VMSD - April 2013 - (Page 4)

FE FROM THE EDITOR Book Value 11262 Cornell Park Drive Cincinnati, OH 45242 P: 513.421.2050 | F: 513.421.5144 vmsd@stmediagroup.com | VMSD.com Are Barnes & Noble stores investments or sentiments? Leonard Riggio, chairman of Barnes & Noble (New York), has indicated recently that he might buy up all the retailer’s remaining stores (less than 700 now) and take them private as a way to preserve them. Otherwise, it seems clear that the Barnes & Noble board is intent on separating its retail arm from its e-book arm, Nook Media, and shuttering all the stores. Both are struggling, and maybe the current management wants to dump the whole thing. Riggio, whose first love is clearly those stores, now has to figure out what 689 pieces of real estate would be worth to him. Analysts value the stores at widely disparate figures, from as low as $484 million to as high as in excess of $1 billion. Is the decision as daunting as the one Riggio faced 40 years ago? A student at New York University, he worked as a student clerk at the single campus bookstore on lower Fifth Avenue. Riggio bought the store in 1971 for $1.2 million. I’m sure it wasn’t pocket change to the 20-something from Brooklyn, but what a bargain it turned out to be. It was the dawning of the age of the category killer, and Barnes & Noble spread-eagled the book and stationery sector as Sports Authority did sporting goods, Circuit City did consumer electronics, Toys“R”Us did toys, Linens ’n Things did linens and things. Barnes & Noble stores achieved the ultimate level of consciousness: They were lifestyle places, destinations for people who wanted to browse the shelves, read a magazine, look at the newspaper. Third places in the social hierarchy of the early 21st Century. You didn’t necessarily go there to buy a book. But if you were looking to buy a book, that’s where you’d go. Then the third place shifted to become that digital land of Middle Earth. It’s where you went to interact with friends, tap into the world, order books and read the news. So would Riggo’s purchase of the Barnes & Noble stores be a sentimental play, like setting your eldest child up in a business, even though you know he’ll destroy it? Or a genuine investment with a real return, like that $1.2 million check he wrote 40 years ago? That one worked. But it was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. 4 APRIL 2013 | vmsd.com EDITORIAL Managing Editor Robin Donovan robin.donovan@stmediagroup.com Senior Art Director Kimberly Pegram kim.pegram@stmediagroup.com Assistant Editor Carly Hagedon carly.hagedon@stmediagroup.com Editor at Large Steve Kaufman steve.kaufman@stmediagroup.com New York Editor Eric Feigenbaum European Editor John Ryan, London SALES Publisher U.S. / Canada Murray Kasmenn murray.kasmenn@stmediagroup.com P: 770.578.2577 Business Development Manager International Patricia Iannelli patricia.iannelli@stmediagroup.com Via G. Rossini 16, 21100 Varese, Italy P: +39.0332.240285 Publishing Assistant Christine Lewis christine.lewis@stmediagroup.com P: 770.874.7834 C O R P O R AT E President Tedd Swormstedt Senior VP Content Steve Duccilli Audience Development Director Christine Baloga Production Coordinator Keri Harper Book Division Director Mark Kissling Reprint Information 800-925-1110, ext. 399 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES P.O. Box 1060 / Skokie, IL 60076 P: (847) 763-4938 / F: (847) 763-9030 VMSD@halldata.com http://www.VMSD.com http://www.stmediagroup.com/marketing/images/VMSDStatement1211.pdf http://www.vmsd.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of VMSD - April 2013

VMSD - April 2013
Contents
From the Editor
Vmsd Editorial Advisory Board
The Goods
Design Detail
Next Store
Targeting the Cities
Body and Soul
The Domino Effect
Taste Test
Showroom
Ad Index
Checking Out

VMSD - April 2013