INTRODUCTION
Throughout my life, Barnes and Noble has always been near and dear to my heart, and how could it not be? It’s a conglomerate of three of my favorite things (coffee shops, bookstores, and toy stores). It has roughly 600 active locations in the U.S., making it a ubiquitous part of our country’s reading culture. It consistently scores perfect 100s on the Corporate Equality Index, gaining ample respect within the literary community, which many argue has always been inherently queer. Last but not least, Barnes and Noble is regarded by many as a hero, as it fights against both the rise of e-book dominance (which, if achieved, would endanger print shops) and Amazon.com’s attempts to supplant the need for in-person bookstores. With all that going for it, it’s hard to imagine what’s not to love. Nevertheless, there is a dark side to the rise of Barnes and Noble booksellers, and one well worth investigating.
the dark side of america’s beloved book chain
While Barnes and Noble does serve the very necessary function of being one of Amazon’s top bookseller competitors, it fails to uplift, advertise, or collaborate with other independent bookstores in the country so that they might do the same. For this, Barnes and Noble has proven itself to be…less than noble, especially given the fact that many independent bookstores are in danger of extinction, a plight that B&N is very familiar with, as the company was on death’s doorstep itself back in 2018, during which time they fired their fourth chief executive officer in a row, and were facing potential closure. During this time, many feared that Barnes and Noble would meet a similar demise to Toys R Us, which filed for bankruptcy in 2017, and was forced to close all of its operating locations in the year following. Indeed, Barnes and Noble may have never gotten back on its feet if it weren’t for the assistance of Elliot Advisors, a hedge fund investment company that rescued the chain by selling it to James Daunt, an English businessman who used his reputation as the savior of Britain’s primary bookselling chain, Waterstones, to become Barnes and Noble’s new CEO.
Since Daunt’s takeover of the book chain, Barnes and Noble has undergone a major rebrand. In an interview with The Guardian, Mr. Daunt explains the company’s new bookselling strategy as one primarily centered around boosting their locations’ autonomy, individuality, and heterogeneity. “You have the same books on the table, the same books on the shelf, the same arrangement,” Daunt explained in his interview with The Guardian, “You end up having stores full of books your customers don’t want to buy.” Instead of continuing to commit this error by basing the company’s model around traditional chain companies, which prioritize homogeny betwixt locations, Daunt based his sales strategies on traditional book retailers. Instead of stocking each B&N location identically, the stores began to take into account the literary interests of their local clientele, stocking their shelves accordingly. Additionally, instead of hiring any old store clerks to run the checkout lines, Mr. Daunt ensured that each of the company’s operating locations were staffed with crew members just as bookish as their customers.
Under this new business model, Barnes and Noble has begun to thrive once more, proving that even in an ever-advancing post-modern world, traditional bookselling strategies can never be replaced by the marketing strategies of the cold, corporate world. So, happy ending, right?
Well, not quite.
See, while James Daunt’s business strategies have been successful in restoring the prosperity of chain booksellers, one cannot forget that the continuation of the Barnes and Noble empire couldn’t have happened independent of the support of Elliot Advisors. In other words, bookselling companies don’t just need effective retail strategies to get by — they also need capital. For Daunt, who only involves himself in the preservation of major bookseller corporations with wealthy investors, capital is no issue. For smaller, independent bookstores that use the same retail strategies as Barnes and Noble, however, it is a much different matter.
While Barnes and Noble is estimated to spend just under 100 million dollars annually in advertising, local independent bookstores don’t have the same funds, meaning that many book buyers don’t even know that these independent stores are an option. So, they don’t go to the independent stores. They go to Barnes and Noble. Additionally, while Barnes and Noble has 87 investors and shareholders, which helps with its stock value appreciation, access to capital, and public exposure, independent bookstores once again do not have this kind of outside support to fall back on. Consequently, it is very easy for a publicly traded and investor-backed bookselling chain like Barnes and Noble to stifle its competition and put other booksellers out of business. We have witnessed this trend pan out with the closure of nearly half of our brick-and-mortar bookstores between the years 2000 and 2019, as well as the closure of more than one bookstore a week during the economically volatile year of 2020. If these trends continue into the next two decades, independently owned bookstores could become a thing of the past.
