CENTRAL PARK bisects upper Manhattan, creating two neighbourhoods and, apparently, two reading cultures. On the Upper West Side, the New York Times is “a standout for us” in terms of driving book purchases, says Victoria Harty, assistant manager of the local branch of Barnes & Noble, America’s biggest bookstore chain. On the east side, meanwhile, customers prefer recommendations from the Washington Post and the Atlantic.
Tables showcasing tailored recommendations greet west- and east-siders. Such curation is standard at independent bookshops but, for about a decade, was missing from Barnes & Noble, which modelled itself on more generic retailers, almost going bust in the process. Things are now improving: in 2024 the firm opened or re-opened 57 shops, bringing its total to 650 or so. This year it will open 60 more.
“It sort of makes one barely able to breathe to think how bad it once was,” says James Daunt, who took over as chief executive in 2019. That summer Elliott Management, a hedge fund, bought Barnes & Noble for $683m and took it private, a year after purchasing Waterstones, Britain’s biggest bookseller. Mr Daunt had saved Waterstones and was given the same task in America. Today, he says, “we’re making good money”. (As a private firm, Barnes & Noble does not report earnings.)
The company’s troubles started after the global financial crisis of 2007-09, which hit consumer spending. The ascent of Amazon, an online retailer, made matters worse. Predicting that books would go the way of CDs, Barnes & Noble bet on Nook, its answer to Amazon’s Kindle. The company partnered with tech firms, cleared inventory and hired staff to sell its hardware in stores. “We expect that 2010 will be a watershed year in Barnes & Noble’s transformation from being a brick-and-mortar retailer to becoming a major e-commerce retailer,” said Stephen Riggio, then the firm’s boss, in February that year.
As Janine Flanigan, who leads Barnes & Noble’s store strategy, notes, “Trying to be an Apple…did not work for us”. Investments in games, gifts and toys followed. Ms Harty says the bookseller was turning into Staples, an office-focused retailer. (“We were selling Jansport backpacks.”)
Mr Daunt thought that such items undermined bookselling credibility. He chucked the bottled water, even though it sold well. He freshened up stores, banned paid promotion by publishers and rejigged shelves to make browsing easy—no more “World History” alphabetised by author. If shoppers know they want Simon Schama’s “Citizens”, a book on the French Revolution, they can just “go on Amazon”, he says.
Barnes & Noble’s boss argues that all bookstores are more or less on the same side, and that Amazon is on the other. Mr Daunt set up Daunt Books, a small chain, in London in 1990 and still runs its nine branches. The industry, he says, is not zero-sum: big chains keep customers buying print books, benefiting all players. He says that he takes care not to open stores near indies. Some are nevertheless sceptical. Allison Hill of the American Booksellers Association, a trade group, argues that his firm’s expansion harms independents.
What has undoubtedly benefited the whole industry is BookTok, a swotty corner of TikTok, a social-media app. Circana, a research firm, says that 2021, when BookTok took off, was the best year for print books since it began to keep track in 2004. Sales of popular BookTok genres—fantasy, romance and thrillers—are growing fast.
Barnes & Noble hopes to capture some of the magic. Its bookstores offer “exclusive editions” of new releases, which BookTokers “trophy” on their shelves. The firm’s outlet in Manhattan’s Union Square hosts midnight book-release parties for BookTok favourites. They have drawn the sort of crowds last seen for “Harry Potter”.
Counting down to midnight on a frigid Monday, Brittni Hand shows off a quilt she crocheted in honour of the Ruinous Love Trilogy, a romance saga. She is on BookTok, as well as its Instagram counterpart. But she stumbled upon the series “accidentally”, she says, while “walking through Barnes & Noble”.■
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