Barnes & Noble Near Me

Is there anything quite as satisfying as as flipping through the pages of a good book? Even as e-readers rise in popularity, few things still hold the allure of finding a good book. Since 1873, Barnes & Noble has been helping customers to find the perfect novel and a warm cozy atmosphere that allows one to easily become lost in the shelves of books for hours.

Are you interested in finding a Barnes & Noble near you? Simply browse Barnes & Noble near me on the map below and find a Barnes & Noble in your area. Need a bit more information on this chain? Read on for facts, trivia, and statistics on this epic book store chain!

Barnes & Noble Near Me – Find it on the Map

Barnes & Noble Near Me – Barnes & Noble Trivia

True or false: Barnes & Noble began by selling school books.

True! While you might not be seeking out school books while searching Barnes & Noble near me (even though they do still sell them), the chain started out by exclusively selling school books. When Charles Montgomery Barnes decided to open a bookstore in Wheaton, Illinois back in 1873, he noticed that a nearby college and public school created a demand for textbooks. Thanks to a few freshly laid railroad tracks, these books could easily be restocked when demand was high. When Barnes’ son took over in 1902, he moved to New York City, where he met fellow bookseller Gilbert Clifford Noble. By 1932, the two joined forces to create the very first Barnes & Noble store on Fifth Avenue. At this point, Barnes & Noble was no longer limited to just textbooks and sold novels, books, and magazines of all kinds.

barnes & noble near me

A great daycare will offer structured learning time and creative free play opportunities.

True or False: Barnes & Noble was the first store to pipe Muzak through the speakers.

True! If you’ve been shopping in the United States recently, you’ve probably tuned into the amount of muzak playing through the speakers in most stores. Muzak is of course the branded term that everyone uses to describe the serene and unimposing instrumental sounds that are often heard in retail outlets and elevators. This was first started in the 1920s by the Wired Radio Company in Cleveland, Ohio. The brand touted scientifically arranged scores that were “proven” to mellow the moods of customers, especially those located in big cities. Barnes & Noble was one of the earliest adopters of Muzak and installed an elaborate speaker system in 1940. Aside from soothing customers, the music was meant to offset any fatigue experienced by employees throughout the day.

True or false: At the beginning most Barnes & Noble customers didn’t read books.

If you’re searching Barnes & Noble near me, you’re likely an avid reader looking for your next great find. When Barnes & Noble first began, things were quite a bit different. It’s not that their initial New York customers couldn’t read- they simply preferred not to. When the brand opened an 80,000 square foot annex near the Firth Avenue location in 1975, closeout books were often sold to customers by the pound. This was because many customers wanted the books to fill shelf space in their homes, making them a decidedly decorative item rather than something to read. While many customers will still special order certain editions of books from Barnes & Noble, the brand largely sells books to people who want to read them.

Barnes & Noble Near Me – Barnes & Noble Facts

Keep Calm and Loiter On

While most stores, kiosks, and newsstands frown upon customers who wander aimlessly without making a purchase, Barnes & Noble openly accepts and even encourages its customers to loiter a bit. The brand loves for its customers to stretch out, relax, and get a feel for how a book might be to read in the long run. Barnes & Noble not only installs benches, chairs, and bathrooms to appease customers; but they won’t exactly kick you out of an aisle for sitting right on the floor. Most Barnes & Noble locations also feature a cafe with lots of seating, yummy pastries, and gourmet coffee.

Keeping the Online Game Strong

While you’re likely searching Barnes & Noble near me in hopes of finding a physical location to go explore; Barnes & Noble also boasts a terrific online store. What you might not know is that Barnes & Noble actually beat Amazon to having a web store. While the two have been fierce competitors ever since. Blood was drawn early when Amazon and Barnes & Noble vied for e-commerce dominance in the late 1990s, especially when it comes to books. Barnes & Noble first attempted to launch an ecommerce store in 1980 with a service called Trintex. Trintex was an electronic shopping interface that was funded by Sears and IBM. Trintex worked on personal computers and allowed all of its subscribers to shop online.

The Barnes & Noble Bags

If you’re searching Barnes & Noble near me, then you may have recently seen a resurgence of bags bearing the Barnes & Noble name. While Amazon may have plain cardboard boxes, Barnes & Noble has unveiled stylish plastic shopping bags that are meant to entice customers into visiting physical bookstores rather than living in an online world. They even hired Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv to design bags with iconic book images. The expectation is for shoppers to re-use the bags to broadcast themselves as literate shoppers. In New York, Barnes & Noble also had to compete with book sellers such as Strand who touted their customers as “literate” and “educated.”

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *