Today's Article

CNN Business Anchor: We all thought Barnes & Noble was done. You were out for it. It was 4out for the count. It was never going to compete with Amazon. Blah, blah, blah. Turn off the lights. 

James Daunt: The reason it had got there, I think it had 5lost sight of the fact that it needed to run really 6compelling bookstores and had 7drifted away from that core principle and started selling too many things that weren't books, had tried to 8cut costs as it got into a certain amount of difficulty and that created a 9vicious cycle of ever less attractive stores, ever less compelling stores and declining sales. We were able to relatively quickly just simply reverse that process, concentrate on books, create better bookstores, invest in our people, allow them the freedom to 10curate their stores, and our sales went up. 

CNN Business Anchor: So, what are they doing, these local stores that you're finding fascinating about how they're doing it? What are they doing? A book is a book is a book on the shelf. 

James Daunt: A book is a book is a book and it's the same book whether you buy it from Amazon or whether you buy it in a bookstore, whether you buy it from Barnes & Noble or from an independent bookstore. But it's the 11alchemy that you put around within the store, how you 12juxtaposition the friendliness of the space, the welcome that you get, but also how we choose and what we choose to sell, how we curate a table, how we put a display, where we put a recommend. And that is very, very local. 

CNN Business Anchor: I can read a book review in the newspaper or online and I want to read the book tomorrow and Amazon is already in my phone and will deliver it to me tomorrow. 

James Daunt: And Amazon is wonderful 13in that respect. 

CNN Business Anchor: And you have to compete with them.

James Daunt: Well, we have to compete with that a bit, but also if you want to come and look at the book, if you want to see what else there is, you will be much better off doing that in a bookstore. When you simply want to come in and have the 14serendipity of discovering and 15embracing books and also doing it with people, so both doing it with our booksellers but also doing it with other customers. It's a very, very social space, this.