Barnes & Noble Eyes 1,000 Superstores

With 599 superstores opened as of May 4, Barnes & Noble is at the "midpoint" of its store expansion program and will eventually have more than 1,000 superstores in operation, company CEO Steve Riggio told analysts last week in connection with the release of its first-quarter results. B&N plans to open about 45 superstores this year while continuing to "minimize" its mall store division, Riggio said.

Among the initiatives set for 2002 are the opening of B&N's Reno, Nev., distribution center, which the company took over from Barnes & Noble.com earlier this year, and the completion of the rollout of customer information service counters to all superstores. The service counters are also being upgraded to provide customers with real-time information from the company's warehouses and wholesalers. Another initiative is the installation of music listening stations at its outlets as part of an effort to boost music sales. B&N's music offerings, which account for about 5% of sales, are focused on the classical, jazz and show-tune segments and do not rely on hits to spur sales, Riggio said. Earlier in the month, Borders reported that the lack of new hits hurt its music sales in the first period.

The company had no new information on its publishing plans, with Riggio only reiterating that B&N projects publishing sales will account for 10% of total sales over the next three to five years. More information on its publishing activities will be announced in the summer, Riggio said.

B&N.com has added an extensive categorical search page that should help users find books they are looking for more quickly. The feature, called Bookbrowser, allows searches to be defined by subject, author, format, price range, prize winners, recommended books and bestsellers; search results can be listed by price, publication date, alphabetically or sales rank. For example, a person could search for European history titles published in paperback under $10.

"Bookbrowser aims to replicate online the behavior of browsing in a bookstore," B&N.com CEO Marie Toulantis told PW. "It allows customers to be more focused in their search, without knowing outright what book they want."