Barnes & Noble Leads the Specialty Retail Category In Customer Satisfaction, According to the 2007 American Customer Satisfaction Index

Business Wire, Feb 21, 2008

NEW YORK -- Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, led the specialty retail category for customer satisfaction, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), released this week by the University of Michigan. With a score of 83, Barnes & Noble is ranked significantly above the specialty retail category average of 75.

"We are delighted to receive an industry leading score in the fourth-quarter survey, but owe it all to our customers. Our customers want and deserve the highest quality customer service, which is what our booksellers strive to deliver every single day," said Steve Riggio, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. "People consider Barnes & Noble the ultimate specialty retail destination for browsing, shopping, and meeting favorite authors and performers at one of our many community events."

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 801 bookstores in 50 states. For the fourth year in a row, the company is the nation's top bookseller brand, as determined by a brand's overall strength based on its combination of familiarity, quality and purchase intent, according to the EquiTrend[R] Brand Study by Harris Interactive[R]. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites.

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

About the ACSI

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States. It is updated each quarter with new measures for different sectors of the economy replacing data from the prior year. The overall ACSI score for a given quarter factors in scores from about 200 companies in 43 industries and from government agencies over the previous four quarters. The Index is produced by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in partnership with the American Society for Quality and CFI Group. ACSI can be found on the web at www.theacsi.org.