Chicago’s Volumes BookCafe to Close

Nov 17, 2025

Rebecca George and Kimberly George, the sisters who are co-owners of Volumes BookCafe, a vibrant hub of Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood for almost a decade, announced on Friday that the store is closing in January, due to competition from a Barnes & Noble outlet, which opened two blocks away in October 2024.

“It hit us hard,” Rebecca George told PW. “[B&N CEO] James Daunt killed us despite his claims that he wouldn’t infringe upon the livelihood of an independent bookstore.” George added that sales this fall were down 20%-30% from last year.

Barnes & Noble announced early in 2025 that it planned to open 60 new stores this year, with Daunt's assurances that the goal was not to eliminate indies, but rather to tweak B&N's model so that its outlets seemed more like indies than part of a chain. B&N has already opened more than 50 new stores in 2025, and is opening 14 new stores this month alone.

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