Barnes & Noble plans to close 200 stores in coming years

Nationwide bookseller Barnes & Noble (BKS) plans to shutter approximately 200 stores in the coming years as the company increases its focus on the digital book market. While speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Barnes & Noble retail group CEO Mitchell Klipper said “we’ll have 450 to 500 stores” in 10 years. The report notes that Barnes & Noble currently has 689 retail locations across the country. Klipper said the company will shutter roughly 20 retail locations per year over the next decade, up from 15 stores per year over the past 10 years. The Journal notes that until 2009, Barnes & Noble was also opening about 30 new stores each year.

[More from BGR: Microsoft Office 2013 set for January 29th debut]

This article was originally published on BGR.com