- Barnes & Noble plans to open at least 60 new stores in 2025.
- The bookseller credits the virality of TikTok book content, also known as “BookTok,” for its growth.
- Its Starbucks cafés have also drawn customers as a space for gathering and socializing.
Barnes & Noble is planning to open at least 60 new stores in 2025 — a stunning turnaround for a bookseller that just a few years ago closed hundreds of locations and appeared doomed to follow in the footsteps of its shuttered former competitors.
Barnes & Noble opened 57 new locations in 2024 and operates around 600 stores in total, making it the largest bookseller in the US.
The hedge fund Elliott Advisors bought out Barnes & Noble for $638 million in 2019. James Daunt, CEO of the British bookstore chain Waterstones, was named the new CEO.
Despite store closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Barnes & Noble’s sales surged above their pre-pandemic levels as people turned to reading out of boredom and nostalgia.
In recent years, the bookseller has also leaned into the popularity of book content on TikTok and the post-pandemic thirst for “third spaces” to meet and socialize.
I visited a Barnes & Noble store to see the bookseller’s strategies in action.
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