Barnes & Noble Signs Lease for Augusta, Georgia, Store

2008-08-11 16:19:02 -

- Barnes & Noble, Inc. Lenore Feder, 212-633-3379 Corporate Communications lfeder@bn.com Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, announced it has signed a lease agreement to open a new Barnes & Noble bookstore in Augusta, Georgia. The bookstore, expected to open on October 15, 2008, will be located in the Augusta Mall at 3540 Wrightsboro Road. The day prior to the opening of the new store, the existing Barnes & Noble at 1336 Augusta West Parkway in Augusta will close. The new store will stock close to 200,000 book, music, DVD and magazine titles and include a cafe serving Starbucks coffee.

Barnes & Noble is the nation's top bookseller in quality, and for the fifth year in a row, the top bookseller brand, as determined by a combination of the brand's performance on familiarity, quality and purchase intent, according to the EquiTrend(R) Brand Study by Harris Interactive(R). The new store will feature:

-- The Barnes & Noble Membership Program. Designed for Barnes & Noble's best customers, this program gives Members 40% off hardcover fiction and nonfiction bestsellers, 20% off all other adult hardcover books, and 10% off virtually everything else in Barnes & Noble stores and online at Barnes & Noble.com. The annual fee is $25.

-- Rapid special-order service. Can't find it on the shelf? Barnes & Noble's massive warehouse inventory is available in real-time, enabling its booksellers to order and confirm the availability of over one million titles at the click of a button.

-- Large-scale children's department. Bigger than most typical bookstores and stocking more than 15,000 titles in an easy-to-browse environment, the "Barnes & Noble Jr." department is designed to appeal to children, parents, teachers and librarians. Children's Storytime will be held three times a week.

-- Advanced technology music-listening and movie-previewing system. The store's music department will feature RedDotNet, the most advanced listening and previewing technology. RedDotNet enables customers to listen to any CD in the store, sampling up to 270,000 music titles by simply passing it under a scanner. Connected to the company's online electronic music catalog, the store's listening stations make "browsing with your ears" a reality. Thanks to the latest technology, RedDotNet stations also allow customers to view a three-minute clip of up to 60,000 DVDs.

-- Giant Newsstand. The store's newsstand stocks more than 2,000 titles, including hundreds of hard-to-find specialty magazines, out-of-town and even foreign newspapers.

-- Wi-Fi Service. AT&T Wi-Fi(SM) service allows customers to use their laptop computers and personal digital assistants anywhere in the store or cafe to communicate online, surf the Internet and connect to corporate networks at speeds 50 to 100 times as fast as a dial-up connection. A single two-hour session costs $3.95, and an annual membership with unlimited access to Barnes & Noble and more than 50,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots also is available.

-- Community Center. The store will serve as a local community center, hosting a number of community events throughout the year. They will include author readings and discussions, book clubs, and programs with local literary and cultural organizations. The store also will hold bookfairs, partnering with local schools and other community institutions.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 800 bookstores in 50 states. The company is the nation's top bookseller in quality, and for the fifth year in a row, the top bookseller brand, as determined by a combination of the brand's performance on familiarity, quality and purchase intent, according to the EquiTrend(R) Brand Study by Harris Interactive(R). Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Store Will Open October 15, 2008