Placer Top 5: Top Cities for Book Lovers

A New Chapter for Bookstore Growth

Bookstores are back. After years of doomsday predictions, chains and independents are expanding again, while niche concepts are building communities around everything from romance to horror. More than 400 independent bookstores opened in the U.S. in 2025, and Barnes & Noble added more than 60 stores, with another 60-plus slated for 2026.

So with students back on campus and fall reading lists filling up, we dove into the data to identify the nation’s five fastest-growing bookstore markets.

Atlanta Tops the Reading List

Atlanta emerged as the clear winner, with metro-wide bookstore visits up 17.4% between January and August 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. Philadelphia followed at 15.6%, ahead of Houston at 13.3%, Phoenix at 11.9%, and Chicago at 11.3%.

The five markets span four regions, suggesting that the bookstore revival is far from a one-city – or one-region – story.

Every Metro Has Its Own Plot

The drivers of that growth, however, vary by market.

In Atlanta and Houston – and, to a lesser extent, Phoenix – overall visits rose significantly faster than average visits per location, suggesting that much of the growth is being fueled by expansion. All three ranked among the fastest-growing major U.S. metros between 2024 and 2025, creating fertile ground for new bookstore openings. And each has added new Barnes & Noble locations alongside independent booksellers since mid-2025 – from a wave of new Atlanta concepts to Houston's growing roster of indie shops and a run of new indie stores across the Phoenix area.

Philadelphia and Chicago, on the other hand, showed a narrower gap between overall and per-location traffic growth, suggesting that busier existing stores are doing much of the work – even as Chicago has seen the addition of new Barnes & Noble locations this year. Some of that momentum may reflect the strength of the cities’ independent bookselling scenes, showcased by two of the country’s largest – and growing – bookstore crawls. 

However You Read It

From population and footprint growth in Atlanta, Houston, and Phoenix to thriving bookstore ecosystems in Philadelphia and Chicago, the Placer Top 5 shows that there is more than one way to build a booming book market. 

For more data-driven retail analyses, follow placer.ai/anchor.