Organization (Notes)	12 Months Ended
May 02, 2020
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 1,419 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 strengths of our business include our ability to compete by developing new products and solutions to meet market needs, our large operating footprint with direct access to students and faculty, our well-established, deep relationships with academic partners and stable, long-term contracts and our well-recognized brands. We expect to continue to introduce scalable and advanced digital solutions focused largely on the student, expand our general merchandise e-commerce capabilities, increase market share with new accounts, and expand our strategic opportunities through acquisitions and partnerships. We expect general merchandise sales to continue to increase over the long term, as our product assortments continue to emphasize and reflect the changing consumer trends, and we evolve our presentation concepts and merchandising of products in stores and online, as we improve our e-commerce capabilities through investments we are making in new systems, processes and people. The BNC and MBS brands are virtually synonymous with innovation in bookselling and campus retail, 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. We have three reportable segments: Retail, Wholesale and DSS. 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 7. Segment Reporting. COVID-19 Business Impact and Other Recent Matters Our business experienced an unprecedented and significant impact as a result of COVID-19 related campus store closures. Beginning in March 2020, colleges and universities nationwide began to close their campuses in light of safety concerns and as a result of local and state issued stay-at-home orders. By mid-March, during our fiscal fourth quarter, we closed the majority of our physical campus stores to protect the health and safety of our customers and employees. While our campus stores were closed, we continued to serve institutions and students through our campus websites, providing free shipping on all orders and an expanded digital content offering to provide immediate access to course materials to students at our campuses that closed due to COVID-19. Our fiscal fourth quarter is historically a lower revenue quarter for our operations as it does not include a back-to-school rush period, however, we experienced a loss in revenue in our Retail segment associated with the cancellation of events that traditionally drive sales in the fourth quarter, including athletics events such as March Madness, as well as graduation events. To mitigate the impact of the business disruption, we have taken steps to significantly reduce costs, including furloughing the majority of our Retail workforce (effective April 2020). We developed and implemented plans to safely reopen our campus stores based on national, state and local guidelines, as well as the campus policies set by the school administration. Colleges and universities in the United States continue to adjust their plans for the upcoming fall term, with some implementing shortened semesters or choosing to remain fully virtual in order to best protect students and faculty. We have implemented a significant cost reduction program designed to streamline our operations, maximize productivity and drive profitability. Certain elements of this plan were implemented in late Fiscal 2020, while other actions are planned for Fiscal 2021. We anticipate meaningful annualized cost savings from this program, the majority of which is expected to be realized beginning in Fiscal 2021. As a result, we currently expect to see the most significant impacts of COVID-19 on our business in the first half of Fiscal 2021. However, we cannot accurately predict the duration or extent of the impact of COVID-19 on enrollments, university budgets, athletics and other areas that directly affect our business operations. In Fiscal 2020, we retained Morgan Stanley & Co. to serve as a financial advisor in connection with our review of strategic opportunities. The review is designed to accelerate the execution of customer-focused strategic initiatives and enhance value for our shareholders, including, but not limited to, continued execution of our current business plan, new partnerships, joint ventures and other potential opportunities. There can be no assurance that the review will result in a transaction or announcement of any kind. We have not set a timetable for the conclusion of the review.

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 1,419 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 strengths of our business include our ability to compete by developing new products and solutions to meet market needs, our large operating footprint with direct access to students and faculty, our well-established, deep relationships with academic partners and stable, long-term contracts and our well-recognized brands. We expect to continue to introduce scalable and advanced digital solutions focused largely on the student, expand our general merchandise e-commerce capabilities, increase market share with new accounts, and expand our strategic opportunities through acquisitions and partnerships. We expect general merchandise sales to continue to increase over the long term, as our product assortments continue to emphasize and reflect the changing consumer trends, and we evolve our presentation concepts and merchandising of products in stores and online, as we improve our e-commerce capabilities through investments we are making in new systems, processes and people.

The BNC and MBS brands are virtually synonymous with innovation in bookselling and campus retail, 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.

We have three reportable segments: Retail, Wholesale and DSS. 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 7. Segment Reporting.

COVID-19 Business Impact and Other Recent Matters

Our business experienced an unprecedented and significant impact as a result of COVID-19 related campus store closures. Beginning in March 2020, colleges and universities nationwide began to close their campuses in light of safety concerns and as a result of local and state issued stay-at-home orders. By mid-March, during our fiscal fourth quarter, we closed the majority of our physical campus stores to protect the health and safety of our customers and employees.

While our campus stores were closed, we continued to serve institutions and students through our campus websites, providing free shipping on all orders and an expanded digital content offering to provide immediate access to course materials to students at our campuses that closed due to COVID-19. Our fiscal fourth quarter is historically a lower revenue quarter for our operations as it does not include a back-to-school rush period, however, we experienced a loss in revenue in our Retail segment associated with the cancellation of events that traditionally drive sales in the fourth quarter, including athletics events such as March Madness, as well as graduation events.

To mitigate the impact of the business disruption, we have taken steps to significantly reduce costs, including furloughing the majority of our Retail workforce (effective April 2020). We developed and implemented plans to safely reopen our campus stores based on national, state and local guidelines, as well as the campus policies set by the school administration. Colleges and universities in the United States continue to adjust their plans for the upcoming fall term, with some implementing shortened semesters or choosing to remain fully virtual in order to best protect students and faculty.

We have implemented a significant cost reduction program designed to streamline our operations, maximize productivity and drive profitability. Certain elements of this plan were implemented in late Fiscal 2020, while other actions are planned for Fiscal 2021. We anticipate meaningful annualized cost savings from this program, the majority of which is expected to be realized beginning in Fiscal 2021. As a result, we currently expect to see the most significant impacts of COVID-19 on our business in the first half of Fiscal 2021. However, we cannot accurately predict the duration or extent of the impact of COVID-19 on enrollments, university budgets, athletics and other areas that directly affect our business operations.

In Fiscal 2020, we retained Morgan Stanley & Co. to serve as a financial advisor in connection with our review of strategic opportunities. The review is designed to accelerate the execution of customer-focused strategic initiatives and enhance value for our shareholders, including, but not limited to, continued execution of our current business plan, new partnerships, joint ventures and other potential opportunities. There can be no assurance that the review will result in a transaction or announcement of any kind. We have not set a timetable for the conclusion of the review.