Barnes & Noble is on a roll, and it’s not slowing down in 2026.
The bookstore has confirmed plans to open 60 new locations across the country in 2026. For Barnes & Noble, the move is part of a major comeback that’s been years in the works.
After the company saw a sales peak in 2008, it spent a decade watching sales dwindle as customers moved to other retailers (especially digital booksellers like Amazon), ultimately leading the retailer to shutter 150 stores.
In 2019, the company was acquired by the UK’s Elliott Advisors and taken private.
But since 2023, Barnes & Noble has annually added dozens of new locations across the U.S. A post-pandemic boom in the bookstore economy and an influx of new readers from online communities like TikTok’s #BookTok have helped the store crawl its way back to bookselling dominance—and this latest announcement shows that the growth is more than a passing fad.
The retailer’s latest expansion plans were reported earlier by USA Today.
Where will the new Barnes & Noble locations be?
In a statement to Fast Company, a Barnes & Noble spokesperson confirmed that the company is looking to add 60 new stores before June 2026 across 10 locations, though the representative declined to share specific addresses or opening dates.
The locations include bookstores in the following states:
- Ohio
- Texas
- Florida
- Illinois
- Colorado
- Washington state
- California
- Virgina
- Georgia
- D.C.
How #BookTok made reading cool
This new expansion plan is on par with Barnes & Noble’s annual growth levels over the past few years.
In 2023, it opened around 30 new stores, followed by 61 in 2024. According to the spokesperson, 2025 was the company’s most impressive year yet, notching an additional 67 stores.
Barnes & Noble’s newfound success is part of a larger return to the stacks—and return to reading as a hobby, more generally—powered, in large part, by readers on TikTok.
As younger communities discover popular reads through their #BookTok recommendations, everyone from retailers to libraries are seeing a rise in readership.
Back in February, a Barnes & Noble spokesperson told Fast Company, “Since the rise of BookTok during the pandemic, bookstores have seen a significant surge in popularity, especially among young people. Our stores have become popular social spots, offering an experience that online shopping simply can’t match.”
BookTok’s popularity is having ripple effects in other areas, too. Some public institutions, like the Milwaukee Public Library and Columbus Metropolitan Library, are riding this wave by building their own presences directly on TikTok.
And companies like the book tracking app Goodreads and publisher Harlequin have both recently adopted new branding that’s designed to appeal to the TikTok crowd.
While BookTok’s effect on booksellers and libraries might’ve initially seemed like a brief phase, Barnes & Noble’s consistent expansion and strong sales appear to signal that reading is officially cool—and profitable—again.
