Bookstores
Posted: 09 Jan 2012 06:43
There're of course Barnes & Noble, Southern player Books-a-Million, and the late lamented Borders. Were there ever any other "big box" bookstore chains?
Michigan has Schuler Books, with three stores in Grand Rapids and two in Lansing. Interestingly, Lansing just lost one of its two Barnes & Noble stores... even more interestingly, one Schuler's in Lansing is a mall anchor and the other is in a lifestyle center!
There's also Horizon books, with an enormous 3-story flagship in Traverse City and smaller branches in Cadillac and Petoskey.
(As an aside, I find it odd that except for Traverse City — now a Books-a-Million — that Borders never touched the west side of its home state. Lansing, Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Muskegon — none of them ever had Borders.)
As far as the smaller ones. Besides Waldenbooks and B. Dalton, some that I know of were:
* Little Professor. I've seen these in towns of various sizes, even as small as Tawas City (where they were combined with a Hallmark and a drugstore). I can only think of one that was in a mall, though (Jackson Crossing). I thought they were defunct, but there are still a few around. http://www.littleprofessor.com/stores.html
* Bookworld. Another small-town chain throughout the midwest. I was in one in downtown Marquette and it felt like I was in an old Waldenbooks. Well, except for the humidor.
Michigan has Schuler Books, with three stores in Grand Rapids and two in Lansing. Interestingly, Lansing just lost one of its two Barnes & Noble stores... even more interestingly, one Schuler's in Lansing is a mall anchor and the other is in a lifestyle center!
There's also Horizon books, with an enormous 3-story flagship in Traverse City and smaller branches in Cadillac and Petoskey.
(As an aside, I find it odd that except for Traverse City — now a Books-a-Million — that Borders never touched the west side of its home state. Lansing, Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Muskegon — none of them ever had Borders.)
As far as the smaller ones. Besides Waldenbooks and B. Dalton, some that I know of were:
* Little Professor. I've seen these in towns of various sizes, even as small as Tawas City (where they were combined with a Hallmark and a drugstore). I can only think of one that was in a mall, though (Jackson Crossing). I thought they were defunct, but there are still a few around. http://www.littleprofessor.com/stores.html
* Bookworld. Another small-town chain throughout the midwest. I was in one in downtown Marquette and it felt like I was in an old Waldenbooks. Well, except for the humidor.