Barnes and Noble has had to scale down a bit in terms of locations, as the recession has reduced consumers expendable incomes, but they?ve also grown wiser and the better for it. They now have ?The Nook?, an electronic reading device the size of your palm that enables you to read 1,000?s of books? you can highlight and save text, just like on a computer, and the screen of the The Nook is meant to appear as little like a computer screen as possible (easy on the eyes?.).
Amazon and other online retailers have cut into their business, but Barnes and Noble is still the best place for spending free time browsing all the coolest and newest books out there. It?s the ability to browse, to spend time looking through all the new titles that is lacking online. Looking, touching, feeling real books will always be more pleasurable than spending hours online staring at a computer screen doing the same thing (that?s more of a chore, if you ask me). They will also succeed as being the bookseller with the best selection of ?Coffee Table Books?? you know, big books with expensive photography and art work and compelling, contemporary, sexy themes. The magazine section at B & N is also to-die for? while many do not want to subscribe to magazines, who doesn?t want to thumb through them, and who cannot resist buying that ultra-cool art, fashion or style mag. Barnes and Noble is basically like a Starbucks, but more stimulating (and what do you know, many Barnes and Noble?s have built-in cafes that sell coffee too). It?s a hang-out spot, a place with a ?community? feeling, and I have a feeling Barnes and Noble stores will evolve even further in this ?experience?-oriented direction to lure in more customers in an increasingly online/virtual and cash-strapped future. I can imagine them setting up more tables and work-stations for freelancers and telecommuters to connect to free wifi with and use as a temporary office/meeting/socializing place, much like Starbucks does.
The stores are always clean, stately, spacious (huge!), cool and welcoming, and many people go just to people watch. They also have a lot of cool accessories, stationary, home accents, etc, that make perfect gifts.
Be sure to check the website for daily events and readings that go on within their stores- they have copious meeting rooms for such happenings and it?s a great way to meet an intellectual crowd (hint, hint, COLLEGE-EDUCATED SINGLES) and mingle with the literati.
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