With tensions between Barnes & Noble and independent bookstores on the rise as the retail chain continues its most aggressive new store opening efforts in a decade, a new report shows how specializing in certain niches can help indies distinguish themselves from rivals.
The report, called Love in the Time of Bookstores, is by Placer.ai, a market intelligence firm whose services include store foot tracker analysis. To see how different retailers in the same category fare, between April 2024 and March 2025 Placer.ai compared the foot traffic between the romance bookstore The Ripped Bodice’s Brooklyn location and two B&Ns located within two miles of the store.
Many successful indie bookstores draw customers from a wide geographic area, and that certainly seems to be the case with The Ripped Bodice. According to Placer.ai 46.6% of the indie bookstore’s customers traveled at least 50 miles to go to the store. With B&N outlets scattered throughout metropolitan New York City, the B&N stores nearest to The Ripped Bodice saw just 4.8% and 8.6% of their visitors traveling from that distance. The majority of customers to B&N’s 7th Avenue store (78.8%) and Atlantic Ave. location (69.5%) travelled less than seven miles to reach the store. Meanwhile, just over 32% of Ripped Bodice visitors came from that short distance.
Another huge difference between the Brooklyn B&Ns and The Ripped Bodice is the amount of foot traffic that occurs over the weekend. Nearly 49% of the indie’s foot traffic occurred Saturday and Sunday, while both B&N stores drew many more visitors during the week. About 75% of customers to the 7th Avenue location were there during the week, while 66% of visitors to the Atlantic store came from Monday through Friday.
Once there, customers at The Ripped Bodice tend to stay longer than at B&N outlets. Customers at the indie had an average stay of 39 minutes per visit, compared to 32 minutes at the B&N Atlantic Ave. location and 37 minutes at the 7th Ave. store
The author of the report speculated that the combination of customers traveling long distances on the weekend to go The Ripped Bodice and willingness to spend a long time there indicates that the romance bookstore has successfully made itself into a destination for romance book fans.
