A good piece, the unspoken element here is that the B&N described here is a much smaller B&N in terms of store and probably in terms of store size as well:
Instead B&N should pour that money into the development of a low cost, high efficiency print on demand machine. The current print on demand technology requires the installation of a behemoth device that currently costs about $100,000. Have you paid attention to the posts about 3D printing? 3D printers cost about $10,000 and can print out guns, exoskeletons, and even small planes. How is it that it requires ten times the cost to produce something made of glue and paper?
Barnes & Noble’s future is in providing quality physical objects to in store customers.
Eoin Purcell's Blog 
I agree. B&N’s future is in providing quality physical objects to in store customers. Forget the print on demand machines. Bringing together electronic books and physical books should be the main focus.