Barnes & Noble Signs Lease for West Jordan, Utah, Store; Store Will Open in October 2002.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 26, 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 West Jordan, Utah. The 23,500-square-foot store, expected to open in October 2002, will be located at 7800 South Bangerter Highway West in the Jordan Landing Shopping Center. 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 West Jordan," 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.