Barnes & Noble delays opening of relocated South Huntington bookstore to 2025
The opening of the Barnes & Noble bookstore in South Huntington is being delayed until 2025. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp
Barnes & Noble is delaying the opening of its relocated, downsized bookstore in the Town of Huntington to early 2025, as the retailer works to prepare the space and pushes chainwide growth.
In April, Barnes & Noble said it was targeting a September opening for the South Huntington store but now says it will open in February.
"There is a septic issue that needs to be resolved and that will take a bit of time. We are sad we will not be able to open the store for the holiday season, [but] glad we will still be able to open a store in Huntington," said Janine Flanigan, vice president of store planning and design for Barnes & Noble Inc., which is headquartered in Manhattan.
The new bookstore will be in an approximately 14,000-square-foot space at 301 Walt Whitman Rd., part of the retail-heavy Route 110 corridor, in a small shopping center whose only other tenant is a Men’s Wearhouse.
The bookstore will be a relocation of a Barnes & Noble six miles away in East Northport that was nearly twice as big. The former bookstore, which closed Jan. 21, had occupied 27,911 square feet at 4000 Jericho Tpke. in the Huntington Square shopping center since 2008.
Barnes & Noble told Newsday in August 2023 that it was relocating because its lease was expiring in January 2024, and the landlord, Federal Realty Investment Trust in Rockville, Maryland, planned to redevelop the shopping center.
However, Federal Realty told Newsday in August 2023 that it had no major redevelopment plans for the property.
Discount grocer Aldi will open a store in Barnes & Noble's former East Northport space in November, said Chris Daniels, vice president of Aldi Inc.’s South Windsor Division.
The Barnes & Noble store in South Huntington will sell books, toys, games, puzzles, vinyl albums and other merchandise, Flanigan said.
"It will feature our new store design, seen in our most recent openings, including Riverhead and Bridgehampton," said Flanigan, who added that the South Huntington store will include a B&N Café. The new design has brighter colors and different fixtures and furniture.
Barnes & Noble has eight stores on Long Island, including one that opened in Riverhead in 2022 and one that opened in Bridgehampton in November.
Founded in 1873, Barnes & Noble is the only nationwide chain of brick-and-mortar bookstores left in the United States.
Nationally, Barnes & Noble Inc. has 636 bookstores, down from the 778 stores, including 726 operating under the Barnes & Noble Booksellers name and 52 operating primarily under the B. Dalton Bookseller name, that the company had as of January 2009.
Barnes & Noble is undergoing major growth after struggling for several years, before being sold in 2019, as fewer people bought books, while e-commerce giant Amazon, the largest retail seller of books worldwide, cut into sales.
In 2023, Barnes & Noble opened about 30 stores, more than it had opened in total from 2009 to 2019.
The retailer is opening about 65 stores this year and about the same number in 2025, Flanigan said.
Private equity firm Elliott Advisors bought Barnes & Noble in 2019, took it private and brought in as the chain's new chief executive James Daunt, who founded the Daunt Books chain in England. Since 2011, Daunt also has been managing director of the largest bookstore chain in the United Kingdom, Waterstones, which he helped turn around.
Some of the changes at Barnes & Noble under Daunt included stocking fewer books; dedicating larger sections to young adult literature and graphic novels, including Japanese manga; and having less non-book merchandise, said Ed Nawotka, senior international and bookselling editor at Publishers Weekly, a Manhattan-based trade publication.
"They had gone very heavily into some very odd sidelines. I remember at one point you could buy … [an Instant Pot] at Barnes & Noble. They've gotten away from non-book-related sideline items. They've reconfigured the stores where you have, you know, books front and center," he said.
Also, each store’s employees now pick the book inventories instead of corporate-level staff making those decisions.
Barnes & Noble, whose average store size is 25,000 square feet, also is opening smaller stores to allow more flexibility in leasing.
The retail book industry in general was helped by a surge in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, when consumers' entertainment options were limited, starting in March 2020.
Overall annual sales of print books nationwide rose 10.7% to 837.6 million books from 2020 to 2021, before falling 6% in 2022 and 2.6% in 2023, according to Circana BookScan, a Chicago-based provider of data on the publishing market.
Barnes & Noble is delaying the opening of its relocated, downsized bookstore in the Town of Huntington to early 2025, as the retailer works to prepare the space and pushes chainwide growth.
In April, Barnes & Noble said it was targeting a September opening for the South Huntington store but now says it will open in February.
