Looking for a summer read? Barnes & Noble is on track to open more than 60 new bookstores this year. Here's where
If you're looking, here's some good news: After a decade of downsizing, partly due to Amazon's rise combined with changes in consumer behavior, bookstores are back—with Barnes & Noble leading the renaissance with a major expansion, on track to open over 60 new bookstores in 2025 alone, according to a spokesperson for the bookseller. The retailer currently runs approximately 600 bookstores nationwide, as well as BN.com online.
Halfway through the year, Barnes & Noble told Fast Company it has already opened 23 bookstores in 2025. '[We] are enjoying a period of tremendous growth as the strategy to hand control of each bookstore to its local booksellers has proven so successful,' a spokesperson for Barnes & Noble said. 'We are experiencing strong sales in existing stores and have been opening many new stores as a result.'
In the early 2000s, Barnes & Noble opened 30 stores or more a year, but simultaneously closed about half that number too, according to The Wall Street Journal. By 2013, a decade later, it was on track to close about a third of its brick-and-mortar retail stores, and would continue shrinking over the next 10 years. But by 2023, consumer demand was back, and the bookseller started ramping up again.
As Fast Company previously reported, the resurgence is thanks in large part to social media, in particular, TikTok 's #BookTok. But some credit also goes to a rise in so-called third spaces—places people are flocking to post-pandemic that are neither home nor work, as Americans seek real connection amid an epidemic of loneliness now plaguing our nation (especially among Gen Z). As Americans spend more time at home and on their devices, many now have fewer friends (particularly men) and fewer social outlets. But many new bookstores today are opening with a cafe or even a bar to allow for more interaction, like New York City's Book Club Bar and Bibliotheque, or (my personal favorite) Boston's romance novel bookstore, Lovestruck Books.
'Bookstores are a social spot to gather and offer that third space that online shopping cannot provide,' Barnes & Noble told Fast Company. 'Our booksellers are knowledgeable and can provide a dedicated customer service to the in store shopper.'
Here's a list of locations where Barnes & Noble has already opened new stores, as well as a list of states where it will be opening new locations in 2025.
New Barnes & Noble locations opened in 2025
Barnes & Noble locations expected to open in the second half of 2025
A spokesperson for Barnes & Noble told Fast Company that the company has signed leases to open additional stores in the following states:
Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
Washington
South Dakota
Texas
Massachusetts
Tennessee
New Jersey
Kansas
Minnesota
Maryland
California
Louisiana
Florida
Idaho
Michigan
Colorado
Ohio
District of Columbia
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