Like 1 month ago, my wife was playing with the NC. Another woman start doing the same and she was confused while using the device, asking questions or looking for help but the customer sales representative was not there. If I recalled well, she asked simple stuff like how to buy books, price, etc. Min later, the B&N guy showed up
... he sees me there frequently, and started all the marketing verbosity with me. I told him I did not want one (actually, did not mention I returned one days before that) but he keep insisting. Then I finally show my Kindle 3 and all people around made a circle, it was kind of funny. I showed the landscape mode, ability to enlarge embedded images and he even asked for the device to compare weight and sizes. In a few words he said: "I like it". Then he called his B&N partner and start doing the same showing some books and playing a bit.
Bottom line, I do not recommend it, even if that's the same device or not. You can end in a very embarrassing situation or answering questions to a lot of people when you just want to relax and drink some coffee ;-) ...
Going back the B&N one more time, I've found that, at least on my area, the B&N guys know nothing about their device and the technical skills are poor. This has been my own personal experience and can't confirm is the same or not in other B&N stores.