From the press release:
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced its award-winning NOOK eBook Reader will be sold in 2,500 Walmart stores (NYSE: WMT) and online at www.walmart.com. The popular NOOK devices are expected to arrive on Walmart shelves beginning as soon as October 24, in advance of the holiday shopping season.
The NOOK eBook Readers will be prominently featured as the premier eBook Reader in the consumer electronics area. Many Walmart stores will feature a NOOK-branded eReading area where shoppers can see and touch a demonstration device.
Walmart will offer both great choice and value with two NOOK by Barnes & Noble eBook Reader models — NOOK 3G, which offers free AT&T 3G wireless and Wi-Fi connectivity, as well as NOOK Wi-Fi, a Wi-Fi only model.
This move makes no sense to me. I suppose WalMart hopes to snag a larger portion of the middle-class market with it but the Nook is not that popular. I might have walked through those doors to browse Kindles but not the Nook.
I think it’s a good move: $149 price point is a Wal-martish price (and, Wal-mart sells / will sell soon Apple iPads). But Wal-mart will need to be clear in signage that Nooks do NOT have access to Amazon content AND they do have access to library content.
Kobos have been selling in Canada successfully at Wal-mart since June.
Like many others, I’m worried that BN will go the way of the dinosaur. So, seeing them reach out and really try to make the Nook successful is good news. Amazon needs competition and if it’s not BN, I’m not sure who it will be.
Rob Preece
Publisher
@Meredith Greene: WalMart considers Amazon their Number one enemy in retailing and have publicly stated their intent to displace them with WalMart.com.
We’ll see glaciers in the sahara before WalMart carries an Amazon-branded product, much less one that is featured at Target, their Number Two enemy.
Realistically this match-up is both natural and inevitable as Nook is the only viable contender to Kindle for WalMart’s customer base.
Looks like, though, that Walmart will also be carrying the Kobo eReader too. Wonder how that makes Barnes & Noble feel? 🙂 And as far as I know, Walmart is still selling Sony devices too. The Nook will be one of three choices in a lot of stores.
walmart.com displace amazon.com?!? in their dreams. No one, and I mean no one, understands e-tailing better than Amazon nor has invested in the back end and infrastructure — including fulfillment infrastructure (aka warehouses, timely picking, packing and shipment) — as has Amazon. Walmart Inc is very good at bricks and mortar … VERY good … but Amazon is the kind of online.
Amazon is not an upstart: it generated $30 billion in sales in the past 12 months and handsome returns to shareholders and the bottom line. It is nicely hedged in the US and internationally. In fact, the only sour note in today’s Q3 earnings report was the hit it took thanks to the falling US dollar against most major currencies during the quarter.
No doubt Amazon is comfy if Wal-mart carries Nook, Kobo and Sony; it’s tied up Target, Staples and Best Buy … not to mention its leading share of ALL book sales in North America as a prime audience for Kindles. And, you know: every Kindle sale represents an ongoing (profitable, no warehouse required) revenue stream … and some Kobo, Nook and Sony e-reader sales … for which Wal-mart wins a one-time $50 margin … Amazon can look forward as future customers who have been bitten by the e-book bug.
Kinda nice when your “arch enemy” does your marketing for you, isn’t it?