Finding it worth the wait, scores of patrons stood in line to be among the first to experience Naples’ new Barnes & Noble bookstore Jan. 29, six months after the chain closed its longtime store at Waterside Shops.

The new location in Park Shore Plaza is about a mile south of the store it shuttered last summer at Waterside after operating it for more than 30 years. The new address at 4149 Tamiami Trail N. is the former space of a Big Lots discount retail store, which closed in January 2024.

The store’s ribbon cutting was hosted by bestselling author Janet Evanovich, who has been a Naples resident for decades. About 200 fans waited in a line that stretched to the back of the store for about two hours for Evanovich to sign “Now or Never,” the 31st in her Stephanie Plum bounty hunter book series.

“Look at this place. It’s beautiful,” Evanovich said. “People love it. When it moved out of Waterside, people were just worried; we’re without a bookstore. I’m surprised that we don’t have more bookstores in Naples.”

Although Barnes & Noble’s newly designed space in Naples occupies a ground-level inline unit, the national bookseller has increased its square footage in Naples. Its more than a 35,000-square-foot store between Saks Off Fifth and HomeGoods and is more than 45% larger than the 24,000-square-foot, two-story freestanding outparcel the bookstore occupied for decades at Waterside Shops.

Local book lovers have been waiting months for the new store to open. When relocation of the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Naples was first reported last February by Gulfshore Business, the new store in Park Shore Plaza was expected to open a week after the old one closed in Waterside Shops. Then, just before the Waterside location closed July 23, the bookstore announced its reopening date in Park Shore would be in early September. Roof repairs from summer storms delayed the opening until this month, said Janine Flanigan, senior director of store planning and design for the Barnes & Noble chain.

“I think that the response from everybody has been that it’s worth the wait. When they come in, they are actually wowed by it,” said General Manager Larry Fama, who was GM for a short time at the other Naples store and moved to Florida five years ago to manage the Fort Lauderdale location.

The new bookstore is strikingly more modern and open than the previous location in Naples.

“It’s a night and day difference,” Fama said. “It’s all one level. The rooms are set up where it’s easy for our customers to navigate and discover. It’s bright. It’s airy with plenty of places for our customers to sit and enjoy.”

The large space includes a Barnes & Noble Cafe, which is licensed to serve Starbucks products. The cafe features coffee, tea, breakfast sandwiches and pastries in a spacious corner that includes an abundance of seating.

The bookstore is thoughtfully curated and organized with partitioned nooks for a variety of genres, such as new and noteworthy, science fiction and fantasy, health and wellness, young adults, romance, religion, sports, photography, poetry, classics, fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, manga, magazines, cookbooks and reference books. The store also has a Harry Potter section and spaces displaying toys and collectibles, games and puzzles, journals, gifts for readers, gift wrap and an entertainment area with vinyl records, CDs and movie DVDs.

With e-commerce changing consumer habits, Barnes & Noble has served the local market since 1992, but it is the last national bookstore chain in Collier County. Borders closed its North Naples store in 2011 where Trader Joe’s is today. Books-A-Million closed its store in Naples Plaza in 2012 and was replaced by Nordstrom Rack at Mercato in 2013. Coastland Center mall in Naples used to have locations for both Waldenbooks and B. Dalton Bookseller before they became defunct in 2011 and 2013, respectively. Family Christian Stores closed all of its locations, including stores in Park Shore Plaza and Carillon Place, in 2017.

Fama, who has been with Barnes & Noble for 19 years, feels that bookstores are still vital in today’s digital world.

“They’re really a hub of the community. They’re a place where people can come and gather,” he said. “It helps to foster reading, education. It’s just a community focal point.”

Evanovich, who lives in the Moorings near the Barnes & Noble store, agrees. The author believes that bookstores are essential for the community.

“We need more bookstores,” she said. “We need to encourage more reading. I think we need to encourage more books in schools, give them books that they want to read — not books that are depressing.”

Barnes & Noble is not just surviving; the bookseller is thriving and in the midst of an incredible growth mode. Following a decade of declining numbers, the bookseller is bouncing back.

“Last year, we opened over 50 new stores and we’re on track to do the same this year,” Fama said, noting that five other Barnes & Noble stores launched or reopened nationwide on the same day as the new Naples bookstore. “Over the past year we’ve changed our DNA on who we were.”