Comments on: On Bookstores And Conservative Books

By: Cyber Cossack » Blog Archive » Anti Communist Books Still being Blacklisted

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:25:31 +0000

[...] “Animal Farm” published and now that this book is published, readers are having a tough time wresting copies from the book store managers. Posted in media | No Comments [...]

By: Dodd

Dodd — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:44:18 +0000

That opinion is, I presume, based on your having actually read the book. Right?

By: Joannes Jacobsen

Joannes Jacobsen — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:56:37 +0000

I couldn’t find a single one. Anywhere. I looked in New Nonfiction. Nothing. I looked in Current Affairs. Nothing. Politics. Nothing. General Nonfiction. Nothing.

Maybe they have placed it in the General Fiction section where it belongs.

By: Chris Lawrence

Chris Lawrence — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:22:37 +0000

My recollection from working at B&N (in 1997) is that each book was scanned when it arrived in the store, so if inventory said we had it it was either on the shelf, on a cart waiting to be shelved, or behind the counter waiting for a customer to pick it up. (If we checked out a hardcover book to read, it would show up in inventory too, but I doubt that would account for more than one copy of a book.)

By: Anderson

Anderson — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:51:40 +0000

Probably the employees all took them home to read. "Wow, dude, it turns out Mussolini wasn't a fascist after all! This guy is SO much smarter than my doofus history teacher."

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:17:20 +0000

Other authors such as Coulter, Hannity, and Limbaugh seem to have no trouble moving plenty of books through these outlets, so I remain unconvinced that there is any systematic attempt to sell fewer conservative books.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:56:39 +0000

Ah, Louisville. That's the first place my Schuler ancestors settled when they arrived here from Switzerland. I visited relatives there often as a kid. I still have lots of Schuler relatives there and in the adjacent areas of Indiana and Ohio.

By: Dodd

Dodd — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:51:03 +0000

You don't live in California by any chance do you, Dodd?

No, not any more. All the bookstores discussed here are in Louisville, KY.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:21:06 +0000

A Physical inventory is done once a year and the shrinkage is not recognised until that point.

That astounds me. Lots of retail outlets are doing physicals daily these days.

By: Dantheman

Dantheman — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:57:43 +0000

My experience is that B&N tends to have more of the liberal polemics and to display them more prominenently, and Borders more of the conservative ones more prominently displayed, but I can usually find whatever I am looking for with some effort at both.

By: fredw

fredw — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:45:31 +0000

Blame incompetence. Barnes and Noble has an inventory system where the system says ( for example ) that 5 copies of "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left ..." were sent to the store and are in inventory, but there is no way of verifying their delivery. The five books may be in five different boxes, and no packing information tells you which of the 100 boxes they are in. I had a friend that worked at B&N, and they NEVER had the number of Harry Potter books the inventory indicated and there was no way to tell if they disappeared in the store, on the loading dock, or at the shipper. A Physical inventory is done once a year and the shrinkage is not recognised until that point.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:33:07 +0000

You don't live in California by any chance do you, Dodd?