When it comes to B&N, they do so much on line business, people aren't showing up in the stores as much, so they're cutting back on the stores. On line business is doing well as far as I've heard.
We have a B&N around here. My kids and I go there all the time. To them, it's more like a toy store (they like to collect the series books). To me, it's a source for useful, permanent information (I keep a lot of reference books. If the electric were to ever go out, I'd have all my information on paper).
I love going to B&N. Love bookstores. My kids do, too. My problem is their prices are significantly higher than Amazon and their own on-line store. I understand they have costs the others do not, but they could try staying in the same ballpark.