The Congressional Plaza Barnes & Noble Will Open on Wednesday, 8/5

Barnes & Noble to Open New Bookstore in Rockville, MD on Wednesday, August 5

Relocated Store Has New Design, More Locally Catered Selection, and a B&N Café  

ROCKVILLE, MD – (August 3, 2020) – Barnes & Noble is pleased to announce the opening of a new bookstore in Rockville, Maryland on August 5, signaling another step in the bookseller’s transformation to more intimate and locally-focused bookstores. This new Barnes & Noble is a short distance from its former location, but with a fresh look, reimagined book layout, and a B&N Café.

The Congressional Plaza Barnes & Noble will open on Wednesday with extensive safety precautions in place due to COVID-19. Both longtime and new customers in Rockville will find a bookstore of 13,000-square feet with a modern B&N Café serving food and drinks, including Nitro coffee. New features include an attractive display at the front of store for bestsellers and new releases so customers can quickly browse the latest books. There are also “book rooms” that make browsing and discovery more intuitive and enjoyable, and the children’s section is now arranged by reading age for more intuitive shopping.

“Our customers are going to be thrilled and delighted by the new store, from the redesign to the layout to new sections that cater more to the community, so we have everything they want,” said Store Manager Marla Boyd, who has been with Barnes & Noble for nearly a decade and managed the previous Rockville location. “I think our customers will really like our new genre rooms—particularly our history and cooking sections, which are popular categories for us. The young reader’s section is also a bestselling area for Rockville shoppers, and I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised by the terrific selection for young readers and children overall.”

The Congressional Plaza Barnes & Noble will join the more than 50 shops and restaurants at Congressional Plaza, a popular shopping area for Rockville and the northern D.C.-suburbs. The store is located at 1603 Rockville Pike, and online on social media, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, by searching the handle @BNRockville.  

“We are excited to continue our relationship with Barnes & Noble at its new location at Congressional Plaza,” said Kari Glinski, Director of Asset Management for Federal Realty Investment Trust. “We know the community will enjoy the curbside pick-up and outdoor dining options.”

The store will have safety precautions in place related to COVID-19, including: 

• Enhanced cleaning throughout the day;
• Social distancing measures of at least six feet for customers and booksellers, including a limit to the number of customers at any one time, and in-store signage;
• Protective barriers at our registers to separate customers and booksellers;
• Booksellers and customers are required to wear face coverings;
• All booksellers have temperature checks before shifts;
• Designated spaces are marked for customers to deposit any books they have browsed, for these then to be taken out of circulation for sanitizing;
• Café is limited to To-Go only service and BN Café App pickup;
• Curbside delivery for Buy Online, Pick Up In Store orders.