With stores having been closed because of Covid-19, Barnes & Noble used the quiet time to upgrade some of its interiors.
This spring, the book retailer used the lockdown to full effect and used the opportunity to refresh more than 350 of its 614-strong store portfolio across the US, using small teams to move furniture around, paint walls and bring in new books.
The revamp is just part of a broader plan to revive the company, which will prove a difficult task given the pandemic for Chief Executive James Daunt, who took over last summer.
“I knew I wanted to rip these stores apart and put them back together in a different way,” Mr. Daunt said. “And then suddenly: ‘Oh my goodness, they’re all shut. Let’s get to work.’”
“We didn’t want to spend any money, because we didn’t know how long this pandemic was going to go on for.”
