B. Dalton

Bruce Dayton, a member of the family that operated Dayton's, a department store chain based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded the B. Dalton chain in 1966. He named the bookstore chain after himself, but substituted an L for the Y in his surname. B. Dalton expanded throughout the 1960s and 1970s, going from twelve stores in 1968 to 125 five years later, peaking at 798 locations in 1986. A flagship store opened in Manhattan in December 1978, Under Barnes & Noble's ownership, B. Dalton acquired Scribner Book Stores, Inc. from Rizzoli International Bookstores in 1989, and began a video game store called Software, Etc. (now GameStop). except for the stores at Union Station in Washington, D.C., and Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, New York. The Roosevelt Field Mall location closed in January 2012 and the Union Station location closed at the end of February 2013. In February 2022, Barnes & Noble rebranded its Oviedo Mall location as B. Dalton, reviving the brand. ==Format==

Initially, B. Dalton targeted middle-class suburban customers, with stores that featured parquet flooring and wide aisles. Later the store switched to a mass-market approach, allowing for a wider range of titles. B. Dalton was also one of the first chains to display hardcover and paperback books side by side. B. Dalton was also a sponsor of the PBS TV series Reading Rainbow from 1985 to 1987. ==Software Etc.==

In 1985, B. Dalton opened the first Software Etc., which sold computer books, magazines, and software products. In 1996, NeoStar Retail Group Inc., then owner of Software Etc. and Babbage's, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and put the two chains up for sale. By November, NeoStar had failed to find a buyer and announced that all 707 stores owned by the company would close in the next year. By November 26, the plan to close the stores was halted, as NeoStar's assets were sold to an investor group led by retailer Leonard Riggio. In 1999, the newly formed Babbage's Etc. launched the GameStop chain and was sold to Barnes & Noble. The sale reunited the Software Etc. chain with its original parent company, B. Dalton. