Earlier this year, the Barnes & Noble in the Oviedo Mall in Orlando, Fla., changed its name to B. Dalton Bookseller, the once-ubiquitous mall-store chain B&N acquired in 1987--but a name that hasn't been used in real life for almost a decade. The move has proven so popular among staff and customers that B&N is encouraging name changes by other B&N locations.
"Let's face it," CEO James Daunt said. "In many areas, the B&N brand is as dusty and worn as a lot of our '90s-era stores. As I've said many times since starting in 2019, we aim to give B&N booksellers the power to make all kinds of decisions that used to be done centrally. We've seen great strides already in buying, in displays, in programs geared to the stores' communities. Giving our booksellers the power to name the store they're working in is the next major step in that process."
Daunt noted another advantage of the approach: "If we change the brand and signage," he continued, "people think everything about the store has changed. It's an easy update."
Already several B&N stores in Manhattan are in discussions over changing their names to Doubleday Book Shop or Scribner Book Store. In addition, the store near New York University plans to take the Student Book Exchange name, in honor of former B&N CEO Len Riggio's first venture in bookselling.
Farther afield, the B&N in Ann Arbor, Mich., plans to redub itself Borders. In Texas and California, several B&Ns are ready to taking the Bookstar name. And the Stamford, Conn., B&N plans to reinvent itself as Basset Book Shop.
Daunt noted that B&N booksellers who want to rename their stores won't be limited to chain brands, most of which B&N holds the rights to. "There're also plenty of iconic indie bookstores that sadly are no longer with us that resonate with book lovers," he said. Among possibilities and the areas they are in: Chinook in Colorado; Oxford in Georgia; Kroch's & Brentano's in Chicagoland; Harry W. Schwartz in Wisconsin; Pickwick Bookshop in California; A Different Light in California and New York; Jocundry's in Michigan; and the Remarkable Bookshop, Westport, Conn.
Daunt observed: "Finally B&N can officially be what Len Riggio always insisted it was: not a chain, but a group of independent bookstores." --John Mutter