The line formed early. When Barnes & Noble reopened at the Edgewood Retail Center on the morning of July 8, customers were waiting outside more than an hour before the doors opened.
The shopping center on the east side of town, anchored by a Target and a Kroger, had a well-loved Barnes & Noble for years before the chain closed the location in 2022. Now it is back. Among the first in line were Lurelia Freeman and Sherry Young, Spelman College graduates from different generations who came out to welcome the store home.
The quote that stuck, per The Atlanta Voice: "It didn't need to be taken out in the first place." A national chain reopening a store it closed a few years ago is not a common story, and the turnout says a lot about how much this particular bookstore meant to the neighborhood.
