Barnes & Noble — Local services in Deerfield Township

This Barnes and Noble location just opened three days ago on January 19, and my husband and I wanted to go visit in its first weekend to support local bookstores. When was the last time you heard of a bookstore opening rather than closing, after all? I was a little concerned about the size upon pulling up since it looks incredibly small. We found a parking space immediately, though the parking lot for the entire shopping center is quite small and it was incredibly busy.

The store really opens up once you're inside. It's not as big as West Chester's location, but it's bigger than it looks. It is absolutely beautiful inside, with wood shelves, good lighting, and a few places with chairs and tables. I particularly loved the large wooden train in the kids section, but it was too crowded to get a picture with the little locomotive.

I was incredibly happy with their historical nonfiction section, which is my favorite place to be! Normally that is a genre that is disregarded for popular fiction, but they had a decent selection here, including two books I'd been keeping an eye out for.

Sales/clearance sections are hard to come by, though that might be due to the store having just opened. I had two experiences with employees, both phenomenal. One woman suggested a few authors of military thrillers since I am new to the genre after asking if I needed help (and I certainly did!). My cashier, a man whose name tag said a name similar to Casey even though our receipt says Joseph, got so excited to chat with me about some of the books I was getting. He was a sweetheart.

Overall, this was a really good experience and I will be back. It's not as large as West Chester but it uses its space well and has a nice selection. The parking was the biggest negative, though that's an issue of the shopping center, not this...

It's unfortunate this new B&N location is not the same store design, nor inventory level, of old. It's not necessarily the location's fault, though. If I were looking for something mass market or widely available in a pinch, I'd maybe come to this location. But anything else, I'm either going to Half Price Books to find it used, or the B&N location in West Chester to browse a much larger selection.

It's really nice on the inside, but it doesn't have that 'book store' welcoming and/or ambience. It's definitely more modern and contains way better lighting, but it didn't really invite me to stay and browse for a couple hours. The atmosphere was more of "get in, look through our fraction of inventory of what it used to be,...

This store feels smaller than some of the other Barnes & Noble stores that I've shopped, but with the very efficient help of staff we found everything that we wanted during this visit. The gentleman who did the search for us, offered many other suggestions of books and games with the same theme.

During a second visit to the store we purchased "The Secret Lives of Color" to compliment the "Hues and Clues" game we received for Christmas. The young lady working the check-out counter knew enough about both items to engage in a nice conversation with us, and make the shopping experience feel very personalized.

The area of strength for this store HAS to be their helpful and engaging staff. Thank...