Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Waldenbooks" in English language version.
Waldenbooks, meanwhile, is embarking on a major investment program to convert its 23 Waldenbooks & More stores, which carry videos and other products in addition to books, into large stores called Waldenbooks & More Books, with about 50,000 titles.
Our Firm", he [Hoyt] says, "was founded the day in 1933 when all the banks in the country closed. It was an auspicious start. I walked in on the head of Filene's in Boston and made my pitch, namely to run a leased book department. 'By the way', he asked after listening to me, 'what is your company's name?' Well, my company didn't have a name yet. But being a lover of nature and especially of Thoreau, the naturalist, and his "Walden", I had little trouble naming my company right then and there. It was the Walden Book Co. and has retained the name ever since.
Walden Book Company, Booksellers to these United States
But when Broadway-Hale Stores Inc. directors decided it was time for a change they just looked around the table. The Los Angeles firm, parent of the Broadway Stores, Neiman-Marcus, Capwell's and other retail operations, will be known as Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc., if the shareholders approve. THe name is taken from its principal executives: Edward W. Carter, board chairman; Philip M. Hawley, president; and Prentis C. Hale, chairman of the executive committee. Operating divisions will retain their present names. The company said "Broadway-Hale" was too often confused with the Broadway Stores reatiling unit.
The chief executive officer of Waldenbooks, Harry Hoffman, says he initially planned to convert the three Brentano's stores he bought in 1984 to Waldenbooks shops. But the childhood memory of his mother praising the extra service there gave him pause. So he revamped one old Brentano's store in St. Louis; when it reopened, annual sales exceeded $1 million, well above the sales for a new Waldenbooks.
In 1984 K-Mart purchased Waldenbooks, then the country's largest bookstore chain (since relegated to second place by the merger of B. Dalton and Barnes & Noble), from the Carter-Hawley-Hale department store chain. Founded in 1933, by the 1980s, Waldenbooks operated more stores-located in shopping malls and similar high-traffic locations - than any other bookstore chain, and accounted for 15% of all bookstore sales. In 1987, the chain operated 1,179 Waldenbooks outlets (including 50 U.S. Coles stores bought that year from the Canadian chain); seven Waldenbooks & More, eight Waldensoftware, 28 Waldenkids, and 18 Brentano's outlets; and serviced book departments in Kmart stores. (Waldenbooks converted most Brentano's outlets into Waldenbooks after buying the chain in 1984, but later began opening new Brentano's as an upscale mall store brand enabling it to operate two bookstores in selected malls.) In 1992, Kmart added Borders Books' small but rapidly growing superstore operator to its portfolio. Under Kmart ownership, Borders grew from 19 to 75 stores while Waldenbooks shrank from a peak of nearly 1,300 stores to 1,127 in early 1995.
Waldenbooks tried its own hand at discounting. Last year it closed five conventional, money-making Waldenbook stores in the New York area, and reopened them as Reader's Market stores, offering discounts of 10% to 35% on all books. But the stores had produced average annual sales of only $600,000, equal to an average Waldenbooks' outlet's sales, but far below the $750,000 level needed to make a discount outlet profitable. Instead of converting more individual Waldenbooks stores to discount outlets, as of June 1, Reader's Market outlets will be opened as stores within stores at six K mart outlets in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Reader's Markets will retain their name in the K marts, taking up about 1,500 square feet, half the size of a typical Waldenbooks store. If successful, Reader's Markets will be expanded to other K mart outlets. Waldenbooks is revamping its response to discounters by scaling back its own discount chain in favor of units in K mart stores. And it is turning to an ambitious super bookstore -- called Waldenbooks & More -- to propel growth by selling everything from computer software to stuffed animals. The first Waldenbooks & More opened in November on Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown, L.I. At 10,000 square feet, it's more than triple the space of an average Waldenbooks store, and stocks about 35,000 book titles, more than twice the number in average stores.
Waldenbooks will be opening stores in its two newest fields shortly, both outside its traditional bailiwick: software and children's educational toys. Waldensoftware, which will sell about 7,500 different software titles for the personal computer market, will open its first store in June in Darien, Conn. Waldenkids, which will sell educational toys and games for children under 12 years old, will open in four locations in April (Los Angeles; Columbia, Mo.; Atlanta, and Pittsburgh), and two more in Connecticut in June.
Southam Inc., Toronto, said its Coles Book Stores Ltd. unit agreed to sell its 52 U.S. book stores and related assets to Waldenbooks Inc., a large Stamford, Conn.-based book retailer.
