Barnes & Noble returns to Lakeland after 16 years with new store

Barnes & Noble is opening a new store in Lakeland next week, the second local shop to open in the region in a month and a week following the 50th its opened this year.

The bookseller’s new 13,000-square-foot Lakeland location is in a former Party City space in the Merchants Walk shopping center at 3615 S Florida Ave.

The grand opening is set for 9 a.m. on Nov. 19.

Next week’s opening comes less than a month after the chain opened a new 20,000-square-foot store in Pinellas County’s Palm Harbor. That location opened Oct. 29 at the Highland Lakes Plaza at 33591 U.S. Highway 19 N.

The Palm Harbor location was the eighth Barnes & Noble to open in October and the Lakeland store is one of six opening nationally Nov. 19 and one of 14 in November.

Barnes & Noble has been on a growth spurt the past couple of years opening new stores across the entire Gulf Coast and nationally. Some of those openings replaced larger stores, other were entirely new.

The one in Lakeland falls under the former category since the previous one closed in 2009.

In what should be good news for those fearing the future of the book business, Barnes & Noble, which was bought by British bookseller Waterstones in 2019, says it opened more stores last year than it did during the entire decade between 2009 and 2019. 

It now has more than 700 after falling below 600 in 2023.

As for 2025, the plan is to open more than 60.