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CONCORD — More than three years after closing its popular Walnut Creek store and six years after shuttering its Pleasant Hill store, Barnes & Noble is coming back to central Contra Costa County on Wednesday.
The new store will open in The Veranda shopping center on Diamond Boulevard, part of the chain’s effort over the last two years to test new store designs across the country and compete in a changing retail environment.
The 12,200-square-foot Concord store looks more modern than older ones. Oak bookshelves throughout are short enough to let customers see across the store and a mix of wood-grain tile and carpet cover the floors. As in older stores, a cafe sells Starbucks coffee and baked goods, with both table seating and bar seating situated around it.
What customers won’t see is the large CD selection that was a fixture in the Walnut Creek and other Barnes & Noble stores for years. While a gift section includes some vinyl records, notebooks and gifts such as puzzles and games, as well as a kids’ section that sells some games and toys, the store’s focus is books.
Books are organized mostly in traditional fiction, non-fiction and smaller categories, but some shelves feature staff picks or local interests personalized for Concord.
Barnes & Noble returns to the area after its Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek stores closed when agreements couldn’t be reached with the landlords there. Since then, the company, which also has stores in Antioch, El Cerrito and Dublin, in addition to some on the Peninsula and in the South Bay, announced last year it was reviewing alternative strategies, including a sale of the company. But it also has been experimenting with the new, more modern store concepts across the country — Concord is the 13th new store prototype for the company.
Meanwhile, an Amazon Books store opened in downtown Walnut Creek’s Broadway Plaza, in addition to one in San Jose and others across the country. Barnes & Noble will have to contend with that competition, as well as the e-commerce convenience Amazon presents and smaller, independent bookstores in the Bay Area, many of which have found their stride in hosting programs and events that draw customers.
Half Price Books, also a chain, has long held a devoted following. That store will open later this year in Willows Shopping Center next door to Barnes & Noble’s home at The Veranda.
Still, Frank Morabito, vice president of stores for Barnes & Noble, said the new shop’s seating, aesthetics and cafe sets it apart from the competition, and insisted that Concord is a “strong market” for the bookstore.
It will also be available to host events such as school book fairs, story time and author events, he said.
