Best Specialty Retail Companies To Invest In Right Now

Best Specialty Retail Companies To Invest In Right Now: Barnes & Noble Inc (BK S)

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (Barnes & Noble), incorporated on November 19, 1986, is a bookseller. The Company is a content, commerce and technology company that provides customers access to books, magazines, newspapers and other content across its multi-channel distribution platform. As of April 27, 2013, it operated 1,361 bookstores in 50 states, 686 bookstores on college campuses, and operates one of the Web eCommerce sites, and develops digital content products and software. Barnes & Noble operates in three segments: B&N Retail, B&N College and NOOK. The Company's principal business is the sale of trade books (generally hardcover and paperback consumer titles), mass market paperbacks (such as mystery, romance, science fiction and other popular fiction), children's books, eBooks and other digital content, NOOK and related accessories, bargain books, magazines, gifts, cafe products and services, educational toys & games, music and movies direct to customers through its books tores or on barnesandnoble.com.

Of the Company's 1,361 bookstores, 675 operate primarily under the Barnes & Noble Booksellers trade name. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC (B&N College), a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, operates 686 college bookstores at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble Retail (B&N Retail) operates the 675 retail bookstores. Retail also includes the Company's eCommerce site and Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. (Sterling or Sterling Publishing), a leader in general trade book publishing.

B&N Retail

This segment includes 675 bookstores as of April 27, 2013, primarily under the Barnes & Noble Booksellers trade name. These stores generally offer a dedicated NOOK area, a comprehensive trade book title base, a cafe, and departments dedic! ated to Juvenile, Toys & Games, DVDs, Music, Gift, Magazine and Bargain products. The stores also offer a calendar of ongoing events, incl uding author appearances and children's activities. The B&! N Retail segment also includes the Company's eCommerce website, barnesandnoble.com, and its publishing operation, Sterling Publishing. Barnes & Noble stores range in size from 3,000 to 60,000 square feet depending upon market size, with an overall average store size of 26,000 square feet. During the fiscal year ended April 27, 2013 (fiscal), the Company reduced the Barnes & Noble store base by 0.3 million square feet, bringing the total square footage to 17.7 million square feet. The Company's B&N Retail segment purchases physical books on a regular basis from over 800 publishers and over 50 wholesalers or distributors. As of April 27, 2013, Barnes & Noble had stores in 162 of the total 210 Designated Market Area markets.

Sterling Publishing is a publisher of non-fiction trade titles. It is a range of non-fiction and illustrated books and kits across a range of imprints, in categories, such as health and wellness, music and culture, food and wine, crafts and photo graphy, puzzles and games, history and current affairs, as well as a children's books.

B&N College

B&N College sells new and used textbooks in campus bookstores and online. As of April 27, 2013, B&N College operated 686 stores nationwide. The Company's customer base, which is mainly consisted of students and faculty, can purchase various items from their campus stores, including textbooks and course-related materials, emblematic apparel and gifts, trade books, computer products, NOOK products and related accessories, school and dorm supplies, convenience and cafe items.

As of April 27, 2013, B&N College operates 651 traditional college bookstores and 35 academic superstores, which are generally larger in size, offer cafes and provide a sense of community that engages the surrounding campus ! and local! communities in college activities and culture. The traditional bookstores range in size from 500 to 48,000 square feet. The academic su perstores range in size from 8,000 to 75,000 square feet. B&! N College! 's three customer constituencies are students, faculty members and campus administrators.

NOOK

This segment includes the Company's digital business, which includes the Company's eBookstore, digital newsstand and sales of NOOK devices and accessories to third party distribution partners, as well as to B&N Retail and B&N College. Barnes & Noble's NOOK digital bookstore and Reading Apps provide customers the ability to purchase and read their digital content and access to their Lifetime Library on a range of digital platforms, including Windows 8 PCs and tablets, iPad, iPhone , Android smartphones and tablets, PC and Mac. Barnes & Noble has implemented features on its digital platform to ensure that customers can access their NOOK content from almost all of today's most popular devices.

The Company competes with Target, Books-A-Million, Waldenbooks, Amazon.com, Apple, Wal-Mart and Costco.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  It sure seems that way, as investors look past the continued slide in Nook sales and reward Barnes & Noble (BKS) for stronger same-store sales elsewhere. Janney’s David Strasser and team explain why:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Image Source My mom taught me to buy greeting cards at the dollar store. She says she refuses to pay a threefold markup for a Hallmark logo when it's the thought that counts. And most people toss cards after reading them anyway. Sometimes I take her advice. Other times I take it a step farther. When I discovered my local Barnes & Noble (BKS) sold plain photos slapped onto plain white pieces of folded stock paper as $5 greeting cards, I realized I could make better cards myself for even less than mom pays. They come out to about 20 c! ents apie! ce. You might find greeting cards for less if you bought in bulk, but handmade cards have a personal touch and sometimes a story behind them. That doesn't meant they have to look homemade, though. When my mom gave one of my cards to my boyfriend as a birthday card, he didn't believe it was homemade -– or that it was made by his girlfriend.

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Nick Ut/APHillary Rodham Clinton has signed copies of her book for Barnes & Noble. There were plenty of winners and losers this week, with the last major bookstore chain landing some star power to make its holiday sales ring up and a renter of movies and games on discs playing Grinch with a seasonally silly price hike. Here's a rundown of the week's smartest moves and biggest blunders. Twitter (TWTR) -- Loser It seems that a week doesn't go by without a company making a social media mistake, usually in the form of posting a controversial or insensitive tweet. This week it was Twitter itself that blew it. Twitter CFO Anthony Noto posted a public tweet on Monday that apparently was intended as a private direct message to somebody. "We should buy them," he writes, likely discussing an unnamed acquisition target, and pointing to a mid-December meeting. "We will need to sell him," he concludes. "I have a plan." It's good to know that even Twitter is human. Apple (AAPL) -- Winner It's a safe bet that Apple's going to be selling plenty of iPads, Macs, and iPhones this holiday shopping weekend, and at least one analyst wants to get in ahead of the customers. Susquehanna's Chris Caso is raising his price target on Apple from $120 to $135, encouraged by the improving production and sales trends of the pricier iPhone 6 Plus. The larger smartphone sells for $100 more than the comparable iPhone 6, but it doesn't cost that much more to make. In other words, Apple scores a larger profit from the iPhone 6 Plus than the iPhone 6. Redbox -- Loser It's going to cost a little more to check out a DVD, Blu-ray, or vid! eo game f! rom a Redbox machine. Parent company Outerwall (OUTR) announced this week that it's raising its rates. The daily-rental rates will go from $1.20 to $1.50 for DVDs, from $1.50 to $2 for Blu-ray discs, and from $2 to $3 for video games. The market applauded the move by sending the stock higher on the announcement, but are we forgetting that Redbox w

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