Barnes and Noble has struck a deal with the electronics retail chain, Radio Shack! This will put the Nook product line of e-readers in most USA based retail locations starting October 3rd, 2011.
At the beginning of October, close to 3,000 different Radio Shack locations will be able to stock the Nook Color and the Nook Simple Touch Reader. If you don’t live near one of the retail stores you can order the devices via Radioshack.com.
The big selling point of this new agreement will be the personalized attention prospective customers will receive. Most Radioshack locations are hole in the wall type stores that are often small. While the Nook line of e-readers is available at other retail locations like Walmart and Target, often the people working there are not tech savvy and cannot answer most questions. Radioshack is often equated with being the shop for nerds and geeks, so you should receive an elevated level of attention. This will insure (because of the lack of walk-in traffic) that you get more hands on time with the e-reader.
“The NOOK is a friendly and versatile way to enjoy the tablet experience and to stay connected with your reading material, news and information on the go,” says Scott Young, chief merchandising officer for RadioShack Corp. “As your nearby mobile authority, The Shack has everything you need to power, protect and personalize your NOOK, or almost any other mobile device, this holiday season.”
[showhide type=’pressrelease’] New York, New York – September 21, 2011 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, and RadioShack (NYSE: RSH), an established authority in the wireless market, announced today they will be bringing the company’s award-winning line of NOOK eReading devices and related accessories to more than 3,000 RadioShack stores nationwide and online at radioshack.com, beginning October 3. Customers visiting a RadioShack or select dealer franchise location will now have access to a wide array of popular and innovative NOOK devices designed for readers of all ages.
“The NOOK is a friendly and versatile way to enjoy the tablet experience and to stay connected with your reading material, news and information on the go,” says Scott Young, chief merchandising officer for RadioShack Corp. “As your nearby mobile authority, The Shack has everything you need to power, protect and personalize your NOOK, or almost any other mobile device, this holiday season.”
NOOK devices are the perfect choice for anyone who wants access to their favorite reads anywhere they go. Customers seeking a simple, easy-to-use, dedicated reading experience will love the NOOK Simple Touch Reader — an ultra-light, portable 6-inch eReader with the most-advanced E Ink® Pearl display and the longest battery life of any eReader – all for just $139. With a simple tap, it’s intuitive and easy to navigate, shop and read.
For customers who love to read everything in rich color, the NOOK Color features a stunning 7-inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen ideal for reading a wide variety of content including books, enhanced books, immersive children’s picture books, an expansive collection of interactive magazines, newspapers and more. The best value tablet at just $249, NOOK Color also offers the most-requested tablet features, including high-quality NOOK Apps™, built-in email, and an enhanced Web experience. With all NOOK products, customers gain access to shop Barnes & Noble’s expansive NOOK Bookstore™ of more than two million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices.
“Just like Barnes & Noble stores, RadioShack’s convenient, comfortable, easy-to-shop format means that every customer gets the personal attention they deserve,” said Chris Peifer, Vice President, Digital Business Development at Barnes & Noble. “That’s why we are excited to partner with RadioShack to bring our NOOK devices to RadioShack customers who love to read anytime, anywhere. With NOOK, customers will discover the most immersive, fun and easy-to-use reading experience, as well as gain access to a vast selection of popular books, interactive magazines, newspapers, children’s books, apps and more.”
For more information, visit www.bn.com/nook or visit any NOOK Boutique or display in one of Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 bookstores (http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com).
About NOOK™ from Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble’s NOOK brand of eReading products makes it easy to read what you love, anywhere you like™ with a fun, easy-to-use and immersive digital reading experience. With NOOK, customers gain access to Barnes & Noble’s expansive NOOK Bookstore™ of more than two million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices. The award-winning NOOK Color™ Reader’s Tablet™, the best-value on the tablet market ($249), features a stunning 7-inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen to read all of the content you love, shop popular apps, connect via email, browse the Web and more. The NOOK Simple Touch Reader™ ($139), is the easiest-to-use 6-inch touch reader, with the longest battery life of any eReader. In Barnes & Noble stores, NOOK owners can access free Wi-Fi connectivity, enjoy the Read In Store™ feature to read NOOK Books™ for free, and the More In Store™ program, which offers free, exclusive content and special promotions. Barnes & Noble was the first company to offer digital lending for a wide selection of books through its LendMe® technology, available through NOOK eReading products. Find NOOK devices in Barnes & Noble stores and online at www.BN.com, as well as at Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, Books-A-Million, OfficeMax, Fred Meyer, and P.C. Richard & Son stores.
In addition to NOOK devices, Barnes & Noble makes it easy for customers to enjoy any book, anytime, anywhere with its free line of NOOK software, available at www.bn.com/freenookapps. Customers can use Barnes & Noble’s free eReading software to access and read books from their personal Barnes & Noble digital library on devices including iPad™, iPhone®, iPod touch®, Android™ smartphones and tablets BlackBerry®, PC and Mac®. Lifetime Library™ helps ensure that Barnes & Noble customers will always be able to access their digital libraries on NOOK products and software-enabled devices and BN.com. Barnes & Noble also offers NOOK Study™ (www.nookstudy.com), an innovative study platform and software solution for higher education, NOOK Kids™ (www.nookkids.com), a collection of digital picture and chapter books for children, and NOOK Books en español™ (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooksenespanol), the first-ever Spanish language digital bookstore in the United States.
For more information on NOOK devices and eReading software, updates, new NOOK Book releases, Free Friday™ NOOK Books and more, follow us on www.twitter.com/ebooksbn and www.facebook.com/nookbn.
ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE, INC.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 704 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 635 college bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through BN.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its NOOK Bookstore™ (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK™ eReading product offering, customers can buy and read digital books and content on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK devices, partner company products, and the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software.
General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company’s corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com [/showhide]
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
