Barnes and Noble puts the hammer down! Pulls 100 DC GN’s from stores

Yesterday Barnes and Noble made a decision that’s unusual in bookstores as of late. Pulling one hundred DC Graphic Novels from all 750 of their stores across the country. This was done in the wake of DC Comics making a deal with Amazon to carry their graphic novels on the Amazon Fire Kindle exclusively for four months. The 100 graphic novels include such perennial sellers as Watchmen, Sandman, The Dark Knight Returns, Fables, Blackest Night, V for Vendetta, and All Star Superman. All titles strong sellers for the company. You can special order the books and order them through Barnes and Noble’s online site, but getting a physical copy on the shelf is out of the question for those titles.

I visited one of my local Barnes and Noble stores today, just to see the shelves in the aftermath, lo and behold they were all pulled.  Through this article you’ll see pictures of what I mean, it is weird to see a Barnes and Noble without a copy of Watchmen yet here we are. The top shelf is especially notable in dramatic amount of titles pulled off the shelf. Until the exclusivity deal ends with Amazon or DC Comics makes a deal with Barnes and Noble these titles will remain pulled off the shelves. Though from what I got from employees they do feel this could be a temporary situation yet from what I see this could be an extended stalemate since Barnes and Noble has been wanting to get a deal with DC Comics to carry their Graphic Novels on their Nook Color since the device first came about.

This is one of those moves that could hurt Barnes and Noble in the long haul, the Retail rules go if they don’t see it on the shelf there’s a good chance they’re going to wander somewhere else to grab a copy. Having that much inventory sitting in their back rooms isn’t the best business decision. I understand why Barnes and Noble is doing this, they’re throwing weight around to show DC Comics that they made a big mistake in making this deal with Amazon. In reality the opposite is true, they’ve just opened up the door for other retailers including your local comic shop to take advantage of this unique situation.

If I was a comic shop owner, this would be a major opportunity to build business with consumers looking for these graphic novels. There’s a rule on retail that if the product isn’t on the shelf more than likely they’re not going to ask if it’s there, they’re just going to go somewhere else. Most comic stores have these books in stock and ready for anyone walking in their stores. Watchmen, The Sandman, Fables, and V for Vendetta alone are books that people are always discovering and wanting to check out. Not all Barnes and Nobles have pulled their books just yet, but it’s percolating throughout all stores as we speak. All I know is this Amazon announcement has lead to some surprises in the comic business. Stay tuned comic fans, things are only going to get more interesting from here.