By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: The Guardian
Barnes and Noble is a special place for book lovers. No one can imagine a day without Barnes and Noble or any bookstore.
As much as we are thankful for Amazon, it’s a different experience when purchasing books in person. Barnes and Noble brings a sense of peacefulness, tranquility, and professionalism to how customers are treated daily.
CEO James Daunt is a British entrepreneur and is credited with saving the bookstore. The store suffered years of losses. He’s the current CEO of the bookstore and has been running the company for the last seven years.
“In bookstores, you get a different way of engaging with books, and they’re really rooted in our communities in a very visceral way,” Daunt said. “We have really fantastic teams, tenured teams, people who vocationally believe in book selling, and it is giving them the tools and responsibilities to get on and make the stores better.”
The first Barnes and Noble opened in 1917 in New York City. It’s still the largest bookstore in the world. It has over 1,000 stores nationwide. Barnes and Noble was sold for $683 million in 2019, shortly before the pandemic.
Bookstores must be neat and have a structured layout in category sections. The CEO had a vision of what he wanted to do with the company. Not every CEO can pull off what he did or have the smart problem-solving skills to turn a company around. It takes wisdom, experience, intelligence, and determination to change the culture for the better.
In 2024, Barnes and Noble opened 61 new stores. The book chain opened 67 stores in 2025 and plans to open 60 more this year. Voracious readers still support the company and share their admiration through social media and by posting the new books they purchase. Human connection through books is essential.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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