Barnes & Noble Will Close 200 Stores Within Next 10 Years

Various news outlets are reporting that Barnes & Noble executives are planning to close at least 200 stores within the next decade in the face of ongoing slumping sales.

The Peabody store is located in the rear of the Northshore Mall.

The closures in themselves are not surprising -- the nation's largest book retailer has been shuttering around 15 stores a year in the past 10 years, but still opening about twice that many each year.

The trend now, however, appears to be only headed one way, reports the Wall Street Journal and Huffington Post.

Barnes & Noble has not released details on which stores are targeted to close going forward.

If the Peabody store were to close, it would be relatively on the heels of Borders Books' departure in 2011 -- the Andover Street store was shuttered amid corporate bankruptcy filings.

You can read more about the plans for Barnes & Noble here at the Huffington Post.