Barnes & Noble

I am able to waste lots and lots of time here. This area is nearly as good as a library for reading. Yes it’s a little noisy, particularly on weekends, however you can snag a novel and sit on a window sill or among the few seats and read as much as you need! No one cares! I’ve read whole novels, simply sitting there hour after hour. It is a method to be affordable I guess, by reading the entire novel and never purchasing it, and better then the library because there are plenty of copies of all the bestsellers.

I have a member card and I would like to buy one of everything in the store every time I am in there. I love the wrapping paper, I wrapped several items myself when I bought inside of Barnes and noble. The store seems relaxing and I buy a drink and sit in the café this is amazing. The employees all seem helpful and have time for the customers. The fun of the designs of the items sold there are interesting.

Do not go here if you are looking for a dog friendly environment. Although the Back Bay is very pet friendly, Barnes and Noble is not.

I love bookstores in general, glad to see that there’s still some around! I find myself stopping in this location quite often, seeing what they have on the «Books Everyone Should Read» or the classics tables.
So easy to pick up a book or magazine and get lost in it, next thing you know you’re late for that meeting you were in Back Bay for. oops!
There’s a section with Barnes and Noble Classics edition books in it that I like, you can pick up some classics pretty cheaply, I like to check there.
I have found the staff in this location to be great, the ladies at checkout are always very friendly, and the security guard who usually is standing by the door is always friendly as well.

Located in the prudential building mall. I popped in to pick up some train reading material. Really clean, nice staff and great selection! I was also able to stand off to a corner and charge my phone which is very helpful while traveling!

Staff is great and they work hard.
There are 2 cafes attached. One inside with seating and tables and one outside for your quick grab-&-go lunches if you work inside the Pru. The cafes DO NOT honor Starbucks gift cards or reward programs because they are not affiliates of Starbucks but serve the drinks.
My favorite foods to get: multi grain croissant, spinach feta stuffed pretzel, and cinnamon scone

I love Barnes and Noble. I love bookstores. I could get lost for hours in a bookstore, especially this one. B&N has everything I need when it comes to anything literary. I love that this is the only bookstore in the area still hanging around. I used to frequent the Downtown Boston location until that closed many years ago.
This location is awesome, though. It’s awesome because there’s rows of books, magazines, a clearance table (or two), a media center, a children’s section, and a café! The café is wonderful, and it’s a great spot to snag a coffee, a snack and a book to just chill. The help desk that’s in the store is really well, helpful. Staff are extremely accommodating, and eager to make sure that you have everything that you need.
The stationery/​gift section in the store is also super cool. There’s board games, greeting cards, soaps and candles, and other knick-​knacky things that are nice gifts or additions to gifts… or just to buy for your home. If I’m in the Prudential Mall, you’ll definitely find me here just to see what’s new.
I don’t normally buy books anymore because I have a nook. But if I do need a book, this place would be my first choice to start browsing.

I love this bookstore! Staff is super helpful, very good location and very good stuff in there. The prices are a bit more expensive than amazon, but once u buy the 10% discount card, its actually pretty competitive. They should get rid of the dvd/​cd section and add video games in there instead!!!

This Barnes & Nobles location is decent, but Barnes & Nobles, in general, is just so frustrating to me.
Pluses: It’s a large store, with decent selection, good location for me, and it’s clean. The staff is pretty helpful, but nothing exceptional.
Minuses: They obviously don’t have every book (no bookstore does), but there is no way to check inventory online even though they have a great website. Typically, I see a book I want on their website, but if I want it today rather than waiting 5 days to ship, I have to go to the bookstore, search around, only to find out they don’t stock it. Having a website and brick and mortar is their competitive advantage over Amazon, but they don’t leverage that. So why would I use their website instead of Amazon? No reason at all. So very often I go to this store, they don’t have the book in stock, and I end up buying from Amazon — great business move guys. I would much rather go to a small local bookstore that doesn’t have my selection, rather than this Barnes & Nobles that doesn’t have it.

This is one of my favorite B&N stores! Even when there are no seats available, I love that you can sit on a window ledge with your favorite drink from the café and peruse at your leisure. The view is always nice and the location is convenient and right inside the Pru. The staff are very friendly and it’s a great place to rest for a bit while shopping in the Back Bay.

X-​posting this because it’s the same Barnes and Noble as the one listed under 800 Boylston Street.
Great B&N. Big. Lots of selection of books, DVDs/​Blue Ray discs. Has a café, a kids play area, kids toys, and the whole store is laid out very neatly. Very clean. Staff is helpful if you need help finding a book or whatever. Be aware that you are in a book store (which are always more expensive than buying stuff online via Amazon, ebay, etc.). I like to just come in and sit in the café. It’s a great place to just read or hangout.

The B&N inside the Pru — my favorite hiding place from the rest of the world.
The Starbucks inside the B&N inside the Pru — an event better hiding place while also being a great place to work. It still has some of the charm (and quietness) that most Starbucks have lost meanwhile. Love the 60s decoration style…
Oh, and they also happen to sell books and magazines…

There aren’t a lot of big book stores around anymore, let alone independent bookstores and used bookstores. So I appreciate each and every one. This Barnes and Noble is a really welcoming spot. It’s located in the Prudential Center Mall, right above a T stop on the Green Line so you don’t need to go outdoors on a horrid day if you take the T.
There’s always a security guard stationed at the entrance, and they are very polite, often greeting you when you come in. Off to the left are many excellent locally focused titles about Boston, Cambridge and the immediate area, and as you wander towards the back, you encounter best sellers, newly released paperbacks, games, calendars, movies and music, magazines, cook books and more. The kids’ section is huge. There’s a popular Starbucks, and there are many chairs to plop into for some browsing and reading. (Some people seem to spend the day here.)
On the way to check out, they have the usual tempting treats like greeting cards, small games, pens and gifts. It is very tempting to pop some of these pretty things into your shopping basket.
There is an information desk and there are bathrooms, but I have never needed either so no comments there.
If you like signed books, they often have titles that are autographed by the author. I’m a fan of these.
While members of my family go to Victoria’s Secret, The Gap, J. Crew and The Body Shop, I hang out in here and the time slips away. And inevitably, a lot of my money slips away, too.

