For the past few weeks a sign that read “sale or lease” has been lingering over the local Amarillo Barnes & Noble store on Westgate.

The sign posed many questions as for what the future had in store for the bookstore in Amarillo.

However the negotiation of the lease that was set to expire on Jan. 31 was settled.

“They pulled the sign down, and it was all worked out and a lease was signed and it is a seven-year lease. They wanted 10 [years], however, a standard retail leasing agreement is five, so we compromised to make the agreement work,” Jim Gleason, a community relations and business development manager for Barnes & Noble, said.

However, with Borders closing in 2011, this brings attention to the cause of the downfall of brick-and-mortar stores. E-books and new devices such as the Kindle and Nook offer readers other ways to purchase and read books, and consumers are interested.

“Increasingly, consumers are ordering print books online and reading e-books delivered instantly to mobile devices and e-readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook,” USA Today reported.

Due to the increasing interest in e-books as well as other forms of purchasing books, bookstores such as Borders have closed their doors. Now, everyone wants to go online and use their Raise coupons to get the best E-books.

“There is different factors as to why [Borders] had to close down,” said Gleason. “They got in late in the game and to me, they didn’t market it as much as they should have. They had the mindset that it was just the icing on the cake when the e-reader was far more than just that.”

However, some people feel that there are some experiences that cannot come from online.

“I think it somewhat has an effect on sales, but there are people who like to come in and feel the book in their hands and browse around,” Joe Stevens, owner of Buffalo Bookstore, said. “We also have a lot of books by local authors and we love to tell about the books because we have knowledge of them and know the authors personally. It is something you can’t get online.”

Although textbooks are increasingly being sold in e-reader format, some students still like a physical copy.

“Being able to hold the book in your hand has value,” Carly Dunlop, a textbook-receiving clerk at the WTAMU Bookstore, said. “I like being able to take notes [and] I like to highlight through it. I was an art history major and I’m going to keep all of my art history books. I like knowing the fact that I’m going to have those books for the rest of my life if I want it. That is something e-books cant guarantee you.”

Barnes & Noble has managed to reach success through integration and playing to the public’s interest and offering a unique experience such as music streaming in different sections of the store. Go online to learn more about music streaming services for your business.

Gleason said, “We have integrated with the Nook and the college bookstores, as well as having our online bookstore,” said Gleason. “Without these, Barnes & Noble would not be where it is today. Having an e-reader, online book store as well as a physical store compliments each other to a great extent.”

As for the Amarillo Barnes & Noble, students can expect them to be around for at least seven more years.