Barnes & Noble and the American Booksellers Association (ABA) were once bitter rivals. But during the opening keynote address at BookExpo on Wednesday, Barnes & Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio and ABA CEO Owen Teicher shared the stage in extolling the virtues of independent booksellers and bracing the industry for continued change in the face of competition from Amazon and other online retailers.

The number of ABA members grew during the past year 1,835 from 1,757, while the number of stores increased to 2,470 from 2,321. By comparison, in 2009 the ABA had 1,401 members and 1,651 stores, down sharply from the 1990s when membership topped 5,000, Teicher said. And among the current ABA members during the first four months of 2018, 650-750 independent stores reported sales increases of more than 5%.

Overall, sales of printed books in the U.S. last year rose 1.9% to 687.2 million units, down from 3% growth a year earlier. Juvenile book sales rose 2.1%, led by the film-related “Wonder” title, whose sales topped 1.1 million units.

“Little by little there has been growth”, but “it is not time uncork the bottle of champagne,” Riggio said. “We need more bookstores, but the size, shape and location of future bookstores has yet to be determined.”

Indeed, Barnes & Noble posted a 6% decline in revenue during the 2017 holiday season to $953 million on a 6.4% decrease in same store sales, and announced the layoff of 1,500 workers in February. At the same time, it unveiled plans to test five smaller 15,000-square-foot stores – down from its standard 26,000 square foot format – that will reduce backroom space and cut assortments of gifts and collectibles, Riggio tells us. Barnes & Noble had expanded its selection of collectibles in recent years, including displays dedicated to anime properties.

“We have too much stuff in the stores” and “we need to return our focus” to books, says Riggio. “We can say that bookselling is not going to go away,” but the bookselling industry “must be nimble and willing to make changes.”

In his keynote speech, Riggio, who purchased Barnes & Noble in 1971 for $1.2 million and built it into a national chain that currently has 633 stores, traced his roots back to his days as single-store operator. He maintained that independent booksellers and Barnes & Noble have much in common, most notably a common competitor in Amazon.

Riggio’s appearance with Teicher at BookExpo was in stark contrast to the eve of the 1994 show when the ABA sued several publishers for allegedly giving Barnes & Noble and other large chains favorable treatment on prices.

“This coming together” at BookExpo “would have been impossible to believe many years ago,” Teicher said. “But we discovered we have much in common.”

Contacts:

American Booksellers Association, Owen Teicher, CEO, 914-406-7500

Barnes & Noble. Leonard Riggio, Chairman, 212-633-3300