In the early 90s Barnes and Noble bought the chain I was working for called Bookstop. I still remember a 7 am staff meeting where we were introduced to Riggio who, among lots of things that were flat out wrong, proceeded to tell us all that we had been doing everything wrong to sell books. All books were created equal and could be sold like potatoes as all potatoes were equal. That was when I first was introduced to his mantra--"a potato is a potato is potato and a book is a book is a book." I never thought it was remotely true about potatoes, but I knew for sure he was totally wrong about books.
It is just unfortunate that those many of us who loved books and knew something were marginalized by those in charge who wanted nothing more than larger salaries, more and more perks, and fancy job titles while they drove the company right off the damn cliff.
What’s Barnes & Noble’s Survival Plan?
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