Barnes & Noble stores thrive thanks to the new layouts, cafes and Tiktok

• Barnes & Noble plans to open at least 60 new stores in 2025.
• The bookseller attributes the virality of the content of the book Tiktok, also known as “Booktok”, for its growth.
• Its Starbucks cafes have also attracted customers such as a space for collection and socialization.

Barnes & Noble plans to open at least 60 new stores in 2025 – an amazing recovery rate for a bookseller who barely closed hundreds of locations a few years ago and seemed to be condemned to follow in the footsteps of his former closed competitors .

Barnes & Noble opened 57 new locations in 2024 and operated around 600 stores in total, making it the largest bookseller in the United States.

The Elliott Advisors Hedge Fund bought Barnes & Noble for $ 638 million in 2019. James Daunt, CEO of the British bookstore Waterston, was appointed new CEO.

Despite store closings due to the COVVI-19 pandemic, sales of Barnes & Noble jumped above their pre-pale levels while people turned to reading boredom and nostalgia.

In recent years, the bookseller has also relied on the popularity of the content of the book on Tiktok and the post-pandemic thirst so that the “third spaces” meet and socialize.

I visited a Barnes & Noble store to see the bookseller’s strategies in action.