Organization (Notes)	12 Months Ended
Apr. 27, 2019
Organization	Note 1. Organization Description of Business Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (“BNED”) is one of the largest contract operators of physical and virtual bookstores for college and university campuses and K-12 institutions across the United States. We are also one of the largest textbook wholesalers, inventory management hardware and software providers, and a leading provider of digital education solutions. We operate 1,448 physical, virtual, and custom bookstores and serve more than 6 million students, delivering essential educational content and tools within a dynamic omni channel retail environment. Additionally, we offer direct-to-student products and services to help students study more effectively and improve academic performance. The Barnes & Noble and MBS brands are virtually synonymous with bookselling, and, we believe, are widely recognized and respected brands in the United States. Our large college footprint, reputation, and credibility in the marketplace not only support our marketing efforts to universities, students, and faculty, but are also important for leading publishers who rely on us as one of their primary distribution channels, and for being a trusted source for students in our direct-to-student digital solutions business. The strengths of our business includes our ability to compete by developing new products and solutions to meet market needs, our large footprint with direct access to students and faculty, our well-established, deep relationships with partners and stable, long-term contracts and our well-recognized brands. We expect to continue to grow our business by introducing scalable and advanced digital solutions focused largely on the student, increasing market share with new accounts, and expanding our strategic opportunities through acquisitions and partnerships. Prior to the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019, we had three reportable segments: BNC, MBS, and Digital Student Solutions (“DSS”). During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019, in an effort to streamline our retail go-to-market strategy, reinforce our company branding, and more efficiently focus our product development efforts, we realigned our business and sales organization into the following three reportable segments: Retail, Wholesale and DSS. The Retail Segment combines the operations of the former BNC segment with MBS Direct (from the former MBS segment), the Wholesale Segment is comprised of the MBS wholesale business (from the former MBS segment), and the DSS Segment remains unchanged. Additionally, unallocated shared-service costs, which include various corporate level expenses and other governance functions, continue to be presented as “Corporate Services”. For additional information related to our strategies, operations and segments, see Part I - Item 1. Business and Part II - Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 6. Segment Reporting.

Note 1. Organization

Description of Business

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (“BNED”) is one of the largest contract operators of physical and virtual bookstores for college and university campuses and K-12 institutions across the United States. We are also one of the largest textbook wholesalers, inventory management hardware and software providers, and a leading provider of digital education solutions. We operate 1,448 physical, virtual, and custom bookstores and serve more than 6 million students, delivering essential educational content and tools within a dynamic omni channel retail environment. Additionally, we offer direct-to-student products and services to help students study more effectively and improve academic performance.

The Barnes & Noble and MBS brands are virtually synonymous with bookselling, and, we believe, are widely recognized and respected brands in the United States. Our large college footprint, reputation, and credibility in the marketplace not only support our marketing efforts to universities, students, and faculty, but are also important for leading publishers who rely on us as one of their primary distribution channels, and for being a trusted source for students in our direct-to-student digital solutions business.

The strengths of our business includes our ability to compete by developing new products and solutions to meet market needs, our large footprint with direct access to students and faculty, our well-established, deep relationships with partners and stable, long-term contracts and our well-recognized brands. We expect to continue to grow our business by introducing scalable and advanced digital solutions focused largely on the student, increasing market share with new accounts, and expanding our strategic opportunities through acquisitions and partnerships.

Prior to the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019, we had three reportable segments: BNC, MBS, and Digital Student Solutions (“DSS”). During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019, in an effort to streamline our retail go-to-market strategy, reinforce our company branding, and more efficiently focus our product development efforts, we realigned our business and sales organization into the following three reportable segments: Retail, Wholesale and DSS. The Retail Segment combines the operations of the former BNC segment with MBS Direct (from the former MBS segment), the Wholesale Segment is comprised of the MBS wholesale business (from the former MBS segment), and the DSS Segment remains unchanged. Additionally, unallocated shared-service costs, which include various corporate level expenses and other governance functions, continue to be presented as “Corporate Services”. For additional information related to our strategies, operations and segments, see Part I - Item 1. Business and Part II - Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 6. Segment Reporting.