National Bookseller Chooses Oklahoma for Expansion; Grand Opening to Benefit Keep Oklahoma Beautiful
Half Price Books Drawn to City's Community, Growth Opportunities
Oklahoma City, Okla. (May 20, 2009)— Half Price Books, the nation's largest new and used bookstore chain, has chosen Oklahoma City for its next expansion move, with the first store scheduled to open in the Country Club Corner Shopping Center located at 6500 N. May Rd. at N.W. 63 St. at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 21. Representatives from Keep Oklahoma Beautiful will hand out free tote bags to the first 100 customers entering the store to help raise awareness about declining single-use bags, and the organization will receive 10 percent of the opening day's proceeds. Additionally, Half Price Books will extend its B(eco)me Bagless campaign into the area, donating 10 cents to Keep Oklahoma Beautiful for every reusable tote bag it sells.
Half Price Books kicked off its community outreach in the area on May 9, partnering with Oklahoma City-based Feed the Children to distribute 50,000 books to teachers from area schools for their school libraries.
“Working to improve the communities we serve is an important part of our company's mission statement and we strive to achieve this goal with each store we open,” said Kathy Doyle Thomas, executive vice president of Half Price Books. “We are honored to help Keep Oklahoma Beautiful make a difference in the Oklahoma City community's environment.”
The family-owned new and used bookseller sticks closely to the philosophy that “books should fill our lives, not our land,” a mantra that founders Pat Anderson and Ken Gjemre established with their first store in 1972. Beginning with a little more than 2,000 books from their personal libraries in a converted laundromat, Anderson and Gjemre grew Half Price Books into a major competitor in the book selling industry. Today, Anderson's daughter, Sharon Anderson Wright is CEO of the company, and still adheres to her mother's way of doing things. Through the years, more than 20 million books have been recycled through Half Price Books, saving approximately 650,000 trees in the process.
Books available in the store range from publishers' overstock to antique treasures that local patrons sell to the in-store buyer. “Our stores are unique in that we offer a different inventory than other major retail bookstores,” said Thomas. “There will be something different every time you come in, and since the public can sell their books directly to us, many items simply aren't available in other bookstores.”
Though Half Price Books is the nation's largest new and used bookstore chain, it strays away from the usual corporate objectives. “Our personality and our stock allow us to coexist with the local independent stores as well as larger book retailers,” Thomas said. “Our bottom line is to make reading fun and affordable, and we readily refer patrons to other stores if we don't have what they're looking for.”
The new store is the national bookseller's 105th location, and more stores are planned for the Oklahoma City area. The store will occupy nearly 10,000 square feet of space and will employee a staff of about 15. The new store hours are Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
About Half Price Books
Half Price Books is the largest family-owned new and used bookstore chain with more than 100 retail locations in 16 states. Stores are open seven days a week and buy and sell new and used books, magazines, comics, records, CDs, DVDs and collectible items. Half Price Books has been dedicated to environmental and literacy efforts for 36 years and supports hundreds of local, national and international programs. Each year the company sponsors the Half Pint Library Book Drive at each of its stores, donating thousands of books to hospitals and clinics throughout the United States. Half Price Books is a founding contributor to Laura Bush's National Book Festival, a continuing supporter of the National Center for Family Literacy, and the founder of the environmental website BecomeGreen.org. For more information about Half Price Books, its store locations and corporate initiatives, please visit www.halfpricebooks.com.