B. Dalton Bookseller (often called B. Dalton or B. Dalton's) was an American retail bookstore chain founded in 1966 by

Bruce Dayton Bruce Bliss Dayton (August 16, 1918 – November 13, 2015) was an American retail executive, businessman, heir to the Dayton's Company fortune, and philanthropist. Dayton was the last surviving member of the five Dayton brothers – all grands ...

, a member of the same family that operated the Dayton's department store chain. B. Dalton expanded to become the largest retailer of

hardcover book A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occa ...

s in the United States, with 779 stores at the peak of the chain's success. Located primarily at indoor shopping malls, B. Dalton competed primarily with Waldenbooks.

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

acquired the chain from Dayton's in 1987 and continued to operate it until a late 2009 announcement that the last 50 stores would be liquidated by January 2010. B. Dalton was later revived by rebranding a Barnes & Noble location in 2022.

History

, a member of the family that operated Dayton's, a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

chain based in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, Minnesota, founded the B. Dalton chain in 1966. He named the bookstore chain after himself, but substituted an L for the Y in his surname. The name B. Dalton was also chosen because it "connoted quality, dependability and authority." The first store opened in nearby

Edina EDINA is a centre for digital expertise, based at the University of Edinburgh as a division of the Information Services Group. Services EDINA front-end services (those accessed directly by the user) are available free at the point of use for ...

in August of that year, followed by a second in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. Although the chain was originally intended to operate in downtowns and suburban areas, the majority of the stores were opened inside regional shopping malls. In 1969, Dayton's merged with Hudson's of Detroit and became Dayton Hudson Corporation (now

Target Corporation Target Corporation (doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a compon ...

). B. Dalton expanded throughout the 1960s and 1970s, going from twelve stores in 1968 to 125 five years later, peaking at 798 locations in 1986. In 1968, the chain acquired Pickwick Books of California; they merged in 1979. B. Dalton had stores in 43 of 50 states in 1978, and was second to Waldenbooks (then the U.S.'s largest bookstore) in store numbers, but posted higher profits than its rival. A flagship store opened in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

in December 1978, and between 1983 and 1986, the chain revived the Pickwick name as a discount bookstore.

1980s and 1990s

By 1986, discounting practices by rival book chains had caused declining profits for B. Dalton stores, as had the decrease in new shopping malls. As a result of the declining profits, Dayton Hudson Corporation sold the B. Dalton chain to

. Under Barnes & Noble's ownership, B. Dalton acquired Scribner Book Stores, Inc. from Rizzoli International Bookstores in 1989, and began a video game store called Software, Etc. (now

GameStop GameStop Corp. is an American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer. The company is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), and is the largest video game retailer worldwide. , the company operates 4,5 ...

). At the same time, the chain began closing outlets and relocating others, while opening other prototypes. By 1997, the chain had shrunk to 528 locations, and continued to close many more over the next decade. In January 2010, Barnes & Noble closed the last 50 B. Dalton locations, except for the stores at Union Station in Washington, D.C. and

Roosevelt Field Mall Roosevelt Field is a shopping mall in East Garden City, New York and Uniondale, New York. It was designed by I. M. Pei and is the largest shopping mall on Long Island, in the state of New York, and the eighth largest shopping mall in the United ...

Garden City, New York Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...

. The Roosevelt Field Mall location closed in January 2012 and the Union Station location closed at the end of February 2013. In February 2022, Barnes & Noble rebranded its

Oviedo Mall Oviedo Mall (previously known as the Oviedo Marketplace) is a single-story indoor shopping mall, with movie theater, located in Oviedo, Florida, a northeastern suburb of Orlando, Florida. The mall is owned and managed by International Growth Prop ...

location as B. Dalton, reviving the brand.

Format

Initially, B. Dalton targeted middle-class suburban customers, with stores that featured parquet flooring and wide aisles. Later the store switched to a mass-market approach, allowing for a wider range of titles. B. Dalton was also one of the first chains to display hardcover and paperback books side by side. B. Dalton was also a longtime sponsor of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

TV series '' Reading Rainbow''.

Software Etc.

In 1985, B. Dalton opened the first Software Etc., which sold computer books, magazines, and software products. Software Etc. initially began operating in B. Dalton bookstores but was spun off in 1987 and began focusing on standalone stores. In 1994, Software Etc. successfully merged with competitor Babbage's. In 1996, NeoStar Retail Group Inc., then owner of Software Etc. and Babbage's, filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

and put the two chains up for sale. By November, NeoStar had failed to find a buyer and announced that all 707 stores owned by the company would close in the next year. By November 26, the plan to close the stores was halted, as NeoStar's assets were sold to an investor group led by retailer

Leonard Riggio Leonard S. Riggio (born February 28, 1941)
''

chain and was sold to Barnes & Noble. The sale reunited the Software Etc. chain with its original parent company, B. Dalton. Barnes & Noble purchased Funco, Inc. in 2000 and merged Babbage's Etc. to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Funco. Funco changed its name to GameStop, Inc. and became independent from Barnes & Noble by 2004. Since then, GameStop has phased out the Software Etc. name from its stores.

In popular culture

A B. Dalton store appears at the Southfields Mall in the

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

movie '' Wonder Woman 1984''. A B. Dalton store, as well as Software Etc, appears at the Shadyside Mall in the

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

movie '' Fear Street Part One: 1994''. A B. Dalton store appears in the 1995 movie ''

Mallrats ''Mallrats'' is a 1995 American buddy comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Jason Lee, Jeremy London, Shannen Doherty, Claire Forlani, Ben Affleck, Jason Mewes, Joey Lauren Adams, Michael Rooker, and Smith as Silent Bob. ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalton, B. 1966 establishments in Minnesota 2013 disestablishments in Minnesota

B. Dalton B. Dalton Bookseller (often called B. Dalton or B. Dalton's) was an American retail bookstore chain founded in 1966 by Bruce Dayton, a member of the same family that operated the Dayton's department store chain. B. Dalton expanded to become the ...

Defunct companies based in Minneapolis

American companies established in 1966 Retail companies established in 1966 Retail companies disestablished in 2013 Target Corporation