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Waldenbooks, operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., is an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain. It is named after Henry David Thoreau's most famous book, Walden. The Walden Book Company is a subsidiary of Borders Group, Inc.
History
In the middle of the Great Depression, on March 4, 1933, Lawrence Hoyt decided to open 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. For a time it was owned by the now-defunct retail conglomerate Carter Hawley Hale.
In 1984 Waldenbooks was acquired by Kmart. In 1994 it was combined with Borders to form 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. (Borders Group Media Relations)
Currently
Like most mall-based retail stores, Waldenbooks prefers hiring young adults with a passion for or knowledge about what they sell, which leads to a high turn-over rate and fast promotion. It's not uncommon to a see a two year employee running a store.
Many Waldenbooks have been renamed "Borders Express."
Preferred Reader program
Started in 1990, the Preferred Reader program offered special discounts to anyone in the program. It required a small one-time fee to join. That fee paid itself back in savings if the customer bought a large number of books. Waldenbooks advertises rarely, if at all, and it relied on its Preferred Reader program to inform its best customers of sales and specials.
In October 2004, Waldenbooks announced that it was ending the Preferred Reader program. No new members would be accepted after October 5. The discounts and benefits previously granted only to Preferred Reader members were extended to all Waldenbooks customers effective October 5, 2004.
Preferred Reader members received a mailing in late October announcing the end of the Preferred Reader program. The mailing also announced a new program that would begin in early 2005 that will replace the Preferred Reader program.
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