If the fortunes of Barnes & Noble are going to be turned around—and new CEO James Daunt is confident they will be—the improvement will be led by the company’s booksellers. In an interview at B&N’s flagship bookstore in New York City, Daunt repeatedly stressed that the makeover of the company will be done by empowering store managers and other booksellers to create stores that meet the needs of their local communities. “The bookseller in North Dakota knows what the customer wants better than someone in New York,” Daunt said, adding that managers won’t be held hostage by planograms from New York when determining how a store should be stocked.
