B&N Seeks Expansion in College Store Market

Shelf Awareness

Barnes & Noble, the second-largest operator of college bookstores with 696 locations, plans to have as many as 1,000 campus stores within five years. In an interview with Reuters, B&N College CEO Max Roberts said the company intends to accomplish its goal by convincing more schools to outsource their bookstore operations and by poaching accounts from Follett Corp., which runs 940 college stores.

"We want to make our stores the center of the community, and appeal to other consumers, not just students," Roberts said.

Citing the new "academic superstore" at Rutgers University, Reuters noted that B&N "thinks it can eventually bring [that model] to 75 college stores, compared to 35 now. These superstores are about 30,000 square feet, a size more typical of a traditional Barnes & Noble store than a college store."

Winning over a significant number of the 1,500 college stores that remain independent could be a challenge, according to Ed Schlichenmeyer, deputy CEO of the National Association of College Stores. "The low-hanging fruit has largely been picked," he said. "They stay independent because they feel a need to be adaptable to faculty, and increasingly, student demands."