US Bookstores Coming Back as Barnes & Noble Celebrates 31st New Store and Indie Shops Dominating

March 21, 2024 journo

Ask most people around the country about the number of bookstores in their town over the last 20 years and the answer will almost inevitably be that it’s gone down, but the new Barnes & Noble in Papillion, Nebraska is no anomaly—corporate bookstores are returning.

The new Nebraska location is part of a slate of openings envisioned to reach as high as 50 to 60 this year alone, to follow up on the 31 openings from last year to match booming book sales born during the pandemic and which carried on into the post-pandemic world.

But the great news is that it’s more than just corporate bookstores that economic reports suggest are flourishing; as the US book sales market continues to both grow and diversify, the majority of the retail book market is controlled by small stores.

Yet further, this isn’t a trend limited to the US, but continues around the world, with 50% of all retail book sales, whether in Germany, India, or Nebraska, coming from the proverbial Shop Around the Corner.

“It’s so exciting,” said Janine Flanigan, Senior Director of Store Planning and Design with Barnes & Noble, when interviewed about the Papillion store opening. “We came to a screeching halt in terms of opening stores. We hadn’t opened stores in a very long period of time.”

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Flanigan has the same thing to say about bookstores as Grand View Research, whose data were quoted above—that communities use bookstores as a gathering place to talk, to meet, to interact, and to hold events.

“We opened 31 stores which is actually more stores than we opened in the past 10 years combined,” Flanigan told WOWT News 6, Omaha. “This year we’re looking to open somewhere between 50-60 new stores.”

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While digital and technological forms of media such as eBooks, audiobooks, and long-form podcasts continue to grow at the highest paces, the physical book, bought in a physical store, has never lost its luster and continues to represent the largest chunk of book purchases nationwide.

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