"There is a septic issue that needs to be resolved and that will take a bit of time. We are sad we will not be able to open the store for the holiday season, [but] glad we will still be able to open a store in Huntington," said Janine Flanigan, vice president of store planning and design for Barnes & Noble Inc., which is headquartered in Manhattan.
The new bookstore will be in an approximately 14,000-square-foot space at 301 Walt Whitman Rd., part of the retail-heavy Route 110 corridor, in a small shopping center whose only other tenant is a Men’s Wearhouse.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Barnes & Noble is delaying the opening of its relocated, downsized bookstore in the Town of Huntington to early 2025 due to a septic issue, a spokeswoman for the book chain said.
- After years of decline before a company sale in 2019, Barnes & Noble has been pushing growth and opening smaller stores.
- Nationally, Barnes & Noble has 636 bookstores, including eight on Long Island.
The bookstore will be a relocation of a Barnes & Noble six miles away in East Northport that was nearly twice as big. The former bookstore, which closed Jan. 21, had occupied 27,911 square feet at 4000 Jericho Tpke. in the Huntington Square shopping center since 2008.
Barnes & Noble told Newsday in August 2023 that it was relocating because its lease was expiring in January 2024, and the landlord, Federal Realty Investment Trust in Rockville, Maryland, planned to redevelop the shopping center.
However, Federal Realty told Newsday in August 2023 that it had no major redevelopment plans for the property.
Discount grocer Aldi will open a store in Barnes & Noble's former East Northport space in November, said Chris Daniels, vice president of Aldi Inc.’s South Windsor Division.
The Barnes & Noble store in South Huntington will sell books, toys, games, puzzles, vinyl albums and other merchandise, Flanigan said.
"It will feature our new store design, seen in our most recent openings, including Riverhead and Bridgehampton," said Flanigan, who added that the South Huntington store will include a B&N Café. The new design has brighter colors and different fixtures and furniture.
Barnes & Noble has eight stores on Long Island, including one that opened in Riverhead in 2022 and one that opened in Bridgehampton in November.
Founded in 1873, Barnes & Noble is the only nationwide chain of brick-and-mortar bookstores left in the United States.
Nationally, Barnes & Noble Inc. has 636 bookstores, down from the 778 stores, including 726 operating under the Barnes & Noble Booksellers name and 52 operating primarily under the B. Dalton Bookseller name, that the company had as of January 2009.
Growth after decline
Barnes & Noble is undergoing major growth after struggling for several years, before being sold in 2019, as fewer people bought books, while e-commerce giant Amazon, the largest retail seller of books worldwide, cut into sales.
In 2023, Barnes & Noble opened about 30 stores, more than it had opened in total from 2009 to 2019.
The retailer is opening about 65 stores this year and about the same number in 2025, Flanigan said.
Private equity firm Elliott Advisors bought Barnes & Noble in 2019, took it private and brought in as the chain's new chief executive James Daunt, who founded the Daunt Books chain in England. Since 2011, Daunt also has been managing director of the largest bookstore chain in the United Kingdom, Waterstones, which he helped turn around.
Some of the changes at Barnes & Noble under Daunt included stocking fewer books; dedicating larger sections to young adult literature and graphic novels, including Japanese manga; and having less non-book merchandise, said Ed Nawotka, senior international and bookselling editor at Publishers Weekly, a Manhattan-based trade publication.
"They had gone very heavily into some very odd sidelines. I remember at one point you could buy … [an Instant Pot] at Barnes & Noble. They've gotten away from non-book-related sideline items. They've reconfigured the stores where you have, you know, books front and center," he said.
Also, each store’s employees now pick the book inventories instead of corporate-level staff making those decisions.
Barnes & Noble, whose average store size is 25,000 square feet, also is opening smaller stores to allow more flexibility in leasing.
The retail book industry in general was helped by a surge in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, when consumers' entertainment options were limited, starting in March 2020.
Overall annual sales of print books nationwide rose 10.7% to 837.6 million books from 2020 to 2021, before falling 6% in 2022 and 2.6% in 2023, according to Circana BookScan, a Chicago-based provider of data on the publishing market.
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
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Newsday Live Music Series: Long Island Idols Newsday Live presents a special evening of music and conversation with local singers who grabbed the national spotlight on shows like "The Voice," "America's Got Talent,""The X-Factor" and "American Idol." Newsday Senior Lifestyle Host Elisa DiStefano leads a discussion and audience Q&A as the singers discuss their TV experiences, careers and perform original songs.
