List of bookstore chains

Last updated

This is a list of bookstore chains with brick-and-mortar locations.

Contents

In the United Kingdom and many parts of the English speaking world, they are known as "Bookshops" and "newsagents".

In American English, they are called "bookstores", or sometimes "newsstands", as they also usually carry newspapers and magazines. This list includes both current and defunct businesses, and also includes large independent bookstores that have multiple locations, but that use a different business model than most business chains.

Australia

Brazil

Canada

China

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Iceland

India

Indonesia

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japan

Korea, South

Latvia

Malaysia

Mexico

Netherlands

New Zealand

Pakistan

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Saudi Arabia

Singapore

South Africa

Switzerland

Taiwan

Thailand

United Kingdom

United States

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigo Books and Music</span> Canadian book and gift retailer

Indigo Books & Music Inc., known as "Indigo" and stylized "!ndigo", is Canada's only major English-language bookstore chain. It is Canada's largest book, gift, and specialty toy retailer, operating stores in all ten provinces and one territory, and through a website offering a selection of books, toys, home décor, stationery, and gifts. Most Chapters and Indigo stores include a Starbucks café inside. As of 2022, Indigo has started selling music, and select audio equipment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borders Group</span> Defunct American corporation

Borders Group, Inc. was an American multinational book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. In its final year, the company employed about 19,500 people throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders and Waldenbooks stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WHSmith</span> British retailer

WH Smith PLC, trading as WHSmith, is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foyles</span> English bookstore chain

W & G Foyle Ltd. is a bookseller with a chain of seven stores in England. It is best known for its flagship store in Charing Cross Road, London. Foyles was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest bookshop in terms of shelf length, at 30 miles (48 km), and of number of titles on display. It was bought by Waterstones in 2018.

Waterstones is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Waterstones shop sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tattered Cover</span> Independent bookstore chain in Colorado, United States

Tattered Cover is a bookstore chain in Denver, Colorado. It is one of the largest independent bookstores in the United States. Tattered Cover is open seven days a week at all branches, hosts prominent book signings, and is known for its customer service. Together, the stores maintain an inventory of over half a million books. Its LoDo store houses an events space that can seat over 250 persons, while its East Colfax store can seat around 100.

Waldenbooks, operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain, from 1995 as 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 educational toy chain under Walden Kids. In 2011, the chain was liquidated in bankruptcy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottakar's</span>

Ottakar's was a chain of bookshops in the United Kingdom founded in 1987 by James Heneage. Following a takeover by the HMV Group in 2006, the chain was merged into the Waterstone's brand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Independent bookstore</span> Retail bookstore which is independently owned

An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store. They may be structured as sole proprietorships, closely held corporations or partnerships, cooperatives, or nonprofits. Independent stores can be contrasted with chain bookstores, which have many locations and are owned by large corporations, which often have other divisions besides bookselling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bookselling</span> Business of selling and dealing with books

Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brentano's</span> American bookstore chain

Brentano's was an American bookstore chain with numerous locations in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dillons the Bookstore</span>

Dillons was a British bookseller founded in 1936, named after its founder and owner Una Dillon. Originally based in Bloomsbury in London, the company expanded under subsequent owners Pentos in the 1980s into a bookselling chain across the United Kingdom. In 1995 Pentos went into receivership and sold Dillons to Thorn EMI, which immediately closed 40 of the 140 Dillons bookstore locations. Of the remaining 100 stores, most kept the name Dillons, while the remainder were Hatchards and Hodges Figgis. Within Thorn EMI, Dillons was placed in the HMV Group, which had been a division of Thorn EMI since 1986. EMI demerged from Thorn in August 1996, and Dillons-HMV remained an EMI holding. Dillons was subsumed under rival chain Waterstones' branding in 1999, at which point the brand ceased to exist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hodges Figgis</span> Bookshop in Dublin, Ireland

Hodges Figgis is a long-operating bookshop in central Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1768, it is probably the third-oldest functioning bookshop in the world, after the Livraria Bertrand of Lisbon (1732) and Pennsylvania's Moravian Book Shop (1745). It was moved and expanded numerous times, and arrived at 56 Dawson Street in 1979, and gradually expanded to take its current form of four floors at 56-58 Dawson Street in 1992. It is mentioned in James Joyce's modernist novel Ulysses, at the time of which it would have been situated at 104 Grafton Street, and the novel Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, and in other writings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kroch's and Brentano's</span> American bookstore/bookstore chain

Kroch's and Brentano's was the largest bookstore in Chicago, and at one time it was the largest privately owned bookstore chain in the United States. The store and the chain were formed in 1954 through the merger of the separate Kroch's bookstore with the former Chicago branch of the New York-based Brentano's bookstore. The chain was closed in 1995 after suffering financial losses from increased competition.

Borders (UK) Ltd., also known as Borders & Books etc., was established as a Borders Group subsidiary in 1998, and in 2007 became independent of the US parent company. At its peak after separation from the US parent, it traded from its 41 Borders and 28 BOOKS etc. shops with over one million square feet of retail space, taking around 8% of the retail bookselling market. In 2008 and 2009 the store numbers were reduced before the collapse of the chain. They also operated one single branch in Ireland, but closed this early in 2009. On 26 November 2009 it was announced that Borders (UK) had gone into administration. All stores closed on 24 December 2009.

Rakuten Kobo Inc., or simply Kobo, is a Canadian company that sells ebooks, audiobooks, e-readers and tablet computers. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is a subsidiary of the Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten. The name Kobo is an anagram of book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rahva Raamat</span> Company based in Estonia

Rahva Raamat is the largest retail and wholesale bookseller in Estonia. It has 12 bookstores and a restaurant in 8 cities and also sells to most other bookstores, supermarkets and libraries in Estonia. Rahva Raamat in Viru Keskus was the winner in London Book Fair Bookstore of the Year award in 2022

References

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  2. "The Co-op Online Bookshop | Textbook Specialist". Coop.com.au. 2016-02-07. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  3. "Rahva Raamat". rahvaraamat.ee.
  4. "Akateeminen Kirjakauppa". Akateeminen.com. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  5. "nettikirjakauppa". Suomalainen.com (in Finnish). Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  6. "ストアリスト". T-SITE SHOPPING - 蔦屋書店. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  7. "Grāmatu nams "Valters un Rapa" - grāmatu un kancelejas preču mazumtirdzniecība". Valtersunrapa.lv (in Latvian). Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  8. "Librerías Gandhi - Busca entre miles de Libros y Encuentra el Tuyo". Gandhi.com.mx. Retrieved 2016-09-25.