Barnes & Noble is struggling to keep afloat in a world where brick-and-mortar bookstores are a dying breed. It’s latest plan to help make a comeback apparently will be to start serving alcohol in its stores.

However, you won’t be seeing it introduced to the areas you are used to seeing, instead, B&N are looking to get more into the restaurant business as a way to diversify its holdings. It’s all part of an effort that includes a greater emphasis on things like toys, gifts and vinyl record sales.

B&N’s Chief Operating Officer was tabbed to head up the newly created restaurant division, which will include alcohol sales and the hopes of boosting potential book sales in the process.

Just don’t expect to see the new concept or alcohol sales to be hitting your local B&N stores anytime soon. Rather, there will be just four new concept stores that get the restaurant treatment and then the company will look at how those stores perform before launching it in other stores.

Those locations are going to be Eastchester, New York; Edina, Minnesota; Folsom, California; and Loudon, Virginia.

Overall, it is a move that may help save a company that is starting to turn around its financial situation. It’s Nook e-reader is losing far less money than it has before and same-store sales look to be flat or just slightly up from last year.

If you’re into the stock market, this move resulted in plenty of love for the B&N stock as it rose 7.9 percent on the heels of this announcement and is up nearly 30 percent on the year (currently $11.29 per share).

[Bloomberg/Image: Barnes & Noble]

About Andrew Coppens

Andy is a contributor to The Comeback as well as Publisher of Big Ten site talking10. He also is a member of the FWAA and has been covering college sports since 2011. Andy is an avid soccer fan and runs the Celtic FC site The Celtic Bhoys. If he's not writing about sports, you can find him enjoying them in front of the TV with a good beer!