Half Price Books

Half Price Books, Records, Magazines, Incorporated is the largest family-owned chain of new and used bookstores in the United States. The company’s original motto, "we buy and sell anything printed or recorded except yesterday's newspaper" remains true today, and many of the used books, music and movies for sale in each location were purchased from local residents. The corporate office is located in Dallas, Texas. Half Price Books now operates more than 100 stores in 15 states.

History

Founders Ken Gjemre and Pat Anderson opened the first store in 1972 in a former laundromat in Dallas, Texas, filling the shelves with 2,000 books out of their personal libraries. The founders believed in offering great products at great prices, selling new and gently-used books, magazines music, movies, collectibles and game software at half the original price or less. Pat Anderson’s daughter, Sharon Anderson Wright, is the company’s current President and CEO.

As committed to employees as it is to profitability, Half Price Books has been generous with employee benefits from its earliest days, including abundant paid vacation, holiday and sick leave, affordable health, dental, vision and life insurance, quarterly bonuses, and a company-matched 401(k) plan.

Philanthropy

The Half Price Books original mission statement includes the promise to “promote literacy and be kind to the environment,” and the company remains loyal to the cause of literacy and education. Teachers and librarians are offered a year-round 10% discount on purchases. Each year, every Half Price Books store holds a book drive to collect new or gently used children's books, building “Half Pint Libraries” at pediatric hospitals and special-needs clinics in the communities it serves.

The company has worked continuously through the years to find innovative ways to foster the efficient use of natural resources and prevent waste, to promote recycling and reusing, and the sound management of paper, energy and water resources. In 2006, Half Price Books launched a formal environmental education initiative called “B(eco)me Green” to help spread knowledge about how each person can help impact the health of our environment through our everyday choices.

In addition, the chain donates millions of books and its overstock inventory to non-profit organizations around the world such as Feed the Children, American Red Cross, Better World Books and others.

Publishing

Half Price Books publishes some of the books it sells, inexpensively reprinting non-copyrighted titles or acquiring the U.S. or English language rights from another publisher. Half Price Books reprints these titles under its publishing arm, Hackberry Press.Among Hackberry Press titles is the Half Price Books children's storybook series "Say Good Night to Illiteracy", with 13 editions in print. All proceeds from the series benefit family literacy organizations such as Reach Out and Read and the National Center for Family Literacy.

The company is a strong proponent of the First Amendment freedom of speech and Americans’ right to knowledge and the expression of ideas. Its website “deletecensorship.org” supports imaginative and courageous books, including those that address controversial topics and have been censored or banned for capricious reasons.

Wholesale

The wholesale division of Half Price Books is Texas Bookman, also headquartered in Dallas. Texas Bookman sells trade and scholarly remainders at discount prices to wholesale buyers around the world

External links

* [http://www.halfpricebooks.com/ Half Price Books company website]
* [http://www.becomegreen.org BecomeGreen.org] - an environmental initiative by Half Price Books
* [http://www.deletecensorship.org DeleteCensorship.org] - a Banned Books Awareness message sponsored by Half Price Books
* [http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BooksBrowse?vendorclientid=4611092&page=CLIENT] - to search, by category, the ATX-North Lamar location's On-Line Rare Books and Collectibles Inventory (made available via Abebooks.com)