Barnes & Noble To Close Stores: Would You Miss The Broomall One?

Do you still go to the Barnes & Noble bookstore?

Apparently not enough people do nationally.

Company executives told the Wall Street Journal they plan to close 20 stores a year over the next decade.

No specific stores have been targeted yet for closure.

In the Marple Newtown area, there is one Barnes & Noble store located in the Lawrence Park Shopping Center in Broomall.

If no new stores were opened, the 20-a-year pace over a decade would reduce the number of Barnes & Noble stores nationally by a third, the Huffington Post reported.

Since 2003, the company has been closing 15 stores a year, but they've also been opening more than 30 a year. Last year, however, Barnes & Noble closed 14 stores and didn't open any, according to the Huffington Post.

One reason is a steady decline in book sales. Print book sales have decreased 22 percent over the past five years, according to Nielsen BookScan.