According to the Irving Chamber of Commerce, Barnes & Noble will be closing two Irving locations on December 31st, victims of the company's ongoing efforts to consolidate brick-and-mortar operations.
Barnes & Noble made a decision to reevaluate low-selling locations and the stores at the Irving Mall and MacArthur Park in North Irving/Las Colinas are not producing enough sales.
Book chains have been closing stores for several years as store revenue has fallen and sales of digital books, tablets, and e-readers have risen. Online sites like Amazon.com have taken most of the book-sale business from physical stores.
Irving did try to keep these stores open. As an example, the store in the Irving Mall has had free rent for the last three years. That agreement was to expire at the end of 2012. That three-year relief was not enough to help the store survive.
The Chamber of Commerce is not extremely worried about the closings, "The Chamber hates to see any loss of business, but we are in an extreme period of growth and positive about the growth in Irving."
No word yet on prospective tenants for the the vacated spaces.
