B. Dalton Bookseller was an American bookstore chain started in 1966 by Bruce Dayton, who was part of the same family that owned the Dayton's department store chain. B. Dalton grew to become the largest seller of hardcover books in the United States, with 779 stores at its highest point. Most of its stores were located in indoor shopping malls, and it mainly competed with Waldenbooks. In 1987, Barnes & Noble bought the chain from Dayton's and ran it until late 2009, when it was announced that the last 50 stores would close by January 2010. In 2022, B. Dalton was brought back by changing the name of a Barnes & Noble store.
History
Bruce Dayton, a member of the family that owned Dayton's, a department store chain in Minneapolis, Minnesota, started the B. Dalton bookstore chain in 1966. He used his name for the chain but changed the "Y" in his surname to an "L." The name B. Dalton was chosen because it meant quality, reliability, and trustworthiness.
The first B. Dalton store opened in Edina, Minnesota, in August 1966. A second store opened in St. Louis, Missouri, later that year. While the chain was originally planned for downtown and suburban areas, most stores were later built inside shopping malls. In 1969, Dayton's merged with Hudson's, a store in Detroit, to form Dayton Hudson Corporation, which is now known as Target Corporation.
B. Dalton grew quickly during the 1960s and 1970s. It had 12 stores in 1968 and 125 stores five years later. By 1986, the chain had 798 locations. In 1968, B. Dalton bought Pickwick Books, and the two companies merged in 1979. By 1978, B. Dalton had stores in 43 of the 50 U.S. states. It had more stores than Waldenbooks, which was the largest bookstore chain in the United States at that time, but B. Dalton earned more money. A main store opened in Manhattan in December 1978. Between 1983 and 1986, B. Dalton used the Pickwick name again for discount bookstores.
By 1986, B. Dalton's profits had dropped because of competition from other bookstores and fewer new shopping malls. Because of this, Dayton Hudson Corporation sold B. Dalton to Barnes & Noble. Under Barnes & Noble, B. Dalton bought Scribner Book Stores, Inc. from Rizzoli International Bookstores in 1989. It also started a video game store called Software, Etc., which is now known as GameStop. At the same time, B. Dalton closed many stores and moved others, while trying new store designs. By 1997, the chain had 528 stores and continued to close more stores over the next decade.
In January 2010, Barnes & Noble closed the last 50 B. Dalton stores, except for two: one at Union Station in Washington, D.C., and another at Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, New York. The Roosevelt Field Mall store closed in January 2012, and the Union Station store closed in February 2013.
In February 2022, Barnes & Noble changed the name of its Oviedo Mall store back to B. Dalton, bringing the brand back into use.
Format
At first, B. Dalton focused on selling books to families in suburban areas, with stores that had parquet flooring and wide aisles. Later, the store changed its strategy to sell a larger variety of books. B. Dalton was also one of the first stores to place hardcover and paperback books next to each other on shelves. From 1985 to 1987, B. Dalton supported the PBS TV show Reading Rainbow.
Software Etc.
In 1985, B. Dalton opened the first Software Etc. store, which sold computer books, magazines, and software. Software Etc. started in B. Dalton bookstores but became separate in 1987 and focused on operating its own stores. In 1994, Software Etc. merged with another company called Babbage's. In 1996, NeoStar Retail Group Inc., which owned both Software Etc. and Babbage's, filed for bankruptcy and put the two companies up for sale. By November, NeoStar had not found a buyer and announced that all 707 of its stores would close the following year. However, by November 26, the plan to close the stores was stopped when NeoStar's assets were sold to a group of investors led by Leonard Riggio. In 1999, the new company Babbage's Etc. started the GameStop chain and later sold it to Barnes & Noble. This sale reunited the Software Etc. chain with its original parent company, B. Dalton. In 2000, Barnes & Noble bought Funco, Inc. and combined Babbage's Etc. into a fully owned part of Funco. Funco changed its name to GameStop, Inc. and became independent from Barnes & Noble in 2004. Since then, GameStop has removed the Software Etc. name from its stores.