This location is cramped and could stand to be cleaned from top to bottom. It’s kind of the hoarder location of the chain, with piles of books and magazines along the side walls. I have spent quite a few days at the Starbucks catching up on work or meeting friends and each time it is dirty and not a single napkin to be found. I don’t know how people eat there seeing the condition of the dining room itself. The positives are the fact that there is free wifi and the location is very convenient to just pop in and out of without having to really get into the main space of the mall. And as a personal plea, please, please, please loosen the purse strings and buy a new hand dryer for the women’s restroom! It does absolutely nothing, in fact, I question if it actually just blows out water.

This B&N location is well-​stocked, and in particular their travel section is excellent. My beef with the place is their poor customer service, particularly when responding to health and cleaniness issues.
One time I went to use the men’s room and it was unusable. It was filty, with water, urine, and excrement all over the place. There was so much water and urine on the floor near the urinal you couldn’t go near it, not that you would have wanted to. It was a disgusting, repugnant mess, which surprised me since the rest of the store is kept very clean.
I went to the Information desk and spoke to a 20-​something guy about the state of the men’s room and that it needed to be cleaned because it was horrid. The guy acted like I was bothering him and snapped at me, «Okay, fine!» He didn’t move to do anything about it. I told him that the mess had reached a point of being a potential health hazard and men could not use the restroom. He repeated «okay.» A woman manager heard the conversation and told me that I had to «understand» that they had had large tour groups come through and could not be expected to keep the bathrooms clean all the time.
I’ve never been in the café, but if this is how they choose to handle hygiene issues, I think I’ll steer clear. The only reason I’m giving them two stars is due their well stocked travel section. But with the B&N in Kenmore Square and the multitude of indepedent bookstores in the area, there is no reason to go to the Pru’s B&N.

So, this review is specifically for the Starbucks Café.
I realize this isnt an actual starbucks, they brew their coffee, but since when does that mean service can move at a snails pace and employees can talk loudly about their work schedule and how gross the trash is? Or that the manager goes through who will work out front and who will be in back and why employee A is working with employee B? SO UNPROFESSIONAL!
The trash was full, so yes, as part of the job, it needed to be emptied. The employee sighed at the trash multiple times. left, returned with HUGE rubber gloves and proceeded to sigh loudly everytime she have to pick up the overflowing trash. Yea, it’s not the highlight of the day… but do realize we are all sitting around you and we dont want to hear your triumphs of the day. work silently and quickly, I also, don’t want to look at trash.
I was waiting for a friend, but I couldnt sit there any longer and had to leave and wait elsewhere.
Good thing people go to BnN for books and this location has a unique layout and it is quite :)

This place is deceptively large. It goes way back! When you first walk in you think it is just the front room. The employees are very nice and want to make sure you are having a good experience. Over all, its a great one!

This Barnes and Noble and I have a history, so maybe I’m biased. This was my regular weekend getaway throughout 5 years of college down the street. When I moved away after graduation, I compared all Barnes and Nobles to this one, and none will meet it.
First, the layout is great and looks even better now than before, thanks to the big bright area with the Nooks and accessories. There used to be difficulty finding seating so you could read in the store, but apparently in the past 4 years they have added more tables and chairs against the wall and only allow people who are eating/​drinking in the café to sit in those seats… no more fighting for a comfy chair!
The staff is very, very friendly. We have had issues finding certain editions of books and the staff helped us find another store with the one we were hunting for, and even offered to place an order for us to pick up at another time.
Being in the Prudential Center is a huge plus as well: lots of other things to do just steps away from the store. It is also a few flights up from a T stop on the green line, so it is very very accessible.
There is another Barnes and Noble closer to our apartment, but we will always choose this one.

Sometimes I feel like writing a great Unilocal review isn’t enough to pay people back for excellent customer service, but I’m about to do it regardless.
I had been having a miserable week — my apartment broken into and my laptop was stolen; I was borrowing my brother’s car when it got a flat tire about 50 minutes away from home, so I had to get a new tire; basically just a lot of expensive things that weren’t strictly my fault — that had left me feeling insanely stressed. Oh, and they also happened within two weeks of me leaving for vacation.
So when my first edition Nook died two days before I was supposed to leave (and I had two 6+ hour flights in my immediate future and needed a book or two to read while away) I brought it in to this location (after calling tech support, who weren’t able to solve the problem). The technical team in the store wasn’t able to save it either (but they tried REALLY hard — even called tech support themselves when the usual methods didn’t work) and it was out of warranty, so they suggested getting a new one.
I spoke with the manager, Jane (ok, so «spoke with» may not be the right word… «sobbed at» might be more a more accurate term), who was really able to take care of me and who helped me leave the store with a nook that I could afford (because, again, my bank account has taken a few serious hits lately and I had lost a fair amount of my vacation money).
This is the kind of service that made me glad I chose Nook over Kindle. I would like to say thanks to Jane, Lauren and the two men (I’m sorry that I didn’t write down their names) who helped me out and made my day a bit brighter.

I don’t typically buy my books at Barnes & Noble. What I love them for is cute little gifts. They have a fun selection of kids’ toys and games, stationery, board games, and tchotchkes. When I need an emergency gift for someone and I’m stumped for ideas and time, I head to Barnes & Noble.