Comparison Of Barnes And Noble

Barnes & Noble is the largest franchise of brick and mortar bookstores in the United States, and can be found in just about every major city and town in the country. They are the last national bookstore chain in the United States to maintain their ability to keep the doors open, as shifting market demands coinciding with the digital revolution have forced more and more brick and mortar businesses off of the streets and onto the web. At a typical Barnes & Noble, a customer can peruse a selection of products ranging from the works of Dostoevsky to those of J.K. Rowling to vinyl records of David Bowie to the latest Playboy magazine. They sell books, newspapers, magazines, graphic novels, DVDs, and gifts, as well as their own brand of Nook tablets.

Barnes & Noble implicitly ranks certain works by the way in which they are displayed. Among the rows and rows of shelves, certain books are turned to the side in order to display their full face. This heightened visibility may occur for many reasons. Is it because these are the books which have sold well in the past? Is it because these are the books which are deemed to be culturally or intellectually relevant? Or is it because these are the books which have managed, through some means or another, to strike a deal with the bookseller? Barnes & Noble also has displays with names such as “Books Everyone Should Read” and “Books That Make You Think” which clearly demonstrate the non-neutrality of their organization. The hegemony displayed here is readily apparent. Surely a customer should feel inclined to purchase a book that everyone should read! The books selected for these sections are often part of the so-called “Western canon,” but can also include many newer works such as God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, or Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Obviously these sections cannot be exhaustive, so the inclusion or exclusion of certain works is not without consequence. The decision as to where a book is displayed has the power to determine which literature is most accessible by the public. If the

The search for and presentation of competing theories is likely the best way to tackle such a consequential and layered phenomenon. The most straightforward way to ascertain answers for questions about the organizational telos of Barnes & Noble is simply to ask the store itself. An interview with a Barnes & Noble stocker may be sufficient to learn about company policy as to the placement of the books. However, with more resources one may well be able to arrange an interview with a marketing representative within the Barnes & Noble corporate hierarchy. Of course, with this method one must be wary of motivational biases. Another way to address these questions would be to visit many different Barnes & Noble locations over a long period of time in order to examine and catalogue firsthand the ways in which the books are organized. This process could be supplemented with customer testimony gathered by casual conversation with Barnes & Noble shoppers. Once a large enough pool of data has been acquired, it could be subjected to a number of different interpretive schemes. One could employ structural functionalist interpretation, symbolic interpretation, material interpretation, or even utilize a feminist or class oriented approach. The most “correct” answers, if such things can even coherently be said to exist, would likely rely on a nuanced synthesis of many