A few days ago, I was in a US city--Cincinnati. It was an official trip and was very hectic. However, I had moments in the city, roaming around the shops and malls. I happened to visit one of the leading bookstore chains in the US--Barnes & Noble. Indeed, the stores have an amazing range of books and for all age groups. In most of the bookstores, the chain has a cafe inside, unlike in India, where readers can sip beverages while they read books. Only Reliance Timeout store in Gurgoan's Ambiance Mall has one. But the book range does not match that of the Barnes & Noble.
I loved the variety of books in their store. Barnes & Noble, like Amazon.com's Kindle, does also have their e-book reader called Nook. My friend and I wanted to buy the device since it was really affordable in the US and had a lot of features. Android-enabled, the device had plenty of add-on features and freebies. Any device boasting to be closer to it in India would cost a lot. It started from USD 129. Indeed a best buy. But we could not buy the device since we did not have a credit card with any of the US banks. It was required to register the device online at the time of purchase to use its full features and to be able to download apps and books.
However, we learnt from the store manager that B&N will open stores in 30 countries from next year. I'm sure India is one of the top countries where it opens stores. I'm eagerly waiting to see their book stores in India. It would be a wake-up call for Indian bookstores. They will have to relook at their shops and jazz them up a little to stay in the competition.
I loved the variety of books in their store. Barnes & Noble, like Amazon.com's Kindle, does also have their e-book reader called Nook. My friend and I wanted to buy the device since it was really affordable in the US and had a lot of features. Android-enabled, the device had plenty of add-on features and freebies. Any device boasting to be closer to it in India would cost a lot. It started from USD 129. Indeed a best buy. But we could not buy the device since we did not have a credit card with any of the US banks. It was required to register the device online at the time of purchase to use its full features and to be able to download apps and books.
However, we learnt from the store manager that B&N will open stores in 30 countries from next year. I'm sure India is one of the top countries where it opens stores. I'm eagerly waiting to see their book stores in India. It would be a wake-up call for Indian bookstores. They will have to relook at their shops and jazz them up a little to stay in the competition.
Comments
Post a Comment