This is a list of bookstore chains with brick-and-mortar locations.
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.
The following chains no longer operate any physical retail locations.
| Name | Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Angus & Robertson |  Australia | Closed physical stores in 2011. |
| Borders | Australia | defunct |
| The Co-op Bookshop | Australia | defunct [8] |
| Jongno Seojeok |  South Korea | bankrupt, and name changed to Bandi & Luni's when re-opened |
| Borders UK |  United Kingdom | defunct in December 2009 |
| Dillons the Bookstore | United Kingdom | all stores were rebranded as Waterstones in 1999 |
| Ottakar's | United Kingdom | bought out by HMV, rebranded as Waterstones in 2006 |
| Amazon Books |  United States | physical stores closed in 2022 |
| Borders Books and Music | United States | defunct 2011 |
| Cokesbury | United States | physical stores closed in 2012; continued as online retailer |
| Brentano's | United States | acquired by Waldenbooks and merged with Borders; defunct 2011 |
| Crown Books | United States | defunct 2001 |
| Encore Books | United States | defunct 1999 |
| Family Christian Stores | United States | physical stores closed in 2017; online retailer since 2019 |
| Hastings Entertainment | United States | defunct 2016 |
| Kroch's and Brentano's | United States | Chicago regional chain; defunct 1995 |
| LifeWay Christian Resources | United States | physical stores closed 2019; continued as online retailer |
| Media Play | United States | defunct 2006 |
| Waldenbooks | United States | acquired by Kmart and merged with Borders; defunct 2011 |
Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across all 50 U.S. states.
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 the number of titles on display. It was bought by Waterstones in 2018.
Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as 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.
The American Booksellers Association (ABA) is a non-profit trade association founded in 1900 that promotes independent bookstores in the United States. ABA's core members are key participants in their communities' local economy and culture, and to assist them ABA creates relevant programs; provides education, information, business products, and services; and engages in public policy and industry advocacy. The Association actively supports and defends free speech and the First Amendment rights of all Americans, without contradiction of equity and inclusion, through the American Booksellers for Free Expression. A volunteer board of 13 booksellers governs the Association. Previously headquartered in White Plains, New York, ABA became a fully remote organization in 2024.
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.
Bookstore tourism is a type of cultural tourism that promotes independent bookstores as a group travel destination. It started as a grassroots effort to support locally owned and operated bookshops, many of which have struggled to compete with large bookstore chains and online retailers.
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 corporations which often have divisions in other lines besides bookselling. Specialty stores such as comic book shops tend to be independent.
Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process.
Dymocks Booksellers is an Australian-founded privately owned bookstore chain, that also specialise in CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, e-books and related merchandising. As of June 2022, the chain has about 50 stores in Australia.
Kepler's Books and Magazines is an independent bookstore in Menlo Park, California. It was founded on May 14, 1955 by Roy Kepler, a peace activist who had endured multiple internments as a conscientious objector during World War II. Kepler previously had worked as a staff member of radio station KPFA, listener-supported and based in Berkeley. The bookstore "soon blossomed into a cultural epicenter and attracted loyal customers from the students and faculty of Stanford University and from other members of the surrounding communities who were interested in serious books and ideas."
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.
Eslite Bookstore is one of the largest retail bookstore chains in Taiwan. It also offers one of the largest selections of English-language publications and translation materials in Taiwan.
Cody's Books (1956–2008) was an independent bookstore based in Berkeley, California. It "was a pioneer in bookselling, bringing the paperback revolution to Berkeley, fighting censorship, and providing a safe harbor from tear gas directed at anti-Vietnam War protesters throughout the 1960s and 1970s."
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.
Collins Booksellers Pty Ltd is an Australian book store chain founded in 1922 by Frederick Henry Slamen. The name Collins is from the original location of the first store, 622 Collins Street, Melbourne.
St. Mark's Bookshop was an independent book store, established in 1977 in New York City's East Village neighborhood. It was the oldest independent bookstore in Manhattan owned by its original owners. The shop, run by proprietors Bob Contant and Terry McCoy, specialized in cultural and critical theory, graphic design, poetry, small presses, and film studies—what the New York Times called "neighborhood-appropriate literature". It featured a curated selection of fiction, periodicals and journals, including foreign titles, and included unusual-for-bookstores sections on belles-lettres, anarchists, art criticism, women's studies, music, drama, and drugs.
The book trade in the United Kingdom has its roots as far back as the 14th century, however the emergence of internet booksellers such as Amazon partnered with the introduction of the e-Book has drastically altered the scope of the industry. Book retailers such as the Borders Group have failed to adjust to these changes, thus there has been a steep decline in the number of operating traditional and independent bookshops. However, still heavily influential on the trade globally, British publishers such as Penguin Books and Pearson remain dominant players within the industry and continue to publish titles globally.
Booktopia Group Ltd is an Australian online bookseller founded in 2004 in Sydney. The company also owns Angus & Robertson, a major Australian online bookseller, publisher, and printer. In July 2024, the company was placed in voluntary administration, before being bought in August 2024 by digiDirect.
The Academic Bookstore is a Finnish chain of bookstores. It has both physical outlets as well as an online presence.
Bookshop.org is an online book marketplace launched in January 2020. Its stated mission is "to financially support local, independent bookstores."
