Barnes & Noble store's closure has metro Atlanta readers searching for new bookstores
The Barnes & Noble on Cobb Parkway is closing its doors after decades of serving the community's avid readers.
The company told CBS News Atlanta in a statement that its lease at the Cumberland store ended and that the landlord has other plans. A spokesperson for Racetrac said it plans to open a gas station and a PotBelly Sandwich shop in the space.
Some local readers were disappointed by the news.
"It's sad. Some of my best memories were coming to the bookstore with my mom because I remember learning how to spell the word university at a Barnes & Noble when I was with her, and I was maybe 8 years old," Nakoa Majors said.
Laura Annino doesn't drive; instead, she used CobbLinc for transportation for years to come buy books at the Barnes & Noble.
"It doesn't go to Atlanta, and the Atlanta store is still open," she said.
Within a 10-mile radius of the store, small bookstores, including Sincerely Yours, are increasing their inventory to serve new customers who could be coming in as a result of the closure.
"We have already started to notice a lot of people have been coming in," Sincerely Yours co-owner Madison Glines said.
The store opened a little more than a year ago.
"We sell mostly romance, but we also have a good variety of literary fiction, horrors, mysteries, thrillers. We just started a memoirs section, and we are definitely expanding more just because Barnes and Noble closed. We are getting more genres and trying to accommodate to the community," she said.
Glines said that her store tries to give a more personal environment to customers.
"We know most of our customers on a first-name basis. They come in, and we can recommend them books at a more personal level than a bigger box store that may not be able to do that," she said.
At Vinings Jubilee, Cobb County resident and book lover Trynce Taylor said Read Shop by the Merchant was another option people in the community should consider when searching for new bookstores.
"I think because it is smaller, it is more of a community kind of place than like a Barnes & Noble where it's huge and big," she explained. "It is fun to go to these little shops and see what they have because they might have something that you like and you might find people who fit your vibe, the community that you really like."
