Barnes & Noble Plans 60 New Stores as Bookstore Rebound Takes Hold
After careening towards bankruptcy for years, bookstore chain Barnes & Noble is giving readers — and investors — a plot twist for the ages. Resisting the march of the ebook or audiobook, B&N is showing that paperbacks and hardbacks are still king. Riding a boom in book sales, the company plans to open 60 new US locations in 2025, with a focus on customization and discovery — something Amazon and its algorithms can’t replicate.
- Store traffic has jumped 7% since Elliot Management acquired the chain in 2019 — with B&N now operating around 600 locations, steadily approaching its 2008 peak of 726 stores.
- The expansion comes as print book sales continue their dominance, generating $846M in October — dwarfing ebook revenue by a factor of ten.
Reading between the lines: Barnes & Noble’s resilient business model starkly contrasts with other struggling retailers like The Container Store and Party City. Thanks to strategic holiday timing and some exceptional last-minute shopping, the bookstore managed to pull off a “solid Christmas” performance. Barnes & Noble’s success story just goes to show that traditional bookselling may still have plenty of pages left to turn.
