Clifford Noble. Though Mr. The company's early business was wholesaling, selling mainly to schoo ls, colleges, libraries, and dealers. A report in College St ore magazine recounted that single book customers were tolerated, but that the store's counters and display shelves functioned as barr icades against their encroachment.
Eventually the store took a buildi ng on Fifth Avenue that included a small retail space. The public the n "launched a campaign of book buying that soon banished all doubt as to the need for a general retail textbook house in New York. The quarters wer e enlarged and remodeled in , and the store set the standard for college bookstores. In the store instituted a "book-a-teria" service that was soo n picked up by other college bookstores. A clerk handed the customer a sales slip as he entered the store.
Purchases were recorded on the slip by one clerk, money taken by another, and wrapping and bagging d one by another. The New York store was also a pioneer in the use of " Music by Muzak," with the piped-in music interrupted at minute int ervals by announcements and advertising. Staff during the textbook ru sh season sometimes numbered over , and the store boasted a stock of two million books.
The com pany also ran an import and an export division, an out-of-print book service, and published several series of nonfiction books, including the College Outline Series of study guides. The company a lso opened branches in Brooklyn and Chicago, and managed an outlet fo r used books and publishers' remainders called the Economy Book Store.
I ts wholesale textbook division bought used books from around camp us bookstores all across the East and Midwest. Riggio began his stell ar career in the book business at age 18, when he was a poorly paid c lerk at the New York University NYU bookstore.
Riggio initially stu died engineering at night at the university, and in some sense he was unprepared for working with books. He recalled being embarrassed by a customer who asked for a copy of Moby Dick --Riggio had never heard of it.
Nevertheless, he caught on to bookselling like no one e lse. Though his sto re was only one-eighth the size of the official NYU bookstore, he soo n rivaled his old employer's sales.
He offered exceptional service to his student customers, airlifting textbooks to the store if necessar y. The success of the Waverly Book Exchange allowed Riggio to buy or open ten more college bookstores over the next several years.
President John Barnes, grandson of the f ounder, had died in , and the retail and wholesale divisions of t he company were purchased by a conglomerate called Amtel, Inc. Business declined unde r the new management, and Amtel decided to sell. Riggio believed that more people read books for information than fo r entertainment, and he changed the setup of the flagship store to gi ve customers easier access to books they might want. He organized the stock into new, more specific categories, for example dividing the t raditional category of philosophy into yoga and mysticism.
Other sect ions of special interest books included cooking, Judaica, handyman bo oks, study aids, and dictionaries. Riggio also opened a special child ren's section in the Fifth Avenue store, which, like the adult sectio ns, emphasized educational books.
His early success led Riggio to gamble on a new kind of bookstore, the bo ok supermarket. All books at the annex were discounted between 40 and 90 percent, even new books and bestsellers. Shoppers spent hours piling bargains into shopping carts, as Riggio explained to Publishers We ekly that he had "set the customer free in an unintimidating atmo sphere to roam over a vast space.
Corners were devoted to books on special topics ranging fr om Latin America to transportation, and huge black and yellow signs d irecting customers to different categories could be read from fee t away. It was a marketing technique that worke d brilliantly.
Dalton Bookse ller, a bookstore chain with outlets, from Dayton Hudson Corporat ion. A few months later, the company becam e sole owner of a Texas and Florida chain of discount bookstores call ed Bookstop.
Dalton, and its other busin esses. Leonard Riggio was the majority owner, and had a financial par tner in a Dutch conglomerate called Vendex. T hese rights had been sold after John Barnes died in The company embarked on a new growth strategy in the s, opening new "superstores" at a breathtaking pace.
Quick Facts. Toggle Dropdown News. How to Be Considered for an Author Event. Toggle Dropdown Vendors. Vendors Overview. Vendor Guidelines. Vendor Code of Conduct. Terms of Purchase. Toggle Dropdown Our Stores and Communities. A few months later, the company became sole owner of a Texas and Florida chain of discount bookstores called Bookstop.
Dalton, and its other businesses. Leonard Riggio was the majority owner, and had a financial partner in a Dutch conglomerate called Vendex. These rights had been sold after John Barnes died in The company embarked on a new growth strategy in the s, opening new "superstores" at a breathtaking pace.
The superstores were large, carrying as many as , titles, or six times the size of a typical mall bookstore, but they had amenities such as coffee bars and children's play areas, and were designed to be pleasant public spaces where people would browse, read, and mingle.
Wide aisles and scattered chairs and benches encouraged customers to linger, and local managers had the autonomy to arrange poetry readings and puppet shows. The discounted usually by ten to 40 percent superstore stock was vast, yet the space was as posh and inviting as that of many independent bookstores.
Three years later there were , and the company intended to open more each year through But overall sales continued to rise, and the superstores contributed some impressive revenues. Eighty percent of new superstores contributed to company profits in their first year of operation. The superstores generated on the average twice the sales of mall bookstores, and in superstore sales rose by percent.
But Leonard Riggio went on the record repeatedly to dispel claims that his growing chain was predatory. The amount Americans spent on books rose a hefty Waldenbooks planned to more than double the size of its mall stores, from 3, to between 6, and 8, square feet. Borders Inc. An initial stock offering in was postponed because of adverse market conditions.
Wall Street analysts had been skeptical of the company's ability to sustain its profits, but a year after the first offering was withdrawn, superstore sales had continued to climb. These sales accounted for almost half the company's total revenue, up from 26 percent in , and the company seemed more solid.
The textbook area of the company continued to be quite profitable too, and the company ran almost college bookstores across the country. The discount sales annex had been a radical step, eliminating the high-brow atmosphere long associated with bookstores. The superstores managed to combine the savings and huge selection of the discount store with an environment tailored equally well to book lovers, socializers, and bargain hunters.
This growth increasingly led to declining sales for mall bookstores, including the company's own. Dalton stores per year since , but in late decided to step up its mall closings. During , 69 B. Dalton stores closed and another 72 were shuttered the following year. Dalton outlets and opened a small number of new, larger B. Dalton stores each year, seeking to place them in locations that offered increased visibility and higher traffic flow.
The new and enlarged units performed better than their predecessors, but all mall bookstores continued to be hurt by competition from nearby superstores.
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