The shops on M St NW in Georgetown have shifted throughout the years as stores close and new ones move in. One major player coming to the District's busiest shopping street is Barnes & Noble, which will open its three-story Georgetown bookstore on November 6 at 10am.
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Opening day festivities, which begin at 10am, include a ribbon cutting and book signing with author Evan Friss, who wrote The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore. It seems the store is off to a fast start; its events calendar is already filled with author talks and events like an in-store holiday Lego build and face painting.
The 30,000 square foot store is located in a big corner building at 3040 M St NW—interestingly enough, the bookstore is moving back into the same building it occupied from 1995-2011; until 2023, the building housed a Nike store.
Including the Georgetown location, the bookseller is set to open 13 new stores this month in California, New York, New Hampshire, Kansas, New Jersey, Florida, Utah, Indiana, and Washington. The chain has found financial success in recent years through making its locations feel less like big box emporiums and more like neighborhood bookstores with amenities like community activities, cafes, and displays of tomes by local authors.