Page 18 - September 2020

The Power of the

Written Word

“The worth of bookstores
has been made clear as places of
discovery and inspiration”

arnes & Noble operates 613 stores in all 50 states and have proven very popular. He believes they will now become
across the USA and runs a premier e-commerce a permanent part of what they – and many other independent
site, BN.com. Its Nook Digital business offers a line- bookstores - will offer in the coming months and years.
B up of tablets and e-Readers alongside an expansive The company has continued to open new stores, with
collection of digital reading content through the NOOK store. three new locations launching recently in Sarasota, Florida,
Owned by Elliot Advisors Limited, Barnes & Noble was Schaumburg, Illinois and Rockville, Maryland. The new units
founded in 1971 by bookseller Leonard Riggio when he are all around 18,000sq ft in size and therefore noticeably
acquired the Barnes & Noble trade name and bookstore on smaller than its traditional 25,000sq ft stores.
Fifth Avenue in New York City. “The presentation is radically different to the conventional
Given the current market conditions because of the B&N store, using much lighter fixtures arranged into rooms in
impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the business has not contrast to the library-style aisles of bookcases to which the
altered its key objective of creating much better looking, business has traditionally adhered. Both customer and bookseller
much better stocked and much better run bookstores, but reception has been extremely positive, and we expect all new
they have certainly re-evaluated how this can be achieved. stores to follow a similar presentation,” says Daunt.
“Some adjustments have been positive, such as the The company will prioritise new store openings in
example of using the period of enforced store closures to locations where they are closing stores, generally for the
undertake the highly disruptive, complete relay of the store’s reason of store economics or to accommodate landlord
shelving furniture arrangement,” explains James Daunt, CEO initiatives. Moving forward, they will not limit their search for
of Barnes & Noble. “Others have been constrained by a new stores in any particular market.
necessary focus on cost control and limited expenditure.” Looking forward, Daunt feels cautiously optimistic. This is
They are also restructuring almost every part of the business because despite everything that has happened in the world
to better support the stores. These changes were in motion in the last few months, books remain in strong demand.
before the onset of Covid-19 and they are continuing with a Reading has remained an important solace and the sale
clear focus during these difficult times. Other alterations relate of books – while it has primarily and necessarily moved
to better management of stock, either in how it is bought or predominantly online – has remained strong.
the logistics of supplying the stores. The aim of the changes is “The worth of bookstores has been made clear as places of
to improve the quality of stock in its stores and to make the discovery and inspiration. Other retailers are not so lucky; the
task associated with its management much more efficient. pandemic has simply served to demonstrate their redundancy,
“We kept employed within our stores a core of our most while for us it has been the opposite,” explains Daunt.
experienced booksellers even when they were closed. This Moving forward Daunt hopes that the wider industry,
has allowed us to re-open stores at the earliest opportunity notably publishers will stand by physical booksellers in the
and to do so smoothly which in turn has meant we have months to come.
benefitted from a steady improvement in our sales as “In short, if we all stand together, we will get through this
consumer confidence has returned,” explains Daunt. stronger. Having been through tough times in the past – in the
In the last few months the company has concentrated on UK, the recession of 1990/91 and the 2008-2013 onslaught
improving the basics, notably its online operation and its BOPIS of Amazon, Kindle and the financial crisis were devastating
(buy online pick up in store), with curb-side pick-up being for bookstores – the lesson was to exercise close financial
maintained for all shops except the very few where this was not discipline’ to communicate with all business stakeholders to
permitted. Daunt notes that online events, notably on its various avoid any surprises; and to remain relentless in improving the
social media platforms, particularly Instagram, were very successful core quality of the bookstore,” concludes Daunt.

The world’s largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media

and educational products, the mission of Barnes & Noble is to operate the best
omni-channel specialty retail business in America. Here, RLI sits down with

company CEO James Daunt to discuss what changes the business has gone through
and how it continues to have a positive outlook moving forward.