Profile Facts: Crown Books

Crown Books,

Crown Books was a bookseller based in Largo, Maryland. It was founded in the Washington, D.C., metro area by Robert Haft in 1977. Crown Books (retail) is of no relation to Crown Books (publisher), although the former carried inventory from the latter.

Founding and Growth

Crown Books was founded in the Washington, D.C., metro area in 1977 by Robert Haft with money borrowed from his father, D.C. businessman Herbert Haft. The chain was organized under the umbrella of the Dart Group (not related to the current UK-based Dart Group), which also included Trak Auto, Shoppers Food Warehouse, Total Beverage, Dart Drug, and Combined Properties. Known for low prices, the chain gained fame in the 1980s and early 1990s for its clever advertising campaigns (such as "With the money you saved at Crown Books you can buy your own espresso machine").

Crown Books grew rapidly, from its single store in 1977 (coincidentally the same year the Borders brothers founded Borders Books and Music, and a year before Len Riggio purchased failing New York bookstore Barnes & Noble) to a vast regional chain of 196 stores at its height in 1993, close on the heels of Borders and poised to become the nation's second-largest book chain. Robert Haft showed great foresight in planning Crown Software in 1986, but his side projects made him late to the superstore scene which competitors Barnes & Noble and Borders had begun.

In 1993, the company was the third largest book chain in the United States, after Barnes & Noble and Borders, and had stores in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle and Portland.

A bitter divorce between Herbert Haft and his wife tore the family apart, and pitted Crown Books founder Robert Haft against his father. When Herbert tried to replace Robert as the head of Crown Books, the situation exploded and their back-and-forth exploits regularly made the front page of the Washington Post over the months between the fall of 1993 and the summer of 1994, becoming a regional media sensation. In October 1994, Robert was awarded $34 million and vindication in his wrongful termination suit against his father.

Bankruptcy

With the dissolution of the Dart Group in 1994, Crown was unable to find a buyer, and was forced into bankruptcy. With former Radio Shack CEO Steve Stevens replacing Robert Haft in the CEO seat, the chain closed over half of its 196 stores and pulled out of Houston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Portland, and Sacramento markets. It reorganized with help from Ingram Book Group, which provided jobbering services to the crippled giant.

Crown emerged briefly from bankruptcy in 1997 only to fall back into it in 1998 under leadership of CEO Anna Currence, strangled by lack of financing and stores too small to compete with the superstores of the competition (of the 56 remaining Crown Books stores after the first bankruptcy, only one had a drink bar, an ominous sign of Crown's out-of-touch management in the book retail marketplace). Crown emerged briefly from the second bankruptcy in spring 2000 with former Waldenbooks CEO Charlie Cumello in the CEO seat, financed by private funding. In fall 2000, the company's debt was purchased by Wells Fargo, which hounded the reemerging brand with collection fees until it eventually broke. In February 2001, Crown Books filed for liquidation, and in April 2001, ten of the D.C.-area stores and eight Chicago stores were purchased by Books-A-Million for pennies on the dollar. The liquidation of the remaining Crown Books stores was completed by July 2001, when the former Palo Alto, California, flagship store was shuttered.

[edit]The aftermath

After Crown Books' bankruptcy in 2001, Andy Weiss, owner of a private bookseller called A&S Booksellers, bought the Crown Books name and trademark and applied the name to most of his stores. In 2007, Ward Albright purchased the right to share the name with Weiss and opened more bookstores under the Crown Books name. The present Crown Books chain buys remaindered books and overstock in bulk from publishers at large discounts and passes the discounts to customers.

Books-A-Million closed one of the DC-area former Crown stores shortly after purchase, but remodeled the remaining 17 stores in 2001 and 2002, and hired on many of the former Crown Books staff. After Crown Books, Anna Currence became an executive recruiter with Sarasota, Florida-based Brooke Chase Associates Inc. Crown CIO Susan Harwood stayed with Books-A-Million until 2007, when she joined Borders Books and Music as CIO. Crown Books area manager Rich Ball briefly assisted the Books-A-Million changeover, then founded book wholesaler The Page's Edge in Springfield, Virginia.

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