Facing the prospect of closing down entirely, the company completed a sale to the hedge fund Elliott Management after effectively putting itself on the market last October. Founded in , the worldwide chain enjoyed decades of dominance in the book retail market — until the internet blew up. Here is a brief timeline of the outfit that changed books forever and is now forever changed by what it wrought.
The move comes six years after he dropped out of college and opened a college bookstore called the Student Book Exchange. He never finished his degree in metallurgical engineering, but he did start a bookselling empire. The era of the corporatized third place Starbucks, anyone? Blood was drawn early and often when Amazon. An electronic shopping interface funded by IBM and Sears, Trintex worked on personal computers and allowed subscribers to shop online.
The service later became known as Prodigy. In , the bookstore hired ad agency Geer, DuBois to produce television spots for the New York City market, a first for the industry. When Riggio acquired the B. The marquee stayed intact. These rights had been sold after John Barnes died in The company embarked on a new growth strategy in the s, opening new "superstores" at a breathtaking pace. The superstores were large, carrying as many as , titles, or six times the size of a typical mall bookstore, but they had amenities such as coffee bars and children's play areas, and were designed to be pleasant public spaces where people would browse, read, and mingle.
Wide aisles and scattered chairs and benches encouraged customers to linger, and local managers had the autonomy to arrange poetry readings and puppet shows.
The discounted usually by ten to 40 percent superstore stock was vast, yet the space was as posh and inviting as that of many independent bookstores.
Three years later there were , and the company intended to open more each year through But overall sales continued to rise, and the superstores contributed some impressive revenues. Eighty percent of new superstores contributed to company profits in their first year of operation.
The superstores generated on the average twice the sales of mall bookstores, and in superstore sales rose by percent. But Leonard Riggio went on the record repeatedly to dispel claims that his growing chain was predatory. The amount Americans spent on books rose a hefty Waldenbooks planned to more than double the size of its mall stores, from 3, to between 6, and 8, square feet. Borders Inc. An initial stock offering in was postponed because of adverse market conditions.
Wall Street analysts had been skeptical of the company's ability to sustain its profits, but a year after the first offering was withdrawn, superstore sales had continued to climb. These sales accounted for almost half the company's total revenue, up from 26 percent in , and the company seemed more solid. The textbook area of the company continued to be quite profitable too, and the company ran almost college bookstores across the country.
The discount sales annex had been a radical step, eliminating the high-brow atmosphere long associated with bookstores. The superstores managed to combine the savings and huge selection of the discount store with an environment tailored equally well to book lovers, socializers, and bargain hunters. This growth increasingly led to declining sales for mall bookstores, including the company's own.
Dalton stores per year since , but in late decided to step up its mall closings. During , 69 B. We will continue to bring our industry nuances of style and approach es to bookselling which are consistent with our evolving aspirations. Above all, we expect to be a credit to the communities we serve, a va luable resource to our customers, and a place where our dedicated boo ksellers can grow and prosper. Toward this end we will not only liste n to our customers and booksellers but embrace the idea that the Comp any is at their service.
The company revolutionized bookselling by introduc ing giant, supermarket-style stores with deeply discounted books in t he s, and by the early s it operated more than such super stores across the country. Dalton chain, and D oubleday, Bookstop, and Bookstar stores.
The company also operates on e of the top online bookselling operations, barnesandnoble. The Barnes family's history in the book business started in , whe n Charles Montgomery Barnes went into the second-hand book business i n Wheaton, Illinois. Barnes soon moved to Chicago, selling new and us ed books. By Barnes's firm, reorganized as C. Barnes Company, dealt exclusively in school books. In C. Barnes's son, William R. Barnes, became president of the firm, and he continued the busine ss in partnership with several other men.
The younger Barnes sold his interest in his father's company in , when he moved to New York. Clifford Noble. Though Mr. The company's early business was wholesaling, selling mainly to schoo ls, colleges, libraries, and dealers. A report in College St ore magazine recounted that single book customers were tolerated, but that the store's counters and display shelves functioned as barr icades against their encroachment.
Eventually the store took a buildi ng on Fifth Avenue that included a small retail space. The public the n "launched a campaign of book buying that soon banished all doubt as to the need for a general retail textbook house in New York. The quarters wer e enlarged and remodeled in , and the store set the standard for college bookstores. In the store instituted a "book-a-teria" service that was soo n picked up by other college bookstores.
A clerk handed the customer a sales slip as he entered the store. Purchases were recorded on the slip by one clerk, money taken by another, and wrapping and bagging d one by another. The New York store was also a pioneer in the use of " Music by Muzak," with the piped-in music interrupted at minute int ervals by announcements and advertising.
Staff during the textbook ru sh season sometimes numbered over , and the store boasted a stock of two million books. The com pany also ran an import and an export division, an out-of-print book service, and published several series of nonfiction books, including the College Outline Series of study guides. The company a lso opened branches in Brooklyn and Chicago, and managed an outlet fo r used books and publishers' remainders called the Economy Book Store.
I ts wholesale textbook division bought used books from around camp us bookstores all across the East and Midwest.
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