12
Peoria Times
BUSINESS
September 9, 2021
For more business visit peoriatimes.com PeoriaTimes.com
/PeoriaTimes
Barnes & Noble reopens store in new location BY ANNIKA TOMLIN
Peoria Times Staff Writer
Barnes & Noble celebrated the reopening of its new Peoria store with a Sept. 1 ribbon-cutting ceremony. This new bookstore at Arrowhead Palms Shopping Centre replaces the original Barnes & Noble in the Arrowhead Towne Center, which is to be redeveloped by the landlord. “I’m probably the happiest person here because I live around the corner and I love to share my books with the little ones,” said children’s author Dawn Young, who made an appearance at the store. She said brick-and-mortar stores provide a better experience than purchasing books online. “We’ve been clicking, clicking, clicking through books,” Young said. “Now we can come in, pick out a book, browse books, smell books, talk books with an amazing staff that will help you find anything that you are looking for. I hope you come in and get lost in the wonder, magic and adventure that only books can bring.” Young cut the ribbon along with store manager Colene Huston and stayed within the store creating paper puppets with children. “Dawn has been coming to our store at the old location. She was actually our very last author event in that location,” said Huston, who has been with the company for nine years. “(Dawn) just brings so much heart. She had so many people already in the community that were making her successful, and when she does things, it’s not to promote her books, it’s to share an experience. I think that at heart we are both trying to build readers from a young age.” Along with making puppets, Young
Barnes & Noble opened a new location in the Arrowhead Palms Shopping Centre on Sept. 1. (Photos by Annika Tomlin)
was there signing copies of her books including “The Night Baafore Christmas” and “The Night Baafore Easter,” in addition to revealing her new book “Once Upon a Christmas,” which releases later this year. “Barnes & Noble is thrilled to be reopening here in Peoria with such a bright, welcoming store,” said James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble. Monica Yelin, Rep. Debbie Lesko’s outreach director, extended the congresswoman’s regards on the grand opening and welcomed the business to the eighth congressional district. Huston said Barnes & Noble “kind of got booted out of the old location.” “We were not expecting it, Monica Yelin, right, read a message from Rep. and it took us about two weeks Debbie Lesko at the ribbon-cutting ceremony to close,” Huston said. with store manager Colene Huston, left. “At the time they were tell-
ing us that they had never seen a closing go as smoothly as that, which didn’t really make us feel good ’cause that is not the business that we are in.” Through the help of a customer sourcing the new location and the assistance of national leaders, the new location was quickly acquired and preparations took place to remodel it to Barnes & Noble standards. “(The leaders at the national level) were able to get with the rental people immediately. … Probably, in fact, before we closed the store, they had already determined that we would not be a store closing, that we would end up being a store relocation,” Huston said. “Any of the booksellers that intended to come back went to other stores and worked, so we still know what is new and what is great.” Of the original 19 booksellers, 13 returned to the new location with Huston. “The team here has so much heart,” Huston said. “We’ve had a group text the whole time, and it ended up being a team-building activity, but it was a harsh one. I appreciate them so much.” Within two weeks of acquiring the building, Huston and her team made sure the sections reflected the surrounding community needs. “One of the things that our company has been doing for the last couple years is talking to customers and the booksellers to find out what they need and what they want in a bookstore,” Huston said. “I feel like in this location you see all of those things working together. We’ve got places to sit, we’ve got tons of open areas for people to just kind of browse through and see what they love.” Huston said this relates to her favorite part of Barnes & Noble: “It adds value to the area.” SEE STORE PAGE 13
