People still read books and people still enjoy shopping at bookstores, and the retail book store chain Barnes and Noble is proving it, with the recently-announced opening of 30 stores over just the next several months.
In an age when fewer people are reading books than a decade ago, the 2025 growth of B&N seems nothing short of remarkable, but one of its biggest keys to new success is the creation of a friendly and relaxed atmosphere and a unique "flavor" for each bookstore.
"Each of the bookstores should reflect the personality of the individual managers and the staff who works there," business analyst Michael Girdley said.
Even though Barnes and Noble may still regret passing on an offer to buy Amazon in 1998, just as Barnes and Noble was peaking as a unique big-bookstore business, Amazon closed its experiment with brick-and-mortar stores a few years ago, and Amazon moved into some of those stores.