Barnes & Noble, Not Brick & Mortar

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Following a brief surge after competitor Borders Group, Inc. went belly-up (see "TUOL" post 7/20/11), Barnes & Noble saw a near-11 percent drop in sales at its bookstores and on its Web site this past holiday season, according to a Reuters wire service article.

B & N CEO Mitchell Klipper told the Wall St. Journal that his company plans to shutter nearly a third of its brick and mortar bookstores over the next decade, according to the Reuters piece. The company, which presently operates 689 retail stores and  674 college bookstores as a separate chain, will likely reduce in size to roughly 500 stores within the next ten years, Klipper noted.

Online competition such as Amazon and the boom in e-books are contributing factors in the shrinking bookstore market.