Barnes & Noble failed to change with the times fast enough, according to James B. Stewart at the Wall Street Journal. He sensed “an air of desperation” about their move to sell the bookstore, while company officials explained that the reason for the sale was because its shares weren’t valued high enough.

In his perceptive article, Stewart gives a personal response as to why Barnes & Noble stumbled and fell while Amazon.com kept on rising. Barnes and Noble promised free same-day delivery in Manhattan if ordered on-line by 11 a.m. but consistently did not deliver his goods to him on the same day, while Amazon delivered every package on time and even earlier than promised. Barnes & Noble’s clinging to traditional paper books and bricks-and-mortar stores, resisting e-books and the Web, was another chink in their armor.

At Bucknell University, their new university bookstore is a Barnes & Noble, as are many university bookstores across the United States. Crowds flock to the Market St. Barnes & Noble bookstore for books and coffee until late, later than other small booksellers in the college town of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Its grand opening will be over the Aug.27-29th weekend. Officials at Bucknell, a top liberal arts institution founded in 1846, are not worried about the sale of Barnes & Noble and do not foresee any changes. The bookstore sells a lot of Bucknell University textbooks and will keep doing that.

Stewart also has an optimistic view of the future, that Barnes & Noble’s troubles could be good for smaller independent booksellers:

I enjoy the community of other people who love books. I like talking to someone both before buying a book and after reading it. I think independent bookstores may be able to provide these services … I may be naive, but I’d like to think there are new opportunities for booksellers.