New chapter: Barnes & Noble opening in West Lebanon
Apr. 25—A new store planned for the Upper Valley is the latest example of Barnes & Noble Booksellers' rapid growth in a category once thought destined for takeover by online competition.
The world's largest retail bookseller will open a 10,000-square-foot store in a former Party City space at the Upper Valley Plaza in West Lebanon. The plaza also is home to Kohl's, Gap Factory Store and Paper Store.
The new Barnes & Noble is set to open in early August, according to Janine Flanigan, the company's director of store planning and design.
The chain, which has been expanding at an unprecedented rate, plans to open 30 new stores this year even as other retailers are closing because of the rise in online shopping. Renovations have taken place in Manchester and Newington, while stores in Nashua and Salem are waiting to be updated.
In 2022, Barnes & Noble opened 16 stores — more new bookstores in a single year than it had in the decade since 2009, according to the company.
The expansion plans have been reported by the national media outlets, including CNN and NPR, as something of a phenomenon while other chain retailers — most recently Bed, Bath and Beyond — are going out of business.
In 2019, Elliott Management Corp. bought Barnes & Noble. The investment firm also owns London-based Waterstones Booksellers. James Daunt, CEO of both Barnes & Noble and Waterstones, operates the business differently than past executives.
In the past, corporate executives managed how the stores were displayed based on what book publishers wanted to promote.
"Now it's all localized," Flanigan said. "The stores and the store managers have the ownership of what they display in the store and what they put in front of their customers and the community. It is a very different model from years past."
The West Lebanon store will be "a brand new model that we have developed over the last two years," she said. "It is a new paint color, new fixtures, new tables and new furniture."
Unlike other locations, the store will not have a cafe, though it will have furniture with "soft seating" for customers. The space did not have enough room for a coffee shop.
The new store also will sell greeting cards, LEGO products, arts and crafts, science/STEM kits and a selection of family games and puzzles.
The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted interest in reading, while stores have launched events to draw more people.
"We've really seen spectacular sales across the board," Flanigan said.
Retail stores are always reinventing themselves, said Curtis Picard, president and CEO of New Hampshire Retail Association.
"It's nice to see bookstores starting to grow again and expand," he said.
Even before the pandemic, many people returned to shopping in person even with the growth on e-commerce giant Amazon.
"For better or worse, millennials got a bad rap that they only wanted to shop online, and retail stores were going to go the way of dinosaurs, but that hasn't happened," Picard said. "I think the next generation — the Gen Z — definitely does appreciate an in-store experience."
Picard said it is important for retailers to have both a physical and online presence.
Barnes & Noble previously operated the Dartmouth Bookstore in Hanover until it closed in 2018. Other stores have opened to fill the gap.
"Some of my local booksellers are nervous with Barnes & Noble," said Tracy Hutchins, executive director of the Upper Valley Business Alliance.
"There has been a fair amount of redevelopment of existing spaces and new businesses opening" Hutchins said of the region. Some include T-Mobile, Jersey Mike's sandwich shop and a Target, which opened a couple years ago.
The JCPenney space at the Upper Valley Plaza remains vacant. Hitchins said some vacant big box stores — such as the former Pier 1 location — have been subdivided into smaller spaces.
"There seems to be interest in smaller spaces," she said.
Picard said the bookseller market is competitive, but many of the local independent bookstores have loyal customers who will continue to support them.
