Barnes & Noble is a leading American retailer of books and co educational products. It is a publicly held company, listed on Fortune 500 and on the New York Stock Exchange (BKS). Its headquarters are located in Manhattan, New York City.

The company operates almost seven hundreds bookstores in fifty U.S. states and more than six hundred fifty Barnes & Noble college locations serving several millions students.

Barnes & Noble also is engaged in publishing business and owns BarnesandNoble.com (BN.com), one of the largest electronic commerce sites in the Internet.

Barnes & Noble Stores

Barnes & Noble retail stores sell books, newspapers, magazines, graphic novels, DVDs, games, music, gifts, etc. Of course, they also sell Barnes & Noble Nook devices and teddy bear Barnsie, the company’s mascot.

Most Barnes & Noble locations, working seven days a week, include cafes where they serve Starbucks products and offer free Wi-Fi. The stores are widely known for their competitive discount system.

Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, the company’s subsidiary, operates special locations at hundreds of higher educational institutions across the country.

Barnes & Noble Nook

In 2009, the company developed and released an Android based e-book reader. Different models of Nook cost from 9 to 9. They can feature six or seven inch touch screen (black-and-white or color), Wi-Fi connectivity, a

dictionary, a web browser, Sudoku and chess games, etc.

Landmarks in the History of Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble Incorporated originated from a small bookstore which was opened in New Your City in the end of the nineteenth century. Now we are going to review the main events in the history of the corporation.

• 1886 – The bookstore named Authur Hinds & Company is opened in Cooper Union Building, NYC, and Gilbert Noble works in the shop as an ordinary clerk.
• 1894 – Noble becomes a partner. The store is renamed Hinds & Noble.
• 1917 – Gilbert Noble buys out Hinds & Noble. William Barnes comes into partnership with him, and they change the name to Barnes & Noble.
• 1930 – Noble sells the share of the business to John Wilcox Barnes, the son of William Barnes.
• 1931 - Barnes & Noble starts the publishing division.
• 1936 – Gilbert Noble dies.
• 1940 – The store begins to feature Muzak.
• 1945 – William Barnes dies, and his son takes full control over Barnes & Noble.
• 1950s – 1960s – The company expands, setting up new Barnes & Noble locations in Manhattan, near Harvard, University of New York, and several other college campuses in the North East.
• 1969 – John Barnes dies, and Amtel acquires Barnes & Noble.
• 1971 – Leonard Riggio purchases the company.
• 1974 – The company starts advertising on TV.
• 1975 - Barnes & Noble is the American bookseller to discount its books.
• 1970s – 1980s – The company opens small Barnes & Noble locations and begins to publish books for selling them to mail-order clients.
• 1987 - Barnes & Noble acquires B. Dalton chain, consisting of almost eight hundred stores, chiefly based in shopping malls.
• 1997 – The company launches its official website.
• 1999 – Barnes & Noble becomes the 2nd largest American online bookseller.
• 2002 – Stephen Riggio takes up the position of the company’s CEO.
• 2010 – William Lynch is appointed CEO of Barnes & Noble.
• 2012 – Microsoft invests three hundred million dollars in Barnes & Noble Nook.

Barnes & Noble Today

As of July, 2012, Barnes & Noble owns 689 bookstores in fifty U.S. states and 667 college locations serving over 4.5 million students across the United States. In 2012, the corporation’s revenue was more than seven billion dollars. Now it has over 30,000 employees.

Barnes & Noble Online

BarnesandNoble.com is Barnes & Noble’s wholly owned subsidiary. It offers online clients books, magazines, eBooks, games, toys, Blu-ray, DVDs, and many other related goods and convenient services. This Internet bookseller stocks over one million titles which can be delivered immediately.

In Barnes & Noble Kids customers will find a lot of books, music and videos for children. DVD & Blu-ray section provides buyers with over sixty thousand titles. Barnes & Noble Music Store’s content includes a great number of songs, albums, collections, music reviews, free downloads, artist biographies, exclusive interviews, etc.

BarnesandNoble.com also has Home & Gift Store, Magazines section and Toys & Games department.

The powerful Barnes & Noble locator will help you to find the nearest bookstore.