Jenkintown readers will have a new place to browse shelves starting at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 16, when Barnes & Noble opens a more-than-20,000-square-foot bookstore at Noble Town Center, 905 Old York Road. It's the chain's first Jenkintown location since the original store, which opened in 1993, closed in 2013 after nearly 20 years in business.
The new shop takes over the former Bed Bath & Beyond space next to Ross, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. That puts the new store just down Old York Road from the old one, which sat directly across the street in a building now occupied by a CVS pharmacy, per PhillyVoice.
Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt said the Jenkintown store will offer books, toys, games, vinyl, a newsstand and more, and that the reopening brings, in his words, a particular joy to a community to which Barnes & Noble had long belonged. Angelica Casner, the store's manager, said the bookstore will be a welcoming gathering place centered around a shared love of books. The station's report notes the shop will host local author events, book clubs and shared ideas.
Opening Week Events and Deals
Author K.L. Walther will cut the ribbon on opening day and sign copies of The Summer of Second Chances. Biscuit the dog is set to make a special appearance and host story time events over the following weekend. Visitors will also have access to grand-opening deals, including $50 off any Nook device and 40 percent off DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD movies, while Barnes & Noble premium and rewards members can earn double stamps on purchases made between Sept. 16 and Sept. 20.
Organizers described the new Jenkintown bookstore as emblematic of the broader renaissance of physical bookstores and of Barnes & Noble itself, per the same account. The Jenkintown opening is one of 60 new Barnes & Noble stores set to open in 2026, following roughly 180 stores the chain has opened over the past three years.
A Chain Rebuilding From Near-Collapse
That expansion follows a dramatic reversal for a company that once looked headed for irrelevance. The chain's retail footprint bottomed out at around 600 stores in 2023 before rebounding with dozens of annual openings, according to Business Insider. Daunt previously led a similar turnaround at British bookseller Waterstones.
Central to that recovery is a decentralized operating model that gave local store managers more discretion over inventory and displays based on community preferences, according to the Weekly Review. As part of the overhaul, the company also reduced unsold publisher returns.
The Jenkintown store builds on Barnes & Noble's recent suburban Philadelphia expansion, which included a 2024 opening at the Barn Plaza Shopping Center in Warrington Township, according to Patch.
Filling a Void Left by Two Closures
Jenkintown's new store follows the closure of a nearby Barnes & Noble at the Willow Grove Shopping Center, as well as the 2013 shutdown of the Jenkintown location.
Noble Town Center itself carries some retail history of its own — the site originally opened in 1958 as a John Wanamaker department store before its 1999 conversion into a multi-tenant retail center, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. The center was acquired in 2021 by a joint venture of Paramount Realty and Edgewood Properties, and the bookstore's arrival is part of a wider redevelopment that split a former Walgreens into four separate retail spaces and added tenants like Shake Shack, Honeygrow, DIG, Ulta Beauty, and LaserAway, per Glenside Local.
Independent Bookseller Hopes to Coexist
The chain's return also raises questions for Capricorn Books, the independent bookstore that opened four years earlier and is now on nearby Yorkway Place, about a mile away. PhillyVoice reports that Capricorn Books has expressed hope that the two booksellers can coexist, with co-owner Jackie Botto noting steady year-over-year growth since the shop opened.
Downtown Jenkintown meanwhile includes pedestrian alleyways like Yorkway Place, with a nearby cafe, gelato shop, bar and independent businesses, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Whether the crowds drawn to Noble Town Center's new bookstore, restaurants and shops will spill over to lift sales along those walkable corridors, or instead pull business away from independent merchants, remains an open question for the neighborhood as opening day approaches.
