The Move from Barnes & Noble: Apocalypse I

First of all, I would like to thank B&N for letting us play there for 10 months. I really appreciated having a place for my struggling new go club to meet. There were times when we had as many as 15 people, but there were others where it was just Tom and me.

When I first called B&N, I was greeted warmly by Micheal Culp (public relations manager). He talked about buying some club boards and their event calender. They even printed up a huge wall sign for us. It was all very exciting.

Happily, he even stocked a bunch of Go books. B&N only really stocks two boring Go books by default. Most of the store content is dictated from Corporate without any thought as to the local market that might be there. So, later they removed the interesting books and went back to the boring defaults. A little stupid since I've personally shelled out over $300 for go books so far (none from B&N).

(click for a larger image)

I also had a huge box of business cards printed up for the club. They're really neat. They feature the AGA logo and a famous hoshi joseki. They also display the words Barnes & Noble (along with the address) right in the middle, so those are useless now. Though, they are conveniently sized scrap paper for many tasks.

Initially, we had a very nice time at B&N. We got in the paper

(click for a larger image)

and Mr. Culp made an appearance at the first couple meetings. We had a half dozen people showing up regularly.

Then one day, without warning, they took down the sign. The nice wall sized sign that they paid for? They took it down and said our club wasn't official anymore. "But the chess club sign is still up." I argued.

"That is because the chess club guy is so annoyingly persistent that it's easier to just leave it up." She said. I had several club members that suggested they could be annoyingly persistent as well, but I discouraged that. I was afraid (and rightly so) that they'd kick us out for good.

The American Go Association actually recommends B&N as a good place to start looking when you first set up your chapter. Actually, they only recommend setting up a presentation there. But someone told me that B&N would like to see clubs and things meet at their store so they appear to be part of the community and not just a Global Corporate Mega Monster without a soul.

However, In the end, they are a Global Corporate Mega Monster without a soul. They told the KGC and the Kalamazoo Chess Club that

(click for ptb.com)

they would be "too crowded" during the holidays. They said we could come back afterwords, but that turned out to be false.

Make no mistake, I am grateful for the place they gave us to play. It's their store and they can make it a heartless corporate environment if they want to. We actually have a fine place to play for the moment -- though the smoke and music do bother people. The only reason I write this now is to dispel the illusion that B&N is anything but a Global Corporate Mega Monster without a soul.