A fascinating conclusion that can be made here is that Barnes & Noble’s business is more stable than is commonly believed. There is a possibility that store closings might plateau and the store might keep operating for a few more years or even decades. Barnes & Noble’s footprint is shrinking but not as fast as is commonly thought. It operated 640 stores at the end of 2016, and 633 at the end of 2017, Statista reported. That is down from the peak 726 stores in 2008, but hardly the massive die-off most of us would expect.