Yeah this annoyed me to no end, however after a few shops I realized the only reason these are even open right now is because of the high margin gift section. Check the prices on their plushies when you are there. $35 for a small rabbit! and people buy them.
Yes, you should allocate a larger share of scarce resources (in this case, floor space) to high-margin product...
... but not at the expense of the central thesis of why customers actually come to your store.
B&N was able to sell high margin gift shop items because traffic was already there as a bookstore... and there as a bookstore because they had reading areas and a coffee shop.