What is Book a Million?
Book a Million is an American bookstore chain with 260 locations in 32 states that sells books, magazines, manga, collectibles, toys, technology, and gifts in stores. Its size ranges in size from 4,000 to 30,000 square feet and its locations have “Joe Muggs” cafés, which serve coffee and espresso. Stores include Books-A-Million, Bookland, Books & Company, and 2nd & Charles.
Yogurt Mountain Holding; a frozen yoghurt retailer and franchisor with 40 locations. Preferred Growth Properties which develops and manages commercial real estate investments, is also owned by the company.
The above company owns and operates American Wholesale Book Company (AWBC).The booksamillion.com, as well as NetCentral, a Nashville-based internet development and services firm.
In December 2015, the chairman acquired the company, Clyde B. Anderson, and his family, for $21 million
History of Book a Million
Books-A-Million founed Clyde W. Anderson, 14, founded in 1917 in Florence, Alabama, as a newsstand after dropping out of school to support his family after his father died. Anderson recognised a business opportunity when workers at the nearby Wilson Dam complained about not being able to get their hometown newspapers.
Charles C. Anderson, the founder’s son, inherited the store in 1950 and turned it into a chain. In 1964, the company was incorporated as Bookland.The company had 50 stores by 1980.
Bookland purchased the Gateway Books retail chain in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1988. The company opened its first superstore format store the same year.
In 1992, the company changed its name to Books-A-Million, Inc. and went public with an IPO of 2.6 million shares at a price of $13 per share.
The company launched its website, booksamillion.com, in 1998.
Book a Million – Brief Impact
Book a Million – During the dot-com bubble, the stock price rose from $3 per share on November 25, 1998, to $38.94 on November 27, 1998, and an intra-day high of $47.00 on November 30, 1998, after the company announced an updated website. Two weeks later, the share price had dropped back to $10. The share price had returned to $3 by 2000.
Day traders were kept guessing during those days, such as when the stock rose 6 points in 13 minutes. Hundreds of thousand shares were sold by insiders during this period.
In 1999, the company bought NetCentral, the company that designed its website and launched American Wholesale Book Company, a book wholesaler and distributor.
The company paid $3 million in April 2010 for a 40% stake in Yogurt Mountain, a frozen yoghurt retailer and franchisor. Six months later, Yogurt Mountain locations opened in the company’s bookstores.
2nd & Charles, a used media trader, opened its first store in Hoover, Alabama, across from Riverchase Galleria, in September 2010. It opened its first store in North Alabama that year.
The chairman purchased the comany for $21, Clyde B. Anderson, and his family in December 2015.
Book a Million began selling self-published books in November 2016.