Three weeks ago, the company enhanced its membership program with significant discounts. Members now get 40% off best sellers and 20% off all adult books. Riggio said membership has grown every quarter since the program made its debut six years ago. "Now, everyone has a card out there," he said, referring to competitors.

Asked if the price cuts were instituted because of competition from Amazon, Borders and others, he said, that although "it's within the context of a competitive environment, it's chief purpose is to pass along benefits to loyal customers and increase (their) lifetime value." While initial feedback "from sales associates is that customers like it, the numbers are shifting. During the holidays, we'll see what it's doing to average tickets and the sales mix."

Regarding holiday, "there's a wave of new fiction, literary fiction, non-fiction and gift books," Riggio said. Among the latter is a new title from Martha Stewart and "Rainforest," a coffee table book.

Fourth-quarter comps at Barnes & Noble stores are expected to range from flat to increases in the low single-digits. Based on year-to-date sales and current trends, the company expects full-year comp sales to range from flat to a slight increase over 2005.

The company operates 801 bookstores in 50 states. Of those, 692 are Barnes & Noble units, and 109 are B. Dalton, which represents just 2% of total sales.

By mid-day, Nov. 16, following release of the preliminary third-quarter data and the conference call, BKS stock was trading at $$40.59 a share on the NYSE, down 4.8% for the day, but significantly above the 52-week low of $32.33 a share on Aug. 10 this year. The 52-week high of $48.41 a share occurred on March 16 this year.