You probably remember the feeling of walking into a Barnes & Noble in 2015. It was a bit grim. The carpet was that weird industrial green, the shelves felt like they were holding onto dusty stock nobody wanted, and half the store was occupied by DVD bargain bins and oversized plush toys. It felt like a retail giant waiting for the lights to go out. Everyone said Amazon won. Case closed.
But then something weird happened.
Fast forward to 2024 and 2025, and the vibe has completely flipped. People are actually hanging out in bookstores again. In 2024 alone, Barnes & Noble opened 57 new stores. To put that in perspective, they opened more locations in that one year than they did in the entire decade between 2009 and 2019. It’s not just a lucky streak; it’s a total overhaul of how a massive corporation behaves.
The Barnes and Noble Comeback Started with "No"
When James Daunt took over as CEO in 2019, he did something that sounded like corporate suicide. He stopped taking money from publishers.
For years, the big publishing houses basically "rented" the front tables of every Barnes & Noble. They paid for the prime real estate. This meant every store across America looked exactly the same, regardless of whether you were in a surf town in Florida or a snowy suburb in Maine. If a publisher paid to push a boring political memoir, that memoir sat on every front table in the country.
Daunt basically said, "Keep your money."
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He realized that by taking those payments, the company had sacrificed its soul. It wasn't a bookstore anymore; it was a showroom for whatever the "Big Five" publishers wanted to offload. By ditching that system, he gave the power back to the people actually working in the stores.
Decentralization is the Secret Sauce
Honestly, the biggest reason for the barnes and noble comeback is that the head office stopped micromanaging.
In the old days, a computer in New York decided what books a store in Albuquerque should stock. Now? The store manager in Albuquerque decides. If they have a huge local interest in desert gardening or regional history, they stock up on those titles.
This shift to a "decentralized" model has had a massive impact on the bottom line. Before this change, Barnes & Noble was returning about 30% of its books back to publishers because they weren't selling. That’s a logistical nightmare and a huge waste of money. By 2024, that return rate plummeted to around 7%.
- Local Curation: Managers now act like indie booksellers.
- Reduced Waste: Fewer returns mean higher margins.
- Store Design: New locations are smaller (10,000 to 25,000 square feet) and feel way more intimate.
It’s a bit ironic. To save the biggest bookstore chain in America, they had to make it act like a bunch of tiny, independent ones.
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The BookTok Factor
We can’t talk about this without mentioning TikTok. The #BookTok phenomenon has been a massive engine for growth. By early 2026, the hashtag has racked up over 200 billion views globally.
Gen Z and Millennials aren't just buying books; they're buying the aesthetic of reading. Barnes & Noble leaned into this hard. Instead of fighting the "chaos" of social media trends, they put up "As Seen on TikTok" tables. They started listening to what 19-year-olds were crying about on camera and made sure those books were in stock immediately.
Genres like "Romantasy"—that wild mix of romance and fantasy—exploded. Authors like Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas became the new rockstars of the retail floor. In 2024, nearly 60 million print book sales were tied directly to BookTok-related content.
It's Not Just About Books Anymore
While books are the "beating heart," as Daunt calls it, the barnes and noble comeback is also fueled by things you can't download.
People want physical objects.
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The company has seen a massive surge in vinyl records, high-end stationery, and "prestige" toys and games. They even struck a deal with the film studio A24 to create special boutique sections in certain locations. It's about creating a "third place"—somewhere that isn't home and isn't work, where you can just exist and browse.
In 2025, the company's expansion hit a major milestone, reaching 702 outlets after acquiring the Tattered Cover stores in Colorado and Books Inc. locations. They aren't just surviving; they’re buying up the competition.
Why This Matters for the Future of Retail
What most people get wrong is thinking this was a "tech vs. physical" battle. It wasn't. It was a "boring vs. interesting" battle.
Amazon is great if you know exactly what you want. It’s an efficient vending machine. But Amazon is terrible at "discovery." You don't "stumble upon" something life-changing on a screen the same way you do when you're wandering through a well-curated history section on a rainy Tuesday.
The success of Barnes & Noble proves that there is still a massive market for "the browse."
What You Should Do Next
If you’re a fan of physical media or just interested in how the retail landscape is shifting, there are a few things worth watching:
- Check out your local branch: If you haven't been in a year or two, the layout has probably changed. Look for the "local interest" sections—that’s where the new strategy is most visible.
- Watch the 2026 expansion: The company plans to open another 60 stores this year. Keep an eye out for smaller-format "boutique" stores popping up in suburban areas that used to only have massive big-box retailers.
- Support the indies too: The "Bookstore Boom" isn't just for the big guys. The American Booksellers Association reported hundreds of new independent store openings in the last two years. The rising tide is truly lifting all boats.
The barnes and noble comeback is a rare example of a legacy brand realizing that "more of the same" was a death sentence. They chose to be smaller, weirder, and more human. And so far, it’s working.