Waldenbooks (often referred as
Waldens), operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., is an American
shopping mallA shopping mall, shopping centre or shopping center is a building or multiple buildings consisting of a complex of shops representing leading merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a convenient parking area – a modern,...
-based bookstore chain. The Walden Book Company is a subsidiary of
Borders GroupBorders Group is an international bookseller based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Borders is the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States , selling a wide variety of books, CDs, DVDs, and periodicals, as well as gifts and stationery.In 2004, Borders reached an agreement with...
. Currently, there are 370 Waldenbooks stores in malls across the United States. They also ran a video game and software chain under the name Walden Software as well as a children's
edutainmentEdutainment is a form of entertainment designed to educate as well as to amuse. Edutainment typically seeks to instruct or socialize its audience by embedding lessons in some familiar form of entertainment: television programs, computer and video games, films, music, websites, multimedia software,...
chain under Walden Kids.
On March 4, 1933, Lawrence Hoyt decided to open a rental library in
Bridgeport, ConnecticutBridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in and the former county seat of Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 137,912 in 2006 and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
.
Waldenbooks (often referred as
Waldens), operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., is an American
shopping mallA shopping mall, shopping centre or shopping center is a building or multiple buildings consisting of a complex of shops representing leading merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a convenient parking area – a modern,...
-based bookstore chain. The Walden Book Company is a subsidiary of
Borders GroupBorders Group is an international bookseller based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Borders is the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States , selling a wide variety of books, CDs, DVDs, and periodicals, as well as gifts and stationery.In 2004, Borders reached an agreement with...
. Currently, there are 370 Waldenbooks stores in malls across the United States. They also ran a video game and software chain under the name Walden Software as well as a children's
edutainmentEdutainment is a form of entertainment designed to educate as well as to amuse. Edutainment typically seeks to instruct or socialize its audience by embedding lessons in some familiar form of entertainment: television programs, computer and video games, films, music, websites, multimedia software,...
chain under Walden Kids.
History
On March 4, 1933, Lawrence Hoyt decided to open a rental library in
Bridgeport, ConnecticutBridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in and the former county seat of Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 137,912 in 2006 and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
. Within fifteen years it had grown to over 250 locations. In 1962 he decided to open a bookstore, and in 1981 it became the first bookstore to have stores in every state. For a time it was owned by the retail
conglomerateA conglomerate is a combination of two or more companies engaged in entirely different businesses together into one overarching company . Conglomerates are often large...
Carter Hawley HaleBroadway Stores, Inc. was an American retailer based in Southern California. Known through its history as Carter Hawley Hale Stores and Broadway Hale Stores over time, it acquired other retail store chains in regions outside California home base, and became in certain retail sectors a regional and...
. Over the past several decades Waldenbooks has earned itself a rather specialized niche in retail book selling by locating almost exclusively inside shopping malls, and are known for being a mall bookseller today.
In 1984, Waldenbooks was acquired by
KmartKmart is a chain of discount department stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation...
. That year it acquired the
Brentano'sBrentano's is a part of the Waldenbooks subsidiary of Borders Group, Inc., an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based book and music retailer. Like many Waldenbooks locations, the Brentano's stores are primarily located in shopping malls and other shopping centers, and also, they have converted them into...
chain. In 1994, Kmart sold its Waldenbooks and
BordersBorders Group is an international bookseller based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Borders is the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States , selling a wide variety of books, CDs, DVDs, and periodicals, as well as gifts and stationery.In 2004, Borders reached an agreement with...
which formed the Borders-Walden Group. In 1995 the renamed Borders Group was able to buy back its
stockIn the investment world, a share of stock represents a share of ownership in a corporation ....
and it was listed independently on the
New York Stock ExchangeThe New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. It is the largest stock exchange in the world by United States dollar value of its listed companies' securities...
.
Since 2004, many Waldenbooks locations have been re-branded as "Borders Express" stores. Borders Group has also announced that it is downsizing the Waldenbooks chain to respond to the current competitive environment. It will close under-performing locations and will be making changes to remaining locations such as product mix, store design, etc.
External links