Barnes & Noble closing stores has given way to a very different plan: the chain says it will open 60 new stores in 2026. Nineteen locations are already open, and 41 more are planned by mid-November.
James Daunt and Barnes & Noble
James Daunt became CEO of Barnes & Noble in 2019 and pushed the company away from uniform stores toward local personalization. Barnes & Noble thanked BookTok for helping turn its fortunes around, linking the company’s recovery to readers who helped drive renewed interest in physical bookstores.
The pace is easy to measure. If 41 more locations open as planned, Barnes & Noble will finish 2026 with 60 new stores for the third year in a row. That keeps the chain on the expansion path it has been on after years of contraction.
After 2009
Barnes & Noble closed over 150 locations in the years after 2009, when it hit hard times and began shutting stores. The company later opened more new bookstores in 2024 than it did in the entire decade between 2009 and 2019, showing how sharply the strategy changed.
The planned openings later in 2026 include CT, NY, NJ, OK, IL, KY, CA, FL, TX, NC, PA, AL, GA, OH, AZ, MA, MO, VA, and MD. For shoppers, the immediate effect is straightforward: a nearby Barnes & Noble may already be open, while another wave is still coming before mid-November.
The unanswered part is where those 41 stores will land inside those states. For customers tracking a local opening, the practical next step is to watch for the specific city or address tied to each new store as Barnes & Noble moves through the rest of 2026.
