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A while back, I bought a Nook from Barnes and Noble. I looked, compared, and researched eReaders for MONTHS before finally purchasing one so I'd have it in time for my trip to Belgium. It just happened that it coincided with my birthday at the end of April, so for my Birthday, I went to Barnes and Noble at Southpoint, and for the grand total of $365 I walked out the door with my new Nook in hand. Yeah, I bought the insurance plan. Hell, I plan on taking it with me on my overseas travels, so being able to get a free replacement if I drop it, or it gets smushed in transit is a good thing.

Ultimately, I chose the Nook over the Kindle 2 for one real reason. Barnes and Noble is a brick and mortar retailer. Yeah, they have a huge online store too, but I can actually walk into a B&N store and buy things. I can carry my Nook into one and sample books, get special content, and all that jazz. THAT is why I chose the Nook. It's not technically better than the Kindle 2.

The only real technical enhancement it has over the Kindle 2 is the micro SDHC slot. One could argue that the OLED touch screen is an enhancement, but honestly, it's a convenience factor that I wouldn't really have missed if it wasn't there from the start. It's based on Android, but so far, not hackable, so even that's out the window. So really, when choosing between the two, you're really just making a choice between Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

So I chose Barnes and Noble, my favorite book store over Amazon, the online giant. But then, just a few weeks later, I get the usual Barnes and Noble e-mail that made me a bit unhappy. They were running a deal where I could have bought a Nook for the same price, and gotten a $50 gift certificate. $50 is a fair number of e-books I could have gotten. Or a new technical book. Or who knows what. Point is, the fact that just a few short weeks later I could have gotten $50 in store credit for the same purchase really irritated me.

But today was the worst. Today is the reason I say FUCK YOU Barnes and Noble. Today I got the typical advertisement e-mail and lo and behold, the Nook, the SAME nook that I bought for $259, is now REGULARLY priced at $199. That's a $60 difference in price. Yeah, I know, technology prices drop after they've matured, yada yada. I'm used to that. I buy gadgets quite a bit, and it's one of the reasons I am not an early adopter in general. But I waited over a YEAR before buying my Nook, and not even 2 months later, they cut the price by a shade under 25%.

Twenty Five Percent. All I wanted when I bought it originally was a 15% Barnes and Noble member discount. Oh no... the Nook isn't discounted, ever. Not allowed to. But now I could have saved 25% and I'm pretty steamed over it. I'd be ok if this was 6 months later, a year later, whatever. but less than 8 weeks?

Unfortunately, manufacturing costs have NOT dropped that much in 8 weeks. Parts costs have surely not dropped that much in 8 weeks. And the fact that they sell them now for 200 bucks tells me that everyone before this point was just taking it in the ass in gouged profits. THAT is what pisses me off. That and the fact that I KNOW these decisions are NOT made overnight. In fact, they usually take MONTHS to research and implement. So the decision to cut the price by nearly 1/4 was pretty much made BEFORE I paid 25% more than you will.

THAT is what pisses me off.

So thanks a LOT Barnes and Noble. My ass feels thoroughly violated. /RANT