

In 1995, he was appointed chief operating officer, and in January 2003 he was appointed CEO. After getting his start in the buying and merchandising departments, he became general manager and vice president of the company’s direct mail division in 1981, and held that position until 1987. Riggio began his career at Barnes & Noble in 1975 after graduating from Brooklyn College. Steve Riggio was CEO from January 2003 until March 2010. On August 3, 2010, the company announced that its board was considering a sale of the company, possibly to an investor group led by its chairman, Leonard Riggio. Burkle is concerned about falling profits and disagrees with Barnes & Noble's e-book strategy. Burkle is engaged in a proxy fight against chairman Steve Riggio in an attempt to change the management and direction of Barnes & Noble. Barnes & Noble has been spending millions on legal fees to defend against a lawsuit by billionaire investor Ron Burkle. In 2002, Leonard Riggio's brother Stephen Riggio was named CEO. īarnes & Noble store in Winston Salem, North Carolina According to the site, it now carries over 2 million titles. It first began selling books online in the late 1980s, but the company’s website was not launched until May 1997. īefore Barnes & Noble created its web site, it sold books directly to customers through mail-order catalogs. B&N's critics claim that it has contributed to the decline of local and independent booksellers. The acquisition of 797 bookstores turned the company into a nationwide retailer, and as of the end of fiscal year 1999, the second-largest online bookseller in the United States. Dalton stores were slated to close in January 2010. These titles were primarily affordable reissues of out-of-print titles, and selling them through mail-order catalogs allowed Barnes & Noble to reach new customers nationwide.īarnes & Noble continued to expand throughout the 1980s, and in 1987 purchased the primarily shopping mall-based B.

They also began to publish their own books to be sold to mail-order customers. During the 1970s and 1980s, Barnes & Noble opened smaller discount stores, which were eventually phased out in favor of larger stores. In 1974, Barnes & Noble became the first bookstore to advertise on television, and a year later, the company became the first bookseller in America to discount books, by selling The New York Times best-selling titles at 40% off the publishers’ list price.

The business was purchased in 1971 by Leonard Riggio, who oversaw the growth of the business. In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, the bookstore was moved to its current flagship location on 18th Street and Fifth Avenue. The original bookstore was at 31 West 15th St., and opened during World War I. Clifford Noble, in 1917 in New York City. Their first true bookstore was set up by his son, William, in partnership with G. īarnes & Noble originated in 1873 when Charles Barnes opened a book-printing business in Wheaton, Illinois. states and the District of Columbia in addition to 637 college bookstores, which serve nearly 4 million students and 250,000 faculty members across the country. The company operates 717 stores (as of October 30, 2010) in all 50 U.S. Barnes & Noble is also known for selling the Barnes & Noble Nook, as well as various incarnations of its mascot, a teddy bear named "Barnsie". Video games and related items were sold in the company's GameStop retail outlets until October 2004, when the division was spun off into an independent company. Most stores also sell magazines, newspapers, DVDs, graphic novels, gifts, games, and music. The company is known for large, upscale retail outlets, many of which contain a café serving Starbucks Coffee, and for competitive discounting of bestsellers. Dalton Booksellers stores in malls until they announced the liquidation of the chain. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. ( NYSE: BKS) is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. (1917 first bookstore opened)ħ17 stores as of Octo637 college bookstoresīarnes & Noble's flagship store at 105 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York has been operating since 1932.īarnes & Noble, Inc.
