As the retailer builds out its store footprint, a location in the heart of the Illinois city is keeping readers in The Loop. Barnes & Noble is ready to keep Windy City readers stocked with their favorite books, most recently with the opening of a store on State Street in Chicago’s Loop on Aug. 19. And customers are seemingly ready, too — a line formed down the block on opening day so shoppers could get inside at 9:00 a.m. The store continued to draw large crowds throughout the day. After 15 years of declining store numbers, Barnes & Noble is focused on expanding its footprint, including opening 60 locations last year. The company opened roughly the same number in 2024. The Loop store is in a building once occupied by Old Navy, and, before that, by Borders until the closure of all of its stores in 2011. It is the fourth new bookstore Barnes & Noble has opened in the Chicagoland area in 2026, following locations in Skokie, Hyde Park and Oak Park.

In separate court filings this week, lawyers for Amazon and the Big Five publishers said that a revived class action suit accusing them of colluding to fix e-book prices is not significantly different from the case that was dismissed in September for lack of evidence, and should not be allowed to go forward. “Defendants’ actions remain better explained as independent, self-interested business decisions than as an illogical conspiracy to entrench Amazon at the publisher defendants’ expense,” reads a letter from the publishers’ lawyers, requesting a pre-motion conference ahead of filing a formal motion to dismiss. “To state a claim, plaintiffs must—but fail to—allege concerted action and a specific intent to monopolize.”

Total revenues for the second quarter of 2022 increased 11.5 percent to $555.7 million from $498.5 million in the second quarter of 2021. Subscription revenues increased 13.1 percent to $383.6 million, advertising revenues increased 4.1 percent to $117.4 million and other revenues increased 17.6 percent to $54.7 million. Total operating costs increased 19.6 percent in the second quarter of 2022 to $504.0 million compared with $421.4 million in the second quarter of 2021, while adjusted operating costs increased 18.2 percent to $479.5 million from $405.6 million in the second quarter of 2021.