Books-A-Million, Inc., also known as BAM!, is a bookstore chain in the United States, operating 260 stores in 32 states. Stores range in size from 4,000 to 30,000 square feet and sell books, magazines, manga, collectibles, toys, technology, and gifts. Most Books-A-Million stores feature "Joe Muggs"

cafés A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caf ...

, a coffee and espresso bar. Stores operate under the names Books-A-Million, Bookland, Books & Company, and 2nd & Charles. The company owns Yogurt Mountain Holding, a frozen yogurt retailer and franchisor with 40 locations, as well as Preferred Growth Properties, which develops and manages commercial real estate investments. It owns and operates American Wholesale Book Company (AWBC), an e-commerce division operating as booksamillion.com; and an internet development and services company, NetCentral, in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. In December 2015, the company was acquired by its chairman, Clyde B. Anderson, and his family, for $21 million.

History

Books-A-Million was founded in 1917 in

Florence, Alabama Florence is a city in, and the county seat of, Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the state's northwestern corner. It is situated along the Tennessee River and is home to the University of North Alabama, the oldest college in the st ...

, as a newsstand by 14-year old Clyde W. Anderson, who dropped out of school to support his family after his father died. Anderson saw a business opportunity after workers on the nearby

Wilson Dam Wilson Dam is a dam spanning the Tennessee River between Lauderdale County and Colbert County in the U.S. state of Alabama. Completed in 1924 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, it impounds Wilson Lake, and is one of nine Tennessee Va ...

complained that they could not get their hometown newspapers. In 1950, Charles C. Anderson, the founder's son, inherited the store and expanded it into a chain. The company incorporated as Bookland in 1964. By 1980, the company had 50 stores. In 1988, Bookland acquired the Gateway Books retail chain based in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

. The same year, the company opened its first superstore format store. In 1992, the company changed its name to Books-A-Million, Inc. and became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

of 2.6 million shares at a price of $13 per share. In 1998, the company launched its

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

, booksamillion.com. On November 25, 1998, during the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

, the stock price soared from $3 per share to $38.94 on November 27, 1998, and an intra-day high of $47.00 on November 30, 1998, after the company announced an updated website. Two weeks later, the share price was back down to $10. By 2000, the share price had returned to $3. Those days included suspenseful times for

day trader Day trading is a form of speculation in securities in which a trader buys and sells a financial instrument within the same trading day, so that all positions are closed before the market closes for the trading day to avoid unmanageable risks and ...

s, such as when the stock moved up 6 points in 13 minutes. During this time, insiders sold hundreds of thousands of shares. In 1999, the company acquired NetCentral, the designer of its website, and began operating American Wholesale Book Company, a book wholesaler and distributor. In April 2010, the company paid $3 million for a 40% stake in

Yogurt Mountain Yogurt Mountain Franchising LLC, founded by David Kahn and Aaron Greenberg, is a chain of self-serve frozen yogurt dessert bars with 16 rotating flavors of frozen yogurt and over fifty toppings, for which the customer pays by the ounce. History ...

, a frozen yogurt retailer and franchisor. Six months later, the company opened Yogurt Mountain locations in its bookstores. In September 2010, the company launched 2nd & Charles, a trader of used media, with its first store in Hoover, Alabama across from

Riverchase Galleria Riverchase Galleria, locally known as The Galleria, is a large, super–regional shopping mall and mixed use development in Hoover, Alabama, in the Greater Birmingham metropolitan area. It is ranked 43rd on the list of largest shopping malls in t ...

. That year, it opened its first store in North Alabama. In December 2015, the company was acquired by its chairman, Clyde B. Anderson, and his family, for $21 million. In November 2016, the company began to sell self-published books.

Criticism

In 2014, Books-A-Million was identified by ''24/7 Wall Street'' as America's worst company to work for, citing low satisfaction among employees due to "high stress and low pay...low chance of promotion, ndhours are based on magazine and discount card sales."

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1917 establishments in Alabama 1992 initial public offerings Bookstores of the United States Book selling websites Dot-com bubble Companies based in Birmingham, Alabama Florence, Alabama Retail companies established in 1917 American companies established in 1917 2015 mergers and acquisitions

History

Criticism

See also

References

External links