Barnes & Noble returns to Bryn Mawr, and independent bookshops fear being squeezed out

Barnes & Noble is coming back to Bryn Mawr almost two decades after closing its shop in this precise location at 720 W. Lancaster Ave.

The surprise return to a storefront they exited in 2007 comes amid the company’s dramatic expansion in recent years, following a near-death experience last decade in the face of competition from Amazon.

The new openings frequently target markets that the company retreated from during its period of retrenchment, when their rival Borders also shuttered. The Bryn Mawr Barnes & Noble used to be flanked by two of that competitor book chain’s shops, but all three closed over a decade ago.

“The Main Line [is] arguably the ideal market for book retailing because of its education levels, affluence, and density,” said Steven Gartner, executive vice president with CBRE’s Philadelphia office, who brokered the real estate deal for Barnes & Noble. “The western suburbs once had three national bookstores then went to none. They should do extraordinarily well here.”

Along with two other openings Wednesday, the new Bryn Mawr location brings the total Barnes & Noble outlets across the country to 654, a spokesperson says. There haven’t been this many locations since 2014. (The company’s peak was 727 stores in 2009.) Another recently opened in Doylestown, and more expansions are planned in the region.

The news has been greeted with anxiety by some local booksellers. After years in which many in the industry insisted that all retail booksellers were united in the face of Jeff Bezos’ online behemoth Amazon, Barnes & Noble latest expansions — both locally and nationally — are being looked upon with concern by smaller sellers.

Earlier this month, the American Booksellers Association released a guide to its thousands of members titled “11 Ways to Take Action When Barnes & Noble Comes to Town.” The trade organization noted with apparent alarm that the company opened 57 stores in 2024 and plans to open “at least 60 in 2025.”

Bookseller Cathy Fiebach opened Main Point Books in Bryn Mawr in 2013 after the national chains left the area. She has since moved her shop to Wayne. She says other local booksellers she’s spoken with are worried about the competition for events and sales, especially because they all close earlier than Barnes & Noble’s 9 p.m. all days but Sundays.

“I would have preferred not to get that news,” Fiebach said of the new opening. “Bookstores around the country feel like they are targeting areas with a good, independent bookstore culture.”

The new Bryn Mawr location is part of the larger strategy outlined by Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt, who took over the company in 2019 after masterminding a similar revival of Great Britain’s Waterstones book chain.

Daunt’s approach involves sleeker and more artfully designed shops, as opposed to the almost supermarket-like layout of the older Barnes & Noble locations. Stores are not stocked based on publishers’ wishes or the whims of the corporate home office, but are left to local control.

That means store managers also are tasked with studying the neighborhood market, and crafting a selection to suit the interests of local readers and give each location a slightly different identity.

“We’re leaning toward literary fiction, like New York Times' best books of the century,” said Leonard Benefico, manager of the Bryn Mawr location. “We very much want to reflect the community, so what we carry isn’t going to be top down.”

Benefico says he hopes to have the store reflect the new Center City location on Chestnut Street, which specifically tailored itself to fill the void created when the beloved Joseph Fox shop closed and left downtown Philadelphia devoid of independent bookstores.

Benefico says that the store’s selection will be responsive to customers and that he would keep an eye on what is being requested and purchased so he can stock the shelves appropriately. If it turns out that there’s a huge interest in poetry, for example, the store will expand that section.

From a real estate perspective, the new store is a win for property owner Baker Properties as well.

“They’re one of the most sought-after tenants in a shopping center. They always have been,” said Gartner of CBRE. “They stand for a quality customer, educated and affluent.”

The new Bryn Mawr Barnes & Noble is two stories, with roughly 15 employees, and a size of 18,000 square feet, just a bit smaller than the new Center City location. There will also be a cafe, bathroom, and plenty of seating — unlike its Philadelphia counterpart — and space for events.

Benefico says the layout will allow this new location to serve as a community hub, helping to add to so-called third spaces in the area, defined as places outside home and work where people can gather, socialize, and just be around others.

“There’s really been a loss of that third space for people to come and hang out,” Benefico said. “That’s always something that a Barnes & Noble store brings to a community, that gathering space.”

For the independent bookstores that have flourished following closure of their big box counterparts — the American Booksellers Association had a membership of 1,916 in 2019 and 2,844 in 2024 — that is another point of competition with their bigger counterpart.

Fiebach at Main Point Books, with no prompting, also described her store as a “third space,” especially after an expansion 18 months ago to add a dedicated space for children that’s also convertible into an event space that can hold up to 75 people.

She is able to host book clubs, writer’s groups, and story time for kids. But she wonders whether the new Barnes & Noble will provide more, and larger, event space that could cut into that aspect of the business, too.

Such fears are why Fiebach helped form a new collective of independent bookstores from the Western suburbs known as Indie Main Line, including shops like Mavey Books in Ardmore and the Narberth Bookshop.

“I’m hopeful that we are firmly established enough that people know the value we bring to the community,” Fiebach said. “We’re banding together with other bookstores along the Main Line to promote the message that independent bookstores give back more to the community. We’re more firmly entrenched. We are members of the community.”

Indie Main Line’s first event for 2025 is a campaign to raise money and host promotions for local nonprofits. Called “Indie Main Line Loves Back,” it will run from March 10 to 14.

From Daunt to local store managers, Barnes & Noble’s messaging has been that there is more than enough business to go around. Book sales have remained healthy, despite some viral fearmongering about the death of reading, while “third spaces” are in increasingly short supply as coffee shops close earlier post-pandemic and libraries in some jurisdictions have been hit with budget cuts.

“Our feeling is that the more bookstores that are around, the better,” Benefico said. “A rising tide lifts all ships, having more access to any bookstores helps the community. Our presence is going to complement the existing presence of all the local bookstores in the Main Line.”