B. Dalton Booksellers

[Hudsons81]

I'm surprised we don't have a thread on this chain yet.

Here's a listing from the 1985-86 edition of the Michigan Bell Downriver Yellow Pages. Picture courtesy of the Downriver Things Flickr page.

[JoshAustin610]

B. Dalton also had their spinoff chain, Software Etc. (named after the section of books at the back of the store); they later merged with Babbages in 1994, but then were bought back by B. Dalton in 1996 (at that point owned by Barnes & Noble).  In 2004 they were spun off into their own company, Gamestop; the chains continued to honor each other's employee discounts until 2010.

[ynkeesfn82]

We had a B. Dalton at my local Westfield Meriden Square Mall in Meriden, CT. It was on the 2nd floor near the Food Court. Then B. Dalton converted it to a new concept store called Ink which specialized in Magazines and Newspapers. Meriden was one of the first locations of Ink and they were planning on rolling out more stores nationwide if the initial four locations including Meriden were successful.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

B. Dalton was founded by the same people as Dayton's Department Stores. The bookstore was supposed to be called "B. Dayton" Boookseller.