It’s been relatively quiet since the news was announced in January that a Barnes and Noble bookstore would be coming to The Avenue East Cobb.
At the time, the bookselling chain said the opening would be in the summer.
We checked back recently and were told that that timeline has been pushed back to the fall.
A company spokesperson said in response to our message only that “renovations are moving along nicely, and we are targeting a mid-October opening. We will keep you posted on an opening date.”
When we went by earlier this week, we took the above photo, which is relatively unchanged in recent weeks.
Barnes and Noble is converting 15,0000 square feet of the former Bath Bed and Beyond space into a traditional-style bookstore with a cafe and featuring more local titles curated by managers.
It’s part of a concept of “smaller” stores and a gradual overhaul of the chain to offer more “differentiated” locations according to regional and local interests under CEO James Daunt, who’s done that with the Waterstones chain in his native United Kingdom.
“We’re spending real money and opening many more stores,” he told Barron’s magazine in a recent interview. “One thing we’re hoping to get measured by is bringing books to communities and providing careers for booksellers.”
While Barnes and Noble is trying to incorporate the spirit of an independent bookstore, some critics aren’t buying the new pitch:
“They are putting on the costume and language of a pretty neighborhood independent bookstore, but their inner mechanics are still all big-box chain corporation. They’re trying to disguise their profit-driven corporate decisions behind pretty warm-lit curtains.”
Several independent bookstores are close by in East Cobb, including Bookmiser on Roswell Road near Robinson Road East and the Book Exchange on Canton Road.
There’s a Half Price Books location on Johnson Ferry Road in the Woodlawn Commons Shopping Center.
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