A Barnes & Noble in Washington, D.C. is hoping the sequel is better than the original.
The book retailer this month opened a three-story, 30,000-square-foot store in the heart of D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood, directly across the street from a Rag & Bone, Bluemercury and Lululemon. The location was once the site of a jail, a movie theater, Henry Ford’s first dealership in the D.C. area — and a very familiar book store. Barnes & Noble itself occupied the same building in 1995 until it eventually vacated the space in 2011.
Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt called the D.C. space the “most ambitious” of the company’s new locations.
“The old location was a fantastic store for Barnes & Noble. We left the space because our lease ended,” a spokesperson for the company said by email. “When the opportunity to open a store in that exact location came up, we could not resist to go back to our old building and once again have a location in Georgetown.”
The D.C. store is part of a larger brick-and-mortar expansion strategy, wherein Barnes & Noble is launching dozens of locations across the U.S. after over 15 years of declining store numbers. In 2023, the retailer opened more new bookstores in one year than it had in the entire decade of 2009 to 2019.
The company is now on track to open around 58 stores by the end of the year. In November alone, Barnes & Noble will launch locations in New York, Florida, Utah, New Hampshire, Indiana, Kansas, California, New Jersey and Washington.
Only a week prior to the launch in D.C., a store opened in Chicago’s Wicker Park in the historic Noel State Bank building, in what Daunt said was one of the most “beautiful bookstores anywhere in the world.”
Part of the bookseller’s overarching strategy, and what is taking the company into a period of growth, is handing the control of each location over to its local booksellers.
“The assortment has been curated by our Georgetown book team and will reflect the interests of the area,” a company spokesperson said of the D.C. store.
The space’s first level contains new book releases, gifts and an entire back wall of journals. Visitors to the second level will encounter fiction while the top floor features nonfiction. The store features private label Barnes & Noble products, seasonal gifts, an extensive toy and game selection and an expanded vinyl collection.
The Georgetown store added new fixtures and furniture but kept the existing interior of the building. That includes columns and hardwood floors from Nike, the tenant prior to this iteration of Barnes & Noble. The space will eventually have a cafe that is scheduled to open in 2025.
Barnes & Noble was acquired in 2019 by Elliott Management, owner of Waterstones, the largest bookseller in the United Kingdom. Daunt, who is the CEO of Waterstones as well as Paper Source, also took on the role of chief executive of Barnes & Noble.
At the time of the acquisition, Daunt hinted at the strategic trajectory of its brick-and-mortar stores, some of which has come to fruition through this latest round of openings. The inclusion of toys in stores and becoming a gift destination — goals that were stated in 2019 — can clearly be seen in the Georgetown location.
But book store sales overall have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. Last year, U.S. sales in the category reached $8.3 billion dollars, relatively flat compared to the year prior, according to Statista data.
Don’t tell that to shoppers in Georgetown, though. The retailer has been open for less than two weeks and has already seen packed crowds, conducted author signings and even held a pop-up featuring merch in collaboration with South Korean boy band Ateez.
“The return to this historic building is a dramatic example of the ongoing revival of brick-and-mortar bookstores,” Daunt said.
