Barnes & Noble

I love shopping at Barnes and Nobel. The store is big enough to find most things and what isn’t there they are willing to get for you. The Café is nice and offers a small selection of lunch type foods and pastries as well as good Starbucks coffee. Everyone there is helpful and they keep their restroom clean.

I am more and more disappointed each time I return here. I feel like this place used to be a smart and sassy lady with great ideas and a fun attitude that has now been shoved into a nursing home by her ungrateful children. There used to be EVENTS and signings and smiling faces working all over the store. Now we have TOYS and a kiosk for Nook (no thanks, I am in a BOOK store for BOOKS) and no faces anywhere in the store. Since
sells all the same books for less, no wonder this brick and mortar is suffering.
There are also hardly any employees here. If you go on a weekend, the stacks and stacks of magazines and books that have been left out and need put away are ridiculous. The only place you can actually see employees is behind the info desk, at the registers or in the café. The couches and big comfy chairs are long gone which maybe they thought would reduce those massive stacks of read but not bought books? It hasn’t and now that I can’t sit down comfortably and get partway into a book and then realize I have to buy it, I don’t buy anything. The most number of cashiers I have seen recently is 2 and that is even with the line out near the door. Maybe some of this is the local management and some is the corporation but bring back the fun, the events, the signings! I see on my fav authors blogs that they are at small town B&N’s all the time! What about a Valentine’s Day card making event for kids or a story time other than MONDAY MORNING. Since apparently all mothers do not work… I will just be so sad to see this place close and it is very obvious that is the direction they are headed.

This is an average sized Barnes and Noble location in Peoria. It is the only bookstore I know of in Peoria, so I have been here a couple of times. There is a café and music section in addition to the book area. It is not a very big location, so it gets a little crowded at times. Despite the size, they seem to have a pretty good selection.
The staff is always helpful and friendly. I can never seem to find the book I am looking for and they point me in the right direction.

While I am happy to continue purchasing from Barnes & Noble online for ebooks (I do like the Box Tops program!), I will not be visiting the store located in Peoria, Illinois again. Customer service in this store falls FAR below satisfactory levels. Just today, no staff member ever asked if they could help me find anything during my time in the store. Additionally, there were 7 customers in line to check-​out, when the clerk called for assistance, no employee came to help while I was there. When the local Borders store opened I stopped shopping at Barnes & Noble (customer service wasn’t great in those years either) and purchased a membership from Borders. Now, I am certain I will be happier purchasing those books I wish to have in hard copy from Walmart or
. I may have to wait longer for my purchases from
, but I will not have to contend with poor customer service at my local Barnes & Noble.