Remember how one of the biggest disadvantage of the Kindle versus the Nook used to be that Barnes & Noble had so many physical outlet stores and Amazon didn’t? Well, today Amazon announced that, as of November 15th, over 16,000 stores across the US will be carrying the devices, including Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Staples, Sam’s Club, Radio Shack, Office Depot, and more.
Of course, most of these stores already have been carrying Kindle goods for a while, but it’s a little startling just how many of them there really are now. It’s a far cry from the days when Kindle owners used to have to act as local goodwill ambassadors, arranging times to meet with potential buyers and show off their nifty mail-order toy.
(Found via our sister blog Gadgetell.)
Tell me again of the advantage that B & N has by selling the Nook in its stores? that their in store reps know what they are talking about? Really? I doubt it.
At the time, the advantage was thought to be the fact that potential buyers could handle the device and see how good it actually looked, while the Kindle was just pictures on a website. This “advantage” doesn’t appear to have worked in B&N’s favor in the long run, however.
And B&N is selling Nooks at Books a Million, Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, Staples, and probably other venues as well. I think in most cases, if someone is looking at the Nook/Kindle, most stores that sell one, sell both. From what I can tell, neither the Kindle nor Nook really allow you to play with the devices at the various big box stores, you just get to see a canned display, but at the B&N store, you can play with a live Nook and really try just about everything except load your own SD card in it. I think that’s a real advantage for the Nook, IF you have a B&N nearby, and you know that the Nooks at B&N are live and not canned displays like the demo units elsewhere. Chances are, most people don’t know that, and Kindle has higher name recognition, so it’s probably not that much of an advantage for the Nook.