Unless, that is, we do something about it.
Which is where you, dear reader (which you surely must be, having gotten this far into my rather loquacious article) can come in and save the day…by buying from local independents.
How you can help
While you are most likely not in a position to invest in your local bookstores in the same way that Elliot Advisors invested in B&N, you can still support independent booksellers financially by becoming a loyal customer. While these independent booksellers may not have all the appeal of your local Barnes and Noble coffee shop, bookstore, and toy store amalgam, they also possess many qualities that Barnes and Noble lacks.
For one, independent bookstores tend to be more involved in their communities. They may partner with local libraries, donate a percentage of their sales revenue to nearby public schools, or even host events for local debuting authors to promote their work.
For another, independent bookstores oftentimes possess much more character. Some stores utilize very eclectic decorations to give their stores a more eccentric vibe, while others may center their bookstore’s branding around a particular religious or ethnic group, such as Christianity or African Americans.
Most importantly, however, visiting independent bookstores gives you an opportunity to support bookseller underdogs in a country that is being ravaged by monopolies and chains. It protects earnestly passionate booksellers from being consumed by the mammon that is the corporate world, allowing them to preserve not only the continuation of print books, but also bookstore culture, a culture built not upon the goal of collecting wealth but promoting health — the health of local communities, and the health of our countrymen’s intellectual minds. Doubtless, factors such as the Reverse Flynn effect, the diminishing presence of third spaces, and the active attack against our nation’s public school systems have made the preservation of American community and intelligence an arduous quest, to be sure, but it is a noble quest nonetheless, and one indubitably worth fighting for.
That being said, I hope you will join me in fighting for it.
where to start
The best way to get involved in the preservation of independent bookstores is simply to google if there are any nearby, and then to go to them. During the spring break of my sophomore year of college, that is exactly what I did. I found my search results to be so fruitful that I dedicated my week-long break from scholarly duties to visiting a new bookstore around North Texas every day. While this venture may sound as if it would get repetitive over time, it didn’t, as each bookstore I visited possessed its own unique charm, and there wasn’t a single visit that I came to regret.
At The Wild Detectives Bookshop in Dallas, for example, I got to experience my first ever book bar, as well as my first ever off-campus Slam Poetry event.
At Talking Animals Books in Grapevine, I copped a Bluey tote bag that I now carry all of my journalism supplies in.
At The Dock Bookshop in Dallas, I was fully immersed in the much-underrepresented world of Black and African American literature.
At Monkey and Dog Books in Fort Worth, I found an amazing collection of texts on the rise of AI.
Finally, at Leaves Book and Tea Shop in Fort Worth, I had the best quiche of my life at their in-store bakery and also got to sit down in their customer lounge and write the article that you are reading now.
All in all, visiting independent bookstores has been an amazing and eye-opening experience for me. Never in my life had I met booksellers so friendly, or customers so eager to become my friends. I met aspiring authors, performing poets, and talkative teachers who were just as interested in the world of literature as I was. In other words, I had not just found new places, but new people, a people that deeply resonated with me, and a community in which I felt I truly belonged.
Of course, I would be remiss not to mention that I also spent the week of spring break visiting multiple Barnes and Nobles…and multiple Half Price Books. I am not ashamed of this, however, as I do think that book chains have their place in this country, and I don’t believe that they should be boycotted. What I have observed, though, is that these bookstores can never emulate the communal light that shines forth from independent booksellers. They do not possess the same quirks, the same spirit, or the same communities. In other words, the one is not the replacement for the other. A national bookseller chain can never replace a brick-and-mortar store.
For this reason, if you are just looking to purchase another book, then sure, go to Barnes and Noble. I do it all the time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you are looking to experience the heart of book culture, which is something that cannot be bought, sold, or commodified, then an independent bookstore is the way to go.
And when you go — which I sincerely hope that, after reading this article, you will consider — remember that you are part of a greater movement, the movement to preserve traditional, independently owned bookstores all over our country, preserving supportive spaces for the American readers and writers of not just today, but also tomorrow, and the many, many decades to follow.