I love going to bookstores and just browsing around to see what I can find interesting. Use to do the same with book stacks at D.H. Hill. That’s one thing I miss around where I live. No real bookstores, nearest one is 50miles away. Happy to hear they are still around and personally think it adds to a city to have a lot of book stores.
10K sq ft so I think it’ll be a smaller version!
I’m good with a more intimate bookstore experience.
That section is in the back behind the beaded curtains…
I was also pleasantly surprised B&N was in a position to open a new brick and mortar location. I think long-term, bookstores will always be around, but might end up being a niche experience kind of like vinyl record stores. There’s enough people who still love the experience.
I like going to them just for how they smell, especially if there is a coffee shop inside haha
Maybe this is more of the model?..beaded curtain notwithstanding.
[from the article] "“We’re getting away from the idea of the superstore,” Jurczak [store manager] told me, “All stores going forward will try to leave less of an imprint on the environment.”
This trend has proven to be true so far in the most recently opened Barnes & Noble stores. A new store opened at the end of April 2019 in Fairfax, Va. and at 8,300 square feet, it’s the smallest one yet.
The company plans to open 10 to 15 of these smaller stores in fiscal year 2019, so there might be one coming your way soon. If you check out one of the prototypes, please share your thoughts in the comments!"
Seems like this is what we can expect!
This is hilarious to me. They are certainly trying to make some lemonade here. This is a much better story than saying that our business model no longer works in a giant footprint.
IMO, the better “story” around the smaller footprint would be built around a more intimate experience of a smaller store. One of my favorite things about shopping the Village is the more intimate experiences of the smaller stores.
I mean that’s basically what he’s saying. They’re moving away from “superstores” - that’s what I took away from the article. So it seems all but guaranteed that the new B&N in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village will be a smaller, more intimate bookstore vs the huge sprawling B&N mall stores that we’re used to.
Agreed. that kind of explanation ranks up there with hotels who want to save $ on laundry expenses hanging up those signs in the bathroom: “do you know how much detergent is wasted washing your towel? hang up your towel and help us protect the earth.” I just roll my eyes at the spin corporations give at why they are trying to cut costs.
If it’s the environment, then don’t have a brick and mortar store at all, just go online only, Barnes&Noble.
It’s because it’s actually: “We can’t compete with Amazon but at least you can come in and browse and get coffee here.”
Blurring the lines between ‘The Village’ and NCSU Hillsborough Street districts…
28 units / 3 stories at Enterprise between Garden Pl & Hope St:
Next to the previously submitted Enterprise Condos (rendering of that one ):
Next step: blur the lines between the village district and downtown by turning the row of banks into 5 over 1s and start to bleed into the Peace st downtown district
Exactly! Would love a couple of these along that stretch. (40 unit condo building proposed at 512 W. Geer St. in Durham)
I’m not a fan of the design and color scheme but I do love the growth in this area.
Broughton H.S. and the SFH’s across the street are a formidable barrier to full connection.
Yes definitely. Maybe one day we can get them to sell their parking lot to develop it haha
Also the very low density apartments next door could be made much more dense. Even if they changed them and had 15% affordable it’d be more affordable housing than present now.
Those SFHs will probably be there forever but we’ve seen crazier things happen
I fully expect the properties to the west of Broughton to be redeveloped one day. The Bellwood Condominiums are already slated for substantial redevelopment.
I love the look of that Condo render on the corner, not so much the basic drawings for this 3-story apartment, looks exactly like the boring white 3 story apartments on the corner of Hillsbro x Ashe. But hey I’ll take the density. Still salty none of these proposals on this street include any street level activation- it’s like developers want gaps of nothing between walkable urban districts. Doesn’t make sense to me. To truly connect Cam. Village and State, we need more street level activation and walkability, ful stop.
It makes sense. If you go to the B&N at Triangle Town Center, almost the entire upstairs is now devoted to toys.