Waldenbooks, operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

-based

bookstore Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...

chain, from 1995 as a subsidiary of

Borders Group Borders Group, Inc. (former NYSE ticker symbol BGP) was an American multinational book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. In its final year, the company employed about 19,500 people throughout the U.S., primarily in ...

. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware, as well as a children's educational toy chain under Walden Kids. In 2011, the chain was liquidated in bankruptcy.

History

On March 4, 1933, Lawrence Hoyt (1902–1982), a former sales manager for

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

, and Melvin T. Kafka (1905–1992) opened a rental library within leased space inside a

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

, department store under the name Walden Book Company.Link
via

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

. The pair believed that their business would help people cope with the effects of The Great Depression. Books were lent out for three cents per day to save customers the cost of purchasing the books while providing affordable entertainment. By 1948, Hoyt and Kafka had opened 250 book rental locations. Waldenbooks Logo c

Hoyt opened the first Walden bookstore in Pittsburgh in 1962. Within 15 years, the company had grown to over 250 locations in leased locations within various department stores. With the increased availability of low-cost

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) book ...

s after the Second World War, rental library services were eventually replaced with retail book selling.Link
via

Acquisitions

By the 1970s, the company had sales of just under $200 million. In 1969, it was purchased by the Broadway Hale Stores, a California-based department-stores holding company that was later renamed Carter Hawley Hale in 1974.Alternate Link
via

. For the stand-alone bookstores, the company initially traded under the name ''Walden Books'', written as two words. During the 1970s, the company gradually changed its trade name to ''Waldenbooks'', written as a single word.Alternate Link
via

. In 1984, Waldenbooks acquired three stores that were located in upscale neighborhoods from the bankrupted

Brentano's Brentano's was an American bookstore chain with numerous locations in the United States. As of the 1970s, there were three Brentano's in New York: the Fifth Avenue flagship store at Rockefeller Center, one in Greenwich Village, and one in Whit ...

chain with the original intent of converting the stores to the Waldenbooks brand,Alternate Link
via

. However, Waldenbooks discovered that when they continued to operate the newly acquired stores as Brentano's, the new stores were generating more sales than equivalent Waldenbooks, so Waldenbooks decided to continue and expand the Brentano's brand in selected upscale neighborhoods. In 1984, Waldenbooks itself was acquired by

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

after Carter Hawley Hales needed to get cash to defend itself from a hostile takeover attempt. At that time, Waldenbooks was the largest retail bookstore chain.Link
via

. Under Kmart's ownership, Walden attempted to expand and diversify its business. In 1985, it opened a discount book outlet chain called Reader's Market by converting five existing stand-alone Waldenbooks stores. A year later, Walden discontinued the discount bookstores after disappointing sales figures. Walden later tried this concept within selected Kmart stores.Link
via

After terminating the discount book strategy, Walden began experimenting with larger stores by opening Waldenbooks & More stores that included merchandise beyond books, WaldenSoftware computer software stores,Alternate Link
via

. and WaldenKids educational toys stores. In 1987, Waldenbooks acquired the U.S. stores of the Canadian bookstore chain Coles Book Stores Ltd.Alternate Link
via

. and gradually converted the stores to Waldenbooks. By 1990, Waldenbooks began to convert Waldenbooks & More into even larger Waldenbooks & More Books stores with a greatly expanded book selection. In 1992, Walden opened nine book superstores under the Basset Book Shop name;Link
via

. ultimately these stores were converted to Borders locations after the merger.Link
via

.Alternate Link
via

. Kmart expanded its bookstore holdings by acquiring

Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

in 1992. At that time, Kmart kept Borders and Waldenbooks separate, but converted Waldenbook's Bassett stores to the Borders brand. When Kmart decided to spin off its noncore subsidiaries in 1994, Kmart merged Waldenbooks, Brentano's, and Borders to form the Borders-Walden Group. At that time, Waldenbooks had 1,216 stores in all 50 states.Link
via

. In 1995, the renamed Borders Group was able to buy back its

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

and it was listed independently on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

. Beginning in 2004, many Waldenbooks locations were rebranded as Borders Express stores. Borders Group, in an attempt to increase profits and lower the overall expense of their Waldenbooks brand, also announced that it was downsizing the Waldenbooks chain to respond to the current "competitive environment". In January 2010, 200 stores, almost two-thirds of the total, were closed. On July 18, 2011, Borders Group filed for liquidation to close all of its remaining Waldenbooks and other stores. Liquidation commenced on July 22, 2011.

In popular culture

In season 4, episode 9 (Nov. 25, 1977 air date) of “The Rockford Files” titled “The Mayor’s Committee from Deer Lick Falls,” Jim Rockford is looking for someone in a mall and stands outside a Waldenbooks. On July 16, 2018, streaming service

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

released a teaser for the upcoming third season of its hit series ''

Stranger Things ''Stranger Things'' is an American science fiction horror drama television series created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as showrunners and are executive producers along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. Produced by Monkey Massacre Prod ...

''. The ad was made in the style of a 1985 mall advertisement, and includes an image of a "newly opened" Waldenbooks store among its offerings. In reality, the crew of ''Stranger Things'' did a cosmetic restoration of a portion of the

Gwinnett Place Mall Gwinnett Place Mall is a largely vacant shopping mall located in the Pleasant Hill Road corridor of Duluth, Georgia, in the United States. The mall is almost identical to Town Center at Cobb. For the first 16 years, Gwinnett Place was the leading ...

Duluth, Georgia Duluth is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, Gwinnett County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Located north of Interstate 85, it is approximately northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, Duluth had a ...

, returning authentic signage and storefronts to the mall to represent many businesses that have since ceased to exist.

References

External links

*
Walden Book Company, Inc. Company Profile
t Yahoo! finance

t Yahoo! finance
History of Walden Book Company Inc.
at FundingUniverse.com (1997) {{Sears Holdings Bookstores of the United States Defunct retail companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Connecticut Companies based in Stamford, Connecticut American companies established in 1933 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011 Retail companies established in 1933 Retail companies disestablished in 2011 1933 establishments in Connecticut 2011 disestablishments in the United States Bookstores established in the 20th century Kmart

History

Acquisitions

In popular culture

See also

References

External links