Waldenbooks, one of the largest mall-dwellers, has followed several other chains' lead and opened its first superstore last month in Stamford, Conn. The chain plans to open 50 more superstores, dubbed Bassett Bookshops, by the end of 1993. The store is not being marketed under the Waldenbooks name because consumers associate the name too strongly with the mall stores. Not to mention that the name Bassett Bookshop evokes more of that warm, fuzzy feeling the store is aiming for.
Results included operations of the nine Basset Book stores which were transferred to Borders from Waldenbooks at the end of the year.
Kmart Corp., which agreed to acquire bookstore chain Borders Inc. in October, said Borders will run all of Kmart's extra-large book superstores. As of Feb. 1, Borders will manage its own 22 book superstores, which operate under the name Borders Book Shops, plus four Basset Book Shop superstores now run by Kmart's Waldenbooks division. Kmart, based in Troy, Mich., said that all Bassets will change their name to Borders, and in the future, all of the company's new book superstores will use the Borders name.
Kmart Corporation today announced 1993 sales and operating results for the Borders-Walden Group, representing Kmart's retail book subsidiaries, Borders and Walden Book Company, which have been combined to form the new retail bookstore group. The Borders-Walden Group operates 44 Borders stores in 21 states and 1,216 Waldenbooks stores in 50 states.
But when Broadway-Hale Stores Inc. directors decided it was time for a change they just looked around the table. The Los Angeles firm, parent of the Broadway Stores, Neiman-Marcus, Capwell's and other retail operations, will be known as Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc., if the shareholders approve. THe name is taken from its principal executives: Edward W. Carter, board chairman; Philip M. Hawley, president; and Prentis C. Hale, chairman of the executive committee. Operating divisions will retain their present names. The company said "Broadway-Hale" was too often confused with the Broadway Stores reatiling unit.
Waldenbooks will be opening stores in its two newest fields shortly, both outside its traditional bailiwick: software and children's educational toys. Waldensoftware, which will sell about 7,500 different software titles for the personal computer market, will open its first store in June in Darien, Conn. Waldenkids, which will sell educational toys and games for children under 12 years old, will open in four locations in April (Los Angeles; Columbia, Mo.; Atlanta, and Pittsburgh), and two more in Connecticut in June.
Southam Inc., Toronto, said its Coles Book Stores Ltd. unit agreed to sell its 52 U.S. book stores and related assets to Waldenbooks Inc., a large Stamford, Conn.-based book retailer.
Kmart Corp., which agreed to acquire bookstore chain Borders Inc. in October, said Borders will run all of Kmart's extra-large book superstores. As of Feb. 1, Borders will manage its own 22 book superstores, which operate under the name Borders Book Shops, plus four Basset Book Shop superstores now run by Kmart's Waldenbooks division. Kmart, based in Troy, Mich., said that all Bassets will change their name to Borders, and in the future, all of the company's new book superstores will use the Borders name.
But when Broadway-Hale Stores Inc. directors decided it was time for a change they just looked around the table. The Los Angeles firm, parent of the Broadway Stores, Neiman-Marcus, Capwell's and other retail operations, will be known as Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc., if the shareholders approve. THe name is taken from its principal executives: Edward W. Carter, board chairman; Philip M. Hawley, president; and Prentis C. Hale, chairman of the executive committee. Operating divisions will retain their present names. The company said "Broadway-Hale" was too often confused with the Broadway Stores reatiling unit.
Waldenbooks will be opening stores in its two newest fields shortly, both outside its traditional bailiwick: software and children's educational toys. Waldensoftware, which will sell about 7,500 different software titles for the personal computer market, will open its first store in June in Darien, Conn. Waldenkids, which will sell educational toys and games for children under 12 years old, will open in four locations in April (Los Angeles; Columbia, Mo.; Atlanta, and Pittsburgh), and two more in Connecticut in June.
Southam Inc., Toronto, said its Coles Book Stores Ltd. unit agreed to sell its 52 U.S. book stores and related assets to Waldenbooks Inc., a large Stamford, Conn.-based book retailer.
Kmart Corp., which agreed to acquire bookstore chain Borders Inc. in October, said Borders will run all of Kmart's extra-large book superstores. As of Feb. 1, Borders will manage its own 22 book superstores, which operate under the name Borders Book Shops, plus four Basset Book Shop superstores now run by Kmart's Waldenbooks division. Kmart, based in Troy, Mich., said that all Bassets will change their name to Borders, and in the future, all of the company's new book superstores will use the Borders name.
