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>The last time I was there, the coffee shop lady hassled me. It was a very unpleasant experience. I heard from a friend of mine that she had the same experience. Apparently, if they see you there and not spending enough money, they start harassing you.

I'll take "Things that will make me spend even less money in that store" for $800, Alex.

Between this and shuttering DRM based services after promising you can buy the tracks you love, etc... I really have to wonder why companies haven't stopped and asked themselves why what they are doing isn't working.

Nah, it can't be us, they'll think... so let's double down on the restrictions, pressure selling tactics and blame the dirty pirates when our bottom line continues to slip.

Meanwhile, those dirty pirates aren't dealing with any of this bullshit.

"those dirty pirates"

There is an interesting analogy between "dirty pirates" and teens in malls.

Pretty much everyone younger than myself has had the experience of mall security severely hassling them as a teen or even as a young adult, pretty much just because their rentacops have a license to be jerks. Well, here I am a rather well paid dude with fat stacks of cash, but the mall doesn't want my type there, so it never even appears on the radar anymore. Malls are dead to anyone younger than perhaps 40. Not surprisingly they're generally not doing so well financially. Lots of dead / dying malls across the country.

If a company hates their primary and future customers enough, eventually those customers WILL go away permanently.

With B+N it might be location based or racial harassment etc because my screaming little kids (is there any other kind?) and I shop there and they don't mess with me. Then again I pass for a non-minority middle aged reasonably well dressed middle class dude. I suspect that is the key to their unwritten harassment policies.

"the mall doesn't want my type there"

What happens when you go to the mall? What type are you? I sometimes visited malls while under 40 and I never got hassled, so I'm curious.

What I'm getting at is perhaps 20 years ago there was hysteria about teens in malls being disruptive / troublemakers therefore rentacops to chase them away so the financially valuable moms and dads can shop in peace and comfort. I knew about the crackdown so I never even bothered going to the mall as a teen. As a young adult at lunch hour at my first real job, a business formal suit and tie establishment, I bought some nice expensive clothes, walking thru the mall to my car after obviously shopping at my lunch (I took off the sports coat of my business suit) and got severely hassled by a rentacop about what I'm doing there and where are my parents, etc. Pretty much like I heard they treat teens except they didn't call the cops and issue a loitering ticket to me. Never went back there again.

The long term problem with treating teens like dirt, is they eventually grow up into adults some of which have fat stacks of cash and would make fantastic customers, however there's no way in hell they're ever going back to that place again.

It appears mall security was very effective there. Nothing left in there but urbanware clothing, tennis shoes, cell phones, and really cheap jewelry left. Its not that the neighborhood has done downhill, can't count how many million dollar condos within a mile.

" I really have to wonder why companies haven't stopped and asked themselves why what they are doing isn't working."

That's the problem. These are the conclusions they're reaching after they ask that question - which hints that they're having problems before enacting these policies, which lead to these policies. (Which will only make things worse...)

Of note from the blog:

This ensured that my books would be available even when I didn't have a network connection (as happened yesterday during a wind storm which cut the power to the DSLAM which connects me to the internet).

The thought of being unable to read a purchased ebook on the seller's reader just because I don't have an internet connection is preposterous. I'm most likely to read ebooks exactly when I _don't_!

You can immediately sync it to your device when you purchase. But of course that requires you remembering to do it. Annoying, but if you're online to purchase you can sync to device then as well.

I'm not sure there's a way for B&N to revoke titles either. The DRM seems to just be keyed off of Name and Credit Card Number. I may be a minority, but I have several hundred titles that fit with room to spare on one of the later gen Nooks. Now as far as getting an actual file.... Maybe you'll just have to get a first gen Nook. Surely the desktop application stores an epub locally at some point though?

I actually bought a few books at B&N just now. I enjoy the experience of browsing and being able to flip through a book before actually buying it. Is it worth paying 50% (in this case) more than Amazon? I don't know, but I would prefer that real bookstores exist for at least a little longer.

Of course, while paying, I had to say no three separate times to joining whatever club or credit card they try to pressure you into, thus completely ruining an otherwise pleasant experience and making me question why I ever go there anymore.

That must be one really dumb employee at your particular store. I use their Internet without making purchases for hours at a time pretty often and no one says a word to me. I buy a good bit of stuff from there on other occasions, so I don't feel bad about it, but I've never been hassled or anything by their coffee shop folks.

I'd report them to their manager if I were you. They're costing the store money.

My experience with that tactic has been that if every seat is full (e.g. Saturday at 11 am in a university town), and a paying customer with no seat complains there are obviously non-paying students reading books clearly not from B$N, then they'll ask the person least likely to fuss to move.

Indeed. Most of the Cafe areas in B&N's have a specific sign that the seating is for those buying food and coffee. Typically there is seating elsewhere in the store for just sitting and reading. If the Cafe area is full, and you are not buying, or have not bought food or coffee, you are preventing them from selling it.