In 1951, while working for the telephone company, he founded Economie Nouvelle, a membership discount buying group for products sold through participating merchants.

[5] The brand positioning of the company continued with the training of sales assistants in their product categories, with purchases being guaranteed for one year.

The test centre would check for technical quality, ease of use, price, and value for money ("rapport qualité-prix"), and all results were published in the company's free members' magazine Contact, which today can also be found advertised in store.

The 1970s saw further expansion for Fnac, as the company began opening shops in the French provinces outside Paris and a third in the city itself that sold books, the newest addition to the product range.

In 1974, the company began selling books at 80% of the recommended retail price, sparking protests from publishers, writers and independent booksellers alike, who could not benefit from the economies of scale.

This prompted government action in 1982 with the so-called 'anti-Fnac' law, that was signed to limit discounts on books to a maximum of five percent.

In 1977, the remaining shares of the company's founders were sold to the Société Génerale des Cooperatives de Consommation (SGCC, the financial arm of the Coop retailing group) to raise more capital.

In 1985, SGCC sold its shares to the insurance group Garantie Mutuelle des Fonctionnaires (GMF) due to growing competition from the French hypermarket and discount chains such as Carrefour and E.Leclerc.

Petriat announced a FFr 1.5 billion plan to add 15 new stores to the 31-store chain and double the company's gross revenues, in order to compete with the new entrant to the French market.

In 1992, the fate of FNAC Librairie Internationale, featuring books in languages other than French, was sealed and closed after only a year of trading.

[12] Despite some failures, the company revealed growing revenues though shrinking profits in the early 1990s, also attributed to the recession in the French economy.

The falling profits for Fnac was a similar situation to the parent company, GMF whose share count totalled more than 80 percent.

To raise more capital, GMF agreed to sell its shares of FNAC in July 1993 to Altus Finances, a subsidiary of government-owned Crédit Lyonnais, and Phenix, a property group owned by French waterworks company Compagnie Générale des Eaux, for FFr 2.4 billion.

In 1994, Crédit Lyonnais announced it was going to sell its 64 percent share of the company as part of a FFr 20 billion asset-reduction plan.

In July 1994, the Altus Finances subsidiary agreed to sell the majority stake in FNAC for FFr 1.9 billion to François Pinault, the largest shareholder in and architect of Pinault-Printemps-Redoute.

[16] In July 2017, Enrique Martinez and Jacques Veyrat became the new bosses of Fnac and replaced Alexandre Bompard, who left for Carrefour.

[17] In February 2018, the French Property and Casualty Insurance Company (Sfam) became the second largest shareholder in the Fnac Darty group.

[21] In April 2020, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fnac was the first large French company to tap a government-guaranteed loan (500 million euro).

[23] As of October 2018, the company owns stores in France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland, and is present as franchising in Luxembourg, Morocco, Qatar, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Senegal and the Republic of Congo.

There are 26 Fnac stores in Spain, including: Plaza Callao (Madrid), L'illa (Barcelona), San Agustín (Valencia), Triangle (Barcelona), Coso (Zaragoza), Bulevar (Alicante), Parque Principado (Oviedo), Diagonal Mar (Barcelona), La Cañada (Marbella, Málaga), Plaza (Marbella, Málaga), Plaza Norte (San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid), ParqueSur (Leganés, Madrid), Donostia (San Sebastián), Nueva Condomina (Murcia), Bilbao (Bilbao), Ave. de La Constitución (Seville), Praza de Lugo (Corunna), Centro Comercial Larios Centro (Málaga), Plaza Imperial (Zaragoza), Centro Comercial Rio Shopping (Valladolid) La Gavia (Madrid), Paseo de la Castellana (Madrid) and Centro Comercial La Morea (Pamplona).

Fnac operates a loyalty programme offering points that are awarded each time the card is presented at the till-point, for each euro spent.

[32] Fnac stores stock a range of products from audio, books, CDs, computer software and hardware, DVDs, televisions and video games.

[38] Fnac holds "forums" throughout the year, which are opportunities for customers to have dialogue with people such as Pedro Almodóvar, George Lucas, and David Cronenberg, discussions with authors including Paul Auster, Pierre Bourdieu, and Françoise Giroud in addition to concerts.

Since 2001 the company has also annually presented an award, Le prix du roman Fnac, whose winners are chosen by a panel of booksellers and members.

In February 2002, Fnac published with UPFI (Union des Producteurs Phonographiques Français Indépendants) "Manifeste pour la diversité musicale", as a prelude to a policy of favorable treatment for independent labels and their artists.

The Day of the Beast), the main character Ángel is caught trying to steal a book from the Fnac store in Callao Square in Madrid.

The story of the 2005 Spanish thriller Mar rojo, starring Maribel Verdú, begins with an armed robbery at a Fnac store in Barcelona.