An Open Letter to Barnes and Noble: Changes to improve a struggling book business

I wrote this up, this morning after having spent several weeks thinking about it. I've talked about this with a lot of people who buy books, and most people share the same complaints.
See, the thing is, I don't like monopolies. I've never been published by Amazon, and I have heard some great things about their e-publishing services, as well as their audiobook department. Be that as it may, I worry about getting too bound to one business to sell books. I don't believe any ONE company should run the market, and I don't feel I can trust a company that seems determined to own the market and crush any competition.
That said, Barnes and Noble doesn't 'own' me either. Frankly if I'm buying an e-book I prefer to download it directly from the writer as a .pdf when available so I can avoid a host of DRM problems. I shop indie bookstores when I can. Yet because they are geographically closest to me, Barnes and Noble gets a lot of my business. (To be honest, I'd probably like Amazon a whole lot more if they had an actual STORE I could go to, where I could walk in and touch the books. I'm a tactile person, physical presence with a product is important to me.)

In any event, regardless of my loyalties, when I see an easy solution to a problem I like to offer it up, so today I wrote to Barnes and Noble customer Service. Below is exactly what I sent, and I'd be interested to hear feedback from other shoppers/readers if I got it right or if I missed anything obvious.

"Dear Barnes and Noble,

As a frequent customer, I'd like to see your business continue to exist. The thought of physical bookstores not existing is something that would be a terrible loss to my community. Having made use of your services, I have a few suggestions.

First, your site to store ordering system is a brilliant tool, that is in your case, fundamentally flawed. Comparing your system to say, Walmart, with Walmart I can add ANY item and pick it up in a physical store, prepaid. With your system it relies on the stores existing inventory. MOST of the time when I go to your site to find a book, it's because I'm already having trouble finding it in store. I don't WANT to have it shipped to me in bad weather, I want to go pick it up.
Additionally, ANY feature that gets people to physically visit your store makes you money. If I walk into the store for ONE book, I will often leave with two or three. Especially if I have kids, friends, or family with me. Updating this feature in your system will make you money by getting people to the store.

Secondly, shipping. Your store relies solely on UPS from your distribution Warehouse. Believe it or not, MANY people do not like UPS. Their delivery times are slower than average, and in many areas they don't even deliver the package themselves. If you provide a secondary option of USPS or even FedEx, and LIST IT as that company, many people will pay MORE to get it shipped through a company they trust. Especially when you're competing with Amazon, that has millions of individual sellers with flexible options, you need to be flexible to stay ahead in the changing marketplace.

Paper books still sell, contrary to sale projection analysts, I know I will continue to buy 95% of my books in PRINT, and the e-books I read are either free, or not available in print. Don't focus solely on the e-book market when there are plenty of ways to increase the sales potential of your existing physical locations.
I hope this suggestion helps.

Liz"

So readers, what do you think about it?

Bad Book Reviews!

I'm launching my 'Bad Book Reviews' here now!

What qualifies a book as being a 'Bad Book'? Typically these are the books that have done well enough to earn a following of hatred.

 I'm open to suggestions, but the books must meet these criteria. One, the book needs to be pretty well known. Two, no self pubs, horror or excessively violent books, no non-fiction or politics. Three, I reserve the right to reject any and all recommendations. Four, I'm looking for books that might appeal to people, yet managed to still go wrong. Books that completely tanked for being terrible got there for a reason. I want books, that like certain 'B' movies, find there way onto shelves over and over, despite being terrible.

Got any ideas? Thus far on the chopping block are '50 Shades of Gray', and 'Twilight'. I've already read both, but I'm waiting on 50 Shades to do a comprehensive overall review of the trilogy.

So give me your suggestions! What are some terrible books out there that manage to sell? What books do you want me to critique with no holds barred honesty? Give me ideas!