?? Mark's Favourites- Barnes & Noble: a new chapter in the story of bookshops
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One of the people I had been trying hard to line up to speak with for some time is James Daunt, the CEO of Transatlantic booksellers Barnes & Noble, Inc. and Waterstones .
So I was delighted when the upcoming launch of The Moomins?in the US prompted Barnes & Noble’s PR to get in touch and offer up an interview.
Why my interest?
Well bookshops and music stores were first in line at the beginning of the Amazon era, when the Seattle-based online giant emerged to take on its initial retail categories.
And yet here we are with Londoner Daunt at the helm of two expanding bookstore chains, owned by the same private equity company along with a number of niche businesses, and even taking occupation of some bookstores that 亚马逊 has vacated in the US.
Daunt believes that the closure of many bookshops has been less about structural decline in the market and more about book store chains “simply not being good enough to survive” as he insisted that the strategy for success is to grow the store estate carefully and create “something better than just somewhere to pick up a book”.
The tie-up with parent company Moomin Characters of creatures and books created by Finnish artist, illustrator, and writer Tove Jansson, is the latest example of that and will make Jansson’s literature widely accessible to American audiences, supported by a new podcast series narrated by actresses Jennifer Saunders and Lily Collins.
Barnes & Noble has begun to feature nearly a dozen of Jansson’s children’s books from the Moomin series alongside gifts and lifestyle products in 21 stores nationally.
Still with approximately 600 bookstores across the US, some painful years of contraction have given way to plans for 30 new North American stores this year, including a return to Chicago and a third Manhattan store.
Daunt told me that it is “particularly satisfying” to return to markets previously vacated, although the core of expansion will be through circa 2,500 sq m stores in malls, plus urban stores of around 800-900 sq m.
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Daunt conceded it was satisfying to occupy some former Amazon Books sites.
However, he stressed that book stores need to do more than simply sell books, “because that’s easier and more convenient on Amazon”.
Instead, he says that in his view good booksellers are thriving and it is the poor ones and the larger chains around the world which have failed to focus on their offer that are now suffering, following a major boost in the appetite to read during and post-pandemic.
His take is another welcome voice in the revival of the store and another, at one point improbable, chapter in the story of bookshops.
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