Taylor and Joe left their West Virginia home around 7:30 and made the over two-hour trip into Virginia for the chance to be among the first shoppers to enter the newly reopened Barnes & Noble at Tysons Corner Center.
While stores come and go at the mall, the temporary closure of Barnes & Noble at the mall last May left a hole for Taylor, Joe, and dozens of other patrons who lined up at the grand reopening Wednesday (June 18) morning.
“We don’t have a local Barnes & Noble,” Taylor told FFXnow. “We come here for special weekend getaways and when we saw it was reopening after a year, we wanted to come and stop by.”
As a manga fan (they recommend new readers start with pirate adventure One Piece), Taylor said they were excited to see what options were in stock and, in general, check out the layout of the new store, which can be found on the first floor near Coastal Flats.
While the new, 16,000-square-foot location has only one floor, a downsizing compared to the previous two-story space, it still boasts a dense labyrinth of genres. The aisles were packed at the grand opening — from children playing in the kids’ section to a line out the door for a book signing by local thriller novelist David Baldacci.
Baldacci, who cut the ribbon when the store opened at 10 a.m., said books help teach empathy, “something we all need right now.”
Jarvis Joyce was at the front of the line with his kids.
“We’re huge fans of Barnes & Noble,” said Joyce. “We used to go to the old one here.”
Joyce said the Tysons Barnes & Noble had a devoted local community and was a great place to take kids, to sit for a moment and enjoy reading in peace, in the middle of the often-hectic mall.
Others visiting the store at the opening said they were excited for the revamped Barnes & Noble as a space for authors and writers.
“Finding a space back in the Tysons area for authors and writers is really exciting for me,” said Daniel Pino, an author of literary fiction with a specialization in LGBTQ audiences. “I live close by, so having something accessible is really exciting and having an avenue and space for events, for authors to come, that brings writing and books to a space that’s really commercialized and it’s really exciting.”
Mike Doliani, manager of the new store, had previously worked at the older Tysons location before it closed. Doliani said the emergence of “BookTok” has helped bring a new generation into the stores, and individualized recommendations from staff at each location help lend a unique sense of place.
“It’s exciting,” Doliani said. “We’re back in the community. The response has been amazing. The last week, people have had their nose pressed to the window, asking questions. Everybody has been excited and we as booksellers are excited to be back.”
Doliani said he was flabbergasted by the turnout at the grand reopening.
“It’s humbling,” Doliani said. “We share that love of books, that piece of the world with people. When you see [all these people]… it’s really humbling.”
He said booksellers from other stores around the region came together at the Tysons location to get the new store opened.
“It’s a labor of love,” Doliani said.
In addition to selling a variety of books, toys, games, vinyl albums and other products, the new Barnes & Noble features a cafe that serves coffees and teas, along with some standard Starbucks sandwiches and pastries. Also on the menu are cheesecakes from the Cheesecake Factory, which opened at Tysons Corner Center last December.
In another change from the previous location, the new store has an exterior entrance so people can walk in and out directly without going through the mall first.
