The Barnes & Noble Store Redesign

Book Space

image: Artistic Biplob

They’ve remodeled one of my local Barnes & Nobles. This after the company announced they’d only have two books per publisher in their stores. Not sure how that works in reality, but I do know there are less books now. I can feel their absence. There are no longer shelves to walk through (or hide in), just bookshelves against the walls and curving around them. Before my eyes could process anything, fight or flight kicked in. The space was so wide open that I could see straight to the back of the store. People stood around gazing down at books on tables. These tables are islands that customers must traverse in order to reach the book walls or the book Kaaba in the middle of the store that we all encircle. I can already visualize this aesthetic being handed to TikTokers, posing by shelves where book covers are displayed outwardly. Offering themselves up as products to be displayed.

They did get me, however, with the Penguin Black Classics section. I had to walk away with gorgeous editions of Don Quixote and The Woman in White. The new design worked as intended, despite my inhibitions.