Waldenbooks

Walden Book Company, Inc.

Former type	subsidiary, Borders Group
Industry	Retail
Fate	Liquidation
Founded	1933
Defunct	2011
Headquarters	Ann Arbor, Michigan
Products	Books, magazines, comic books, maps, calendars, gift cards

Waldenbooks (often referred to as Waldens), operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain and a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware as well as a children's edutainment chain under Walden Kids. In 2011 the chain was liquidated in bankruptcy.

History

On March 4, 1933, Lawrence Hoyt (1902-1983), a former sales manager for Simon and Schuster, opened a rental library in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 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. In 1969 it was purchased by the Broadway Hale Stores, a California chain of department stores.[3]. For a time it was owned by the retail conglomerate Carter Hawley Hale.

In 1984, Waldenbooks acquired the Brentano's chain, and later that year was itself acquired by Kmart. In 1994, Kmart merged Waldenbooks and Borders, another chain it had acquired, forming the Borders-Walden Group. In 1995 the renamed Borders Group was able to buy back its stock and it was listed independently on the New York Stock Exchange.

After 2004, many Waldenbooks locations were re-branded as "Borders Express" stores. Borders Group also announced that it was downsizing the Waldenbooks chain to respond to the current competitive environment. As of January 2010, 182 stores had been 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.

External links

• Yahoo! - Walden Book Company, Inc. Company Profile
• Yahoo! - Borders Group, Inc. Company Profile
• History of Waldenbooks