Barnes & Noble is rising — together with in former Amazon Books spots – GeekWire

How’s this for an epilogue?

Barnes & Noble, the chain bookseller that struggled for years to compete towards Amazon and different on-line retailers, is definitely rising its bodily shops footprint. And in an particularly ironic twist, two new Barnes & Noble shops within the Boston space opened in former Amazon Books locations.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week on how the corporate’s retailer growth is main a “big-box real-estate revival” in 2023. Barnes & Noble, which peaked at 726 areas nationwide in 2008, now has about 600 shops, with plans to develop that quantity by 30 shops subsequent yr, the Journal reported.

Lengthy earlier than it turned a tech big, Amazon obtained its begin as a web-based bookseller. On its method to disrupting a number of retail verticals, the corporate’s e-commerce dominance took a toll on bodily bookstores. To make issues worse, in 2015 the corporate opened the first Amazon Books location, signaling its bodily retail ambitions.

However in March Amazon announced that it was completely closing 68 bodily retail areas, together with all of its Amazon 4-star, Books, and Pop Up shops — a shocking twist for the corporate’s bricks-and-mortar pursuits.

Barnes & Noble, which nonetheless operates a location within the Northgate space of Seattle, closed its downtown store in 2020 after 22 years.

“I’m unhappy to see any bookstore shut,” buyer John Lewis informed GeekWire on the time. “I feel it’s an actual hurt for town as a result of every kind of knowledge and numerous opinions are offered right here and it’s an actual social good to have good bookstores round.”

Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt credited pandemic tailwinds with the corporate’s current success as extra folks turned to books whereas caught at house.

“We’ve now obtained each the profitability and the arrogance to begin opening up shops once more,” Daunt informed the Journal.

Amazon has expressed no such plan to alter course on its current resolution concerning Books and different shops. And one other report this week signaled some concern round its bodily grocery plans. The Information reported that not less than seven newly constructed Amazon Contemporary areas within the U.S. are sitting empty as retailer openings floor to a halt.

The web site, which referred to the areas as “zombie” grocery shops, stated protecting them in limbo could possibly be a cost-cutting tactic for the tech big, which started laying off corporate and tech workers in November and plans to chop additional in the new year.

In the meantime, at what was the primary Amazon Books location, at Seattle’s College Village, Barnes & Noble didn’t seize the house. It’s now a pop-up location for Vuori, makers of athleisure attire.

Barnes & Noble beforehand operated a big retailer on the shopping center for 16 years, however closed more than 10 years ago. The Village is with out a bookstore now.