Barnes & Noble bookstore planning a return to Columbia’s Harbison area. What we know
After more than a decade away from the Harbison shopping district in Columbia, a well-known national bookseller appears to be turning a new page in the area.
Barnes & Noble is planning a new spot at Columbiana Centre mall just off Harbison Boulevard. There are Instagram, Facebook and X pages teasing a Columbiana location. Also, as of Wednesday morning there was a Google listing for a Columbiana location, which lists a local phone number featuring a recorded message touting the coming store.
A post on X teases the Columbiana location as “opening Fall 2024,” while the recorded phone message touts a possible September opening. There was not yet any outward signs of a Barnes & Noble when a reporter visited the mall Monday. The State has reached out to Barnes & Noble’s corporate office for more details.
“Can’t wait to meet our neighbors,” the Barnes & Noble Columbiana Instagram page posted Monday alongside a photo of the mall’s iconic carousel.
There previously was a Barnes & Noble located at 278-A Harbison Boulevard, in a shopping center across the road from the mall. That location closed in 2013.
It’s been a headline-making year in the Columbia area for Barnes & Noble, the longtime national bookstore chain that has more than 600 stores across the U.S. The company closed its store at Richland Mall in Forest Acres — which is currently being demolished amid a $100 million overhaul — and relocated it to the Shoppes at Woodhill shopping center on Garners Ferry Road. That location opened in March and proved immediately popular with book lovers.
In a release touting the March opening of the Garners Ferry Road location, Barnes & Noble noted it intended to open 50 new bookstores nationwide in 2024.
While malls have faded from their onetime dominance on the national retail scene, Columbiana Centre has remained a remarkably resilient hub. It’s packed with national stores, clothiers, restaurants and attractions.
The Harbison Boulevard area, in general, is one of the key retail hubs in the Columbia area and has direct proximity to Interstate 26. More than 31,000 cars per day travel down Harbison near the mall, per state traffic statistics.
This story was originally published July 30, 2024 at 11:00 AM.
