Barnes & Noble closing about a third of its stores, facing tough online competition
| NEW YORK
Barnes聽&聽Noble聽plans to continue to shrink its store base.
The head of聽Barnes聽&聽Noble's聽retail group, Mitchel Klipper, said in an interview published Monday in The Wall Street Journal that the company will have 450 to 500 stores in a decade. That's down from about 689 currently.
Klipper said the chain plans to聽close聽about 20 stores a year over the period.
The largest traditional U.S. bookstore has been facing tough competition from online retailers and discounters that sell books and has been focusing on its Nook tablet, e-book reader and e-book business for growth.
A spokeswoman for聽Barnes聽&聽Noble聽said Klipper's remarks don't mark any change in its store聽closing聽plan.
"We have historically聽closed聽approximately 15 stores per year for the past 10 years," said spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating. Some聽closings聽are due to the fact that stores are unprofitable and others are stores moving to better locations.
Although聽Barnes聽&聽Noble聽has for the most part stopped opening new stores in the past several years, Keating said New York-based聽Barnes聽&聽Noble聽opened two new prototype stores in 2012 and plans to test other prototypes in 2013.
"The company's management is fully committed to the retail concept for the long term," Keating said.
In addition to its traditional bookstores,聽Barnes聽&聽Noble聽operates 674 college bookstores.
Its shares fell 15 cents, or 1.1 percent, to聽close聽at $13.02 Monday. They have traded in a 52-week range of $10.45 to $26.
