In Manhattan, New York, the flagship store of Barnes & Noble, it was crowded, and Baird, the bookstore's manager, roughly estimated that there were at least a thousand people, and he was shocked by the sheer number of people.

The flagship store in Manhattan, New York, is the largest of the hundreds of Barnes & Noble bookstores in the United States.

At 120,000 square feet (more than 10,000 square meters), it is larger than the average Walmart supermarket.

Annual sales are also the highest among hundreds of Barnes & Noble bookstores, exceeding $30 million, or 2% of the Barnes & Noble Group's total sales.

The flow of people is also deservedly the largest, with more than 4,000 people per day.

But just after 9 a.m. today, there are already thousands of people, and if this flow can be maintained, there will be at least 10,000 people today, more than Christmas Day, which is the most crowded time of the year.

Baird wondered, today is not a big holiday, oh, today is Children's Day, but Children's Day is not a day for book buying at Barnes & Noble.

Think about it again, there are no famous best-selling authors releasing new books today, why is there so much foot traffic?

While Baird was wondering, he saw Thompson, the head of security, hurrying from a distance, and after a while came to him, his voice hurried:

"Manager, there are too many people! at least a thousand, the bookstore is not staffed enough to maintain order, and level 1 security measures must be activated. ”

When Baird heard Thompson's words, he didn't bother to ask about the reason for the flow of people, now that the flow of people in the bookstore exceeded the warning line, safety measures must be taken, otherwise something could happen.

"Agree to immediately activate level 1 security measures, maintain order, and never cause an accident. Baird's expression was serious.

"Okay. Thompson left quickly.

Level 1 security measures, the highest level of security measures at Barnes & Noble Bookstores, are only activated during the year, and even less on Christmas in some years.

Baird felt that he had to figure out why there were so many people today, so he picked up the walkie-talkie and called Gleason, the sales executive, and after calling a few times there was no response.

"Where's the damn Gleason, I'm going to withhold his salary!"

Baird smashed the walkie-talkie, cursed angrily, and decided to personally ask the staff who were maintaining order at the door of the bookstore, who should know why.

Baird managed to squeeze to the door of the bookstore, his meticulously combed hair disheveled like a bird's nest, and his straight suit was full of wrinkles.

He didn't have time to tidy up his appearance, he saw that most of the managers of the bookstore were maintaining order at the door, including Gleason, no wonder he didn't see a single manager just now.

Normally he comes to work at 9 o'clock, and today is no exception, he takes the underground parking lot and then takes the internal elevator to the bookstore's office.

When he first entered the office, he felt weird, because there was no one in the office, and he wondered if all of them were late.

Then he walked out of the office to the railing of the hallway, and was immediately shocked to see the dense crowd inside and outside the bookstore.

Now he stood at the door of the bookstore, pulled the sales supervisor and asked loudly, "Why is there so much traffic today?"

Gleason, the sales supervisor, was about to answer, but was suddenly squeezed by the person behind him and almost fell, and after stabilizing his body, Gleason hurriedly pulled Baird to a place with little traffic.

Gleason took a few breaths and said, "Manager, these people are here to buy Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." ”

"What did you say?" Baird's eyes widened.

Gleason thought Baird hadn't heard clearly, and repeated it again.

Baird listened to Gleason's words a second time, his eyes were lost, he shook his head in disbelief, and kept saying, "Impossible, impossible." ”

Today, he knew that Barnes & Noble was going to sell Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

He is the manager of Barnes & Noble's flagship store in New York, and has a significant position within the Barnes & Noble Group, where he is qualified to attend important meetings at Barnes & Noble.

A month earlier, his nemesis, Smith, had submitted a document to the president, and the general manager had summoned all the key executives of Barnes & Noble to a meeting.

The content of the meeting was a special cooperation agreement, and when Baird first saw the content of the meeting, he was surprised that Barnes & Noble had not signed a special cooperation agreement with another company for a long time.

Then he saw that the sponsor of the special cooperation agreement was a small company with assets of just over $2 million, and he immediately laughed at Smith, such a company deserved to sign a special cooperation agreement with Barnes & Noble.

Even if the small company is backed by the $400 million Carney Group, compared to the billions of dollars in assets of Barnes & Noble, the Carney Group is not enough.

Even if the compensation fee is as high as $2 million, it is still not eligible to sign a special cooperation agreement with Barnes & Noble.

Baird strongly opposed the signing of a special cooperation agreement with Carney Media, but most of the management, including the president, preferred to sign a special cooperation agreement, so the end result was to agree.

Baird had no choice but to carry out the company's order, and the other 99 selected Barnes & Noble bookstores put "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" on sale on June 1.

Although carrying out the company's orders, Baird did not care at all about the sale of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

If it weren't for the fact that so much traffic caught his attention today, he would have forgotten that June 1 was the sale day of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".

Judging from the flow of people in today's flagship store, it is conceivable that other Barnes & Noble bookstores are also crowded, and the sales of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" must be very high.

Baird couldn't believe that a book by an unknown author could sell so well, and that the author was of Chinese descent.

Damn, if Carney Media completes a special cooperation agreement, his nemesis Smith will be meritorious again, and the position may rise one step, and the gap between him and Smith is getting bigger and bigger.

He had a feud with Smith for the position of business manager, and if Smith got higher and higher, would he be retaliated against?

Do you want to do something, Baird looked at the huge flow of people, and his mind turned.

But he soon abandoned the idea, not to mention the surveillance methods of Smith and the Carney Group, and if he was found out by Barnes & Noble, he would end badly.

He would rather be retaliated against by Smith than by the entire Barnes & Noble bookstore, and the thought of that fate made him shudder.

Baird instructed Gleason to keep order, and then returned to the office, out of sight and out of mind.

Since he can't do anything, he pretends that he hasn't seen the sales of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".