Barnes and Nobles or Barnes & Noble with its popular name is one of the most popular book seller chains in United States. They are serving since 1873. Company’s headquarter is in New York City. Barnes & Noble is popular in U.S countries with its wide and retail outlets. Most of stores include a Starbucks beverages selling café. Also it’s possible to find toys, games, DVDs and more in stores. Barnes & Noble Company released digital e-book reader Nook and reader made a great commercial success. How many Barnes and Nobles stores are there in the United States?
Today there are over 700 stores in U.S. It’s possible to find stores of company on each states and District of Columbia. Also there are over 600 college bookstores of company. They are serving to 4.6 million students.
Company opened its first bookstore in New York City in 1917. It was an important movement for American society that a big bookstore is opened in the World War I. 31 West 15th St was the original place of bookstore but then in 1929’s great depression, store moved to 18th Street and Fifth Avenue and became a phenomena in this address.
In 70s, Leonard Riggio bought the company and Barnes & Noble made a big improvement with him. Company became the first bookstore advertised in TV. After advertisements, company started to sell books in discount. It was the first time books were selling in discount in U.S. Also bookstores sold New York Times cheaper than others.
In 80s, Barnes & Noble started to open small bookstores in states and started to publish its own books. Company made a successful strategy on book publishing and published cheap copies of popular books. Also company started to send book catalogues to houses and it was an important development for booksellers.
With 90s, company started to create its own website and sell books online. But it was not a public website and only serving for special customers. Barnes & Noble opened its website in 1997 and not it has over 2 million books in it.
Barnes and Nobles stores are also popular with their Starbucks beverages selling café inside. Company opened its first Starbucks in Springfield, New Jersey. Most of the bookstores include Starbucks beverages selling cafes today. It’s also possible to find products like Harney & Sons, Tazo Tea, Godiva Chocolatiers candies and more in cafes.
Barnes and Noble is criticized since 2004 for not giving Wi-Fi service in stores. In 2004, company made an agreement with AT&T and started to give AT&T FreedomLink service. Today all Barnes and Noble stores offer Wi-Fi.
Barnes & Noble released their e-book reader Nook in 2009. Original Nook includes Wi-Fi and 3G connection. Also there’s an only Wi-Fi model. Reader is using e-ink technology. Barnes & Noble never accepted but authorities believe that company is very late for releasing e-book reader. But against all problems, Nook made a commercial success and today it’s one of the most important e-book readers in United States.
Today there are 4 versions of Nook. First version Nook released in 2 GB. A full and without 3g versions are available. Nook Simple Touch released in 2011. Touch used E Ink Pearl technology.
Nook Color was the first color version of Nook series. It was including 8 GB memory. Nook Color is criticized with its low battery life.
Nook Tablet is the latest release of Nook series. Nook Tablet is not an only e-book reader. Nook Tablet is offering Capacitive multitouch screen, 7-inch VividView color touchscreen and more.
