Barnes taking over Borders’ customer lists: Will you opt out?
December 8, 2011
(This post is going up a little late.)
This is a first.
I received an email, as you might have if you were part of the Borders Rewards program, from Barnes and Noble informing me of the acquisition of Borders property in the liquidation which included “Borders brand trademarks and their customer list.”
I have no idea what they intend to do with the trademarks but they wanted that customer list for obvious reasons.
Our intent in buying the Borders customer list is simply to try and earn your business. The majority of our stores are within close proximity to former Borders store locations, and for those that aren’t, we offer our award- winning NOOK™ digital reading devices that provide a bookstore in your pocket. We are readers like you, and hope that through our stores, NOOK devices, and our bn.com online bookstore we can win your trust and provide you with a place to read and shop.
I don’t know about you but my first skim/misreading of that paragraph completely had me thinking they were offering Nooks as bribes for us to not opt out. Wishful thinking.
How do you feel about being passed over, with your full knowledge, as a customer from one store to another? Do you expect Barnes to earn your business all over again or are you already a customer? Would you expect them to start from ground zero if not?
I don’t like the idea of being passed on to another company, but I know it happens of course. Everyone has to earn my business, always. My details are of relatively little value to full price book stores. I buy second hand from Amazon, from the local fleamarket and – best prices of all, if a bit sad – from the local library. Whilst I’m whinging about full price book stores, I find the music they play is quite distracting when I’m trying to make considered decisions, which is probably their intent. Another reason to avoid them.
I knew this was coming only because I work in publishing and it was a pretty nasty legal fight for B&N to win the right to purchase Borders’ intellectual property (their customer loyalty program lists, their website domains, their social media properties, etc).
I won’t join B&N’s program because of the annual fee, but I’m happy to receive their emails and social media posts (I had already signed up to receive whatever emails B&N sends out to their non-paid-membership people – I can’t tell if the lists have been fully combined yet or not). I have more books than I could hope to read just through work, so I don’t tend to buy new books except as gifts. I don’t shop on Amazon at all, which I’ve talked about previously. I’m dismayed that there is now only one national bookstore chain, but I’m much more concerned with Amazon hurting the publishing industry than with B&N doing so.
Hm. Interesting. I wonder what disinformation I gave Borders? I usually lie when asked for personal information, so as not to have to resist wheedling from salespeople.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to lie to protect our privacy from the retail industries?