Barnes and Noble - A little bit of History

Barnes and Noble actually originated many many years ago, in 1873 to be exact in Wheaton, IL. Charles Barnes operated it initially as a bookprinting business giving the roots for which this company would be founded upon. The first bookstore was opened in New York City by his son William in partnership with G. Clifford Noble in 1917 and a soon to be booming business was born. This store has lasted through many changes such as creating a flagship store in New York during the Great Depression on Fifth Avenue that still exists today.

It has gone through many innovations to separate itself from your average retailer, such as in 1974 it became the first bookstore to advertise on television and also became the first book retailer to offer discounts on books in 1975, with offering 40% off books on the New York Times Best seller list. The company began to refine its concept of their store as they acquired B. Dalton and Bookstop in the 1980's and in the 1990's eventually began to tinker with their superstore concept into what we know as Barnes & Noble today with it's vast assortment and depth of merchandise and making a smart decision in an exclusive partnership with Starbucks to sell their coffee in its stores and creating 600 Barnes & Noble college bookstores to expand its market. Barnes & Noble also prints many of the books they sell, further increasing their profit. From it's one store in New York in the early 1900's, there are now 798 stores in the U.S. The man who has made much of this possible was Leonard Riggio, who was the chairman for almost 40 years. His brother Steve Riggio is now CEO as of 2002. He began working with Barnes & Noble in the 1970's and continued to move upwards as he worked in the buying and merchandising programs to general manager of the direct mail division and so on until he came to the place he is today. As you see, Barnes and Noble has a rich history that continues to draw more shoppers like myself into its warm atmosphere.

 Bliss.