Half Price Books

Half Price Books, Records, Magazines, Incorporated is a chain of new and used bookstores in the United States. The company's original motto is "We buy and sell anything printed or recorded except yesterday's newspaper", and many of the used books, music, and movies for sale in each location are purchased from local residents. The corporate office is located in the flagship Northwest Highway location in Dallas, Texas. Half Price Books now operates more than 120 stores (including outlets) in 19 states.

History


Founders Ken Gjemre (1921-2002) 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. Pat Anderson's daughter, Sharon Anderson Wright, is the company's current CEO, and Kathy Doyle Thomas is President. In 2009, Sharon's sister Ellen O'Neal stepped up to the position of Chairperson of the Board to become more involved with the family business.

Minnesota
Half Price Books employees at the Roseville and Saint Paul locations in Minnesota filed for union elections in late 2021 and were soon joined by the Coon Rapids location. All three stores won their union elections on December 16, 2021, becoming the first unionized Half Price Books locations. Employees from a fourth Minnesota location in St. Louis Park won a union election on January 6, 2022. Workers from the state's unionized locations belong to local chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

On July 13, 2023, employees from the four unionized Half Price Books locations in Minnesota began a strike, citing the company's conduct throughout the contract negotiation process. UFCW officials filed an Unfair Labor Practices charge with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the striking workers.

Indiana
Half Price Books employees in Greenwood, Indiana won a union election on April 1, 2022, becoming the fifth store in the country to organize with a local United Food and Commercial Workers chapter.

Philanthropy
The Half Price Books original mission statement includes the promise to "promote literacy and be kind to the environment." Teachers and librarians, for example, 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 non-profit organizations and schools in the communities it serves.

The company has promoted recycling and reusing, and the sound management of paper, energy and water resources. In 2008, Half Price Books launched a formal environmental education initiative called "B(eco)me Green" to help spread knowledge about the health of the environment.

In addition, the chain donates millions of books and its overstock inventory to non-profit organizations around the world such as Feed the Children and American Red Cross. It also gives some of its books to Better World Books, a for-profit online bookseller.

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 project was axed in 2005.

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. In April 2020, Texas Bookman began selling directly to the public on their new retail website. In May 2022, Texas Bookman hosted its first annual trade book show, Texas Remainder Expo (TRex), in which exhibitors travel from across the US and UK to show their latest inventory available for wholesale purchasing at discounted prices.