From The Wall Street Journal:
Barnes & Noble Inc. named Demos Parneros as its new chief executive, making him the fifth leader in four years to be tasked with turning around the bookseller’s fortunes.
Mr. Parneros is being elevated from chief operating officer, a position he had assumed at Barnes & Noble in November. A veteran retailer who previously spent nearly 30 years at Staples Inc., he faces numerous challenges at the bookstore chain.
In March, the company reported a disappointing holiday quarter in which same-store sales fell 8.3%, and the Nook tablet and e-book business continued to lose money. Like many retailers these days, Barnes & Noble is grappling with declining store traffic as consumers have embraced shopping online.
During an interview, Mr. Parneros, 55 years old, said attracting customers to Barnes & Noble’s 634 bookstores is his top priority. He expressed confidence that the bookseller can compete effectively if it offers “something unique and different. Everything is on the table.”
Although book prices are typically cheaper online, he said, customers in recent surveys conducted on behalf of Barnes & Noble said they continue to enjoy the bookstore experience, include the cafe.
“People care about price,” he said. “But they also like visiting our stores. We’re looking at everything we’re doing to be sure we are on trend.”
. . . .
He added that the typical Barnes & Noble store is larger than he would prefer, noting that the advantage of Barnes & Noble’s vast assortment of titles is less critical at a time when consumers can find millions of books online using their smartphones.
. . . .
Mr. Parneros succeeds Leonard Riggio, the chain’s largest private shareholder with an 18% stake. Mr. Riggio, 76 years old, had intended to retire in 2016 but instead took the reins as acting CEO after Ronald Boire was dismissed as chief executive in August.
Barnes & Noble’s shares have lost a third of their value since then, and the company has a market capitalization of about $650 million. Mr. Riggio will remain as chairman.
Mr. Parneros expressed support for the retailer’s Nook device and e-book business, saying that it remains crucial to the bookseller’s strategy of providing books to its customers in any way they want them. Nook sales, which include devices, e-books and accessories, declined 25.7% to $38.4 million for the fiscal third quarter ended Jan. 28.
Link to the rest at The Wall Street Journal (Link may expire) and thanks to Julia for the tip.
I love the bookstore experience, especially when they have lots of those — what do you call those things with pages? Oh, yes. Books. If I want to eat, I go somewhere and have the restaurant experience, and if I want to drink, I look for a bar experience.
Also, I thought they were selling off, or had already done so, the Nook division? Frankly, I think this company is doomed, unless they can get someone who knows how to actually run a bookstore, and then let him/her have at it. Even then, I’m not sure they’ll make it.
Mr. Parneros expressed support for the retailer’s Nook device and e-book business, saying that it remains crucial to the bookseller’s strategy of providing books to its customers in any way they want them.
That’s not a strategy.
I wish him well. The b&n’s here are filled with people day and night, each having a flavor of their own, including a long running battle of mideastern men who like to sit in the outdoor cafe and smoke black cigarettes chasing off other patrons of the cafe where books are allowed to be read…. They live in a part of the city where many mideastern families live, and they are just setting up what they used to do in the old country at night; men only: smoking; talking at high volume that sounds like argument but isnt. That’s one b and n.
Another is in a part of town surrounded by many elementary schools, both private and public. Tons of reader groups, kids fund raising through books, lots of parents with kids begging for x or y book. It is a full house most nights.
I think back to the long running still-going-strong chataquas [sp] in my part of the world; and I think any indie or chain bookstore does well when designing arts/books/teachers/entertainment customized to the community micro rather than macro.
Tho I have to say about target, bookstores, and now office max/office depot, the aisle[s] of plastics toys outgassing is a bit much to take. The aisles look to me like somethign designed by katzenjammers and rube goldberg. But then, I am not an inquisitive seven year old. Just old. Still inquisitive.
Demos Parneros is the real name of a supervillain who’s secretly a volcano demon.
Haven’t had my morning caffeine yet so I read the title as
“Barnes & Noble Demos Parneros as Chief Executive”
So, a try before they buy CE? 😉
Source?
And by “real name” are you sure you don’t mean “fictional name”, since the attribute ‘supervillain’ makes it sounds to me like you’re talking about a character who is not, in fact, ‘real’.