Barnes & Noble Signs Lease for Mesa, Arizona, Store; Store Will Open in October 2003.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2002

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, announced it has signed a lease agreement to open a new Barnes & Noble bookstore in Mesa, Arizona. The 24,500-square-foot store, expected to open in late October 2003, will be located at 1758 South Val Vista Drive in the Dana Park Village Square. The store will stock close to 200,000 book, music, DVD and magazine titles and include a cafe serving Starbucks coffee.

"We are delighted to bring Barnes & Noble to Mesa," said Mitchell Klipper, chief operating officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. "We will offer readers young and old unparalleled selection, service, and convenience. We will also strive to make the store an integral part of the community by hosting an ongoing series of author signings, book discussion groups, and children's events."

Barnes & Noble's bookselling innovations include:

-- The Readers Advantage membership program. Designed for Barnes & Noble's best
customers, this program gives members an additional 10 percent off everything
they buy. The annual fee is $25.

-- Rapid special-order service. Special orders have been commonplace in
bookselling, but Barnes & Noble's new service takes it to new heights in terms
of selection and speed of delivery. It's booksellers are able to instantly
access the real-time inventory of every title in the company's distribution
network, enabling its booksellers to order and confirm the availability of
virtually any book in print at the click of a button. With more than one
million titles available, Barnes & Noble stocks more books than any competing
retail or online bookseller, and substantially more titles than even the
largest book wholesalers.

-- Large-scale children's departments that are bigger than most typical
bookstores. Stocking over 15,000 titles in an easy-to-browse environment,
Barnes & Noble Junior departments are designed to appeal to children, parents,
teachers and librarians. Children's story hours will be held twice a week.

-- Every CD listening stations. The store's music department features the most
advanced listening technology, enabling customers to listen to any CD in the
store by simply passing it under a scanner. Connected to the company's online
electronic music catalog, the store's listening stations make "browsing with
your ears" a reality.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is the world's largest bookseller, operating 591 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 49 states. It also operates 305 B. Dalton Bookseller stores, primarily in regional shopping malls. The company offers titles from more than 50,000 publisher imprints, including thousands of small, independent publishers and university presses. It conducts its e-commerce business through Barnes & Noble.com (http://www.bn.com) in which it owns a 36% interest.

Barnes & Noble also has approximately a 60% interest in GameStop (NYSE: GME), the nation's largest video-game and entertainment-software specialty retailer with 1,038 stores.

General financial information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/financials.