
> have really nice layouts
It may just be one of the generics that you like - they have I think four different styles (not exact layouts, but upholstery themes).
Quite a good idea IMO - allows them to better fit the area as you say, also make two nearby shops a bit different, while also keeping all the benefits of a common theme(s): bulk buying, easy and fast replacement, maintaining brand, etc.
Coffee business is about margins though - as long as people kept buying $3.50 cups that cost 25c to make (excluding labor), it might have been a good business.
> B&N's coffee shop is a generic coffee shop. At my (now closed) local B&N, it was a Starbucks.
It's not really a Starbucks in the same sense as the standalone coffee shops of that name (nor is it specific to a particular local store); they've licensed the branding and beverage product line from Starbucks on a chain-wide basis (their food products are not Starbucks lines, but from other sources.)
