Barnes & Noble Sets Jan. 27 Opening for New Peachtree Corners Store at The Forum
Barnes & Noble will open a new bookstore in Peachtree Corners at The Forum on Jan. 27, 2027. The modern design offers flexible spaces tailored to local readers and complements ongoing Atlanta area expansion.
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Barnes & Noble has set Jan. 27, 2027, as the opening date for its relocated Peachtree Corners bookstore at The Forum, where the company plans to bring its newer, more flexible store design to a location that has already performed well.
The new store will feel noticeably different from the current one, according to Janine Flanigan, vice president of store design for Barnes & Noble.
Instead of the traditional grid of long aisles, newer Barnes & Noble stores are organized more like a series of rooms, with one space leading naturally into another.
“Our new stores feel lighter, brighter, and more open,” Flanigan told North Atlanta Star.
The change is part of a broader shift inside a company that spent years closing bookstores and is now expanding again.
More local, less rigid
One of the biggest differences is what happens inside those rooms. Booksellers have more display space to feature new titles, unexpected finds and books they believe will interest their particular customers. The goal is to make each store feel less standardized and more connected to the community around it.
That local flexibility has become central to Barnes & Noble’s recent growth. Older stores often devoted permanent fixtures to specific departments. Music and movies, for example, might occupy shelving designed only for those products.
The new fixtures can be rearranged much more easily. A space used for music today could become fiction later if customer demand changes. That flexibility also allows Barnes & Noble to consider a much wider range of buildings.
The company remains comfortable with stores around 20,000 to 25,000 square feet, but Flanigan said newer locations can range from roughly 4,000 square feet to 35,000.
The Peachtree Corners relocation is staying within The Forum, where Barnes & Noble already has an established customer base.
“We’ve had success at this location and look forward to continued success in the new location,” Flanigan said.
Toco Hills adds another Atlanta-area store
Barnes & Noble is also preparing a new store at Toco Hills. The location will span just over 14,000 square feet, considerably smaller than the company’s typical 20,000-to-25,000-square-foot range but an example of the flexibility its newer design allows.
Toco Hills will give Barnes & Noble another foothold in metro Atlanta as the company continues rebuilding its physical-store network.
The bookseller also returned to Atlanta’s Edgewood Retail District this summer, four years after its previous store there closed.
Customer demand is driving that expansion, Flanigan said.
“The Atlanta area has been hugely successful for us, and we love being part of such a welcoming community of readers.”
For now, Barnes & Noble has no additional North Atlanta or metro Atlanta locations ready to announce.
But the Peachtree Corners move shows what the company’s next generation of bookstores will look like: less rigid, easier to reshape and increasingly designed by the people who know the local readers walking through the door.
If you’ve been following growth and change around here, these stories are worth a look too.
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