It does an excellent job of displaying the battery needs to be charged.

I was in a B&N the other day and wanted to look at the Nooks. They had 2 on display (smaller models) and a tablet.

Both of the Nooks were in stands, and the screens said they needed to be charged. Luckily, there was a cable in the stand. Unfortunately, the cables were micro USB and the Nooks were USB-C.
They must have ignored the memo that instructed them to hide the Nooks behind the main counter. "It's our newest model, let's make sure people don't see it. And if they do see it, make sure they can't test it."

How hard would it be to maintain a small display and send a couple USB-C adapters to every store? It's like they're sabotaging themselves. Just weird.
Nothing B&N does at this point is going to surprise me. They've sabotaged themselves so many times for so many years it seems to be their modus operandi.
I believe several years ago retail stores got more say in their store front designs and ability to tailor them to the local market. I have been to 6 different BN chains in the last several years and they each display Nook devices or advertise them in slightly different ways. Half of them prominently displayed the new Nook GL4 and the new BN audiobooks signs at the front entrance. Some had the newest GL4e in the display but it wasn’t a functioning model. If I compare that to Kindle displays at Best Buy, it’s about on par. The Kindles on display have a set demo interface that doesn’t allow testing. And employees also know nothing about them.
Every Nook can be tested for every feature, at least, and taken out of demo mode.
Every person at the BN help desk is highly aware of the device specs. Sometimes they evangelize. Sometimes they are lukewarm.
I cannot compare to Chapters, but I suspect the experience was similar to Best Buy Kindles. I think it’s a general malaise about ereaders in brick and mortar stores. And even local BN stores are not immune.
I really like reading on my pink nook.