Barnes & Noble opens its newest Washington-area bookstore March 19 in Gainesville, Virginia.
The store replaces a shuttered Bed Bath & Beyond at The Shops at Stonewall. It includes a B&N Cafe.
The bookstore chain is in rival mode, opening dozens of new stores across the country.
In October, it opened a location at Bull Run Plaza in Manassas, following its return to its original retail space in Georgetown last November, more than a decade after it closed. Barnes & Noble also returned to Reston Town Center in 2023, a decade after that location closed.
The Gainesville store will be Barnes & Noble’s 15th location in the D.C. area.
After more than 15 years of closing stores and falling sales, Barnes & Noble has been aggressively expanding again. Last year, it opened more new bookstores in a single year than it had in the entire decade from 2009 to 2019.
Barnes & Noble opened about 50 locations last year, and is on track to open more than 60 new bookstores this year. The Gainesville store is one of four opening this month, with others in Florida, Michigan and New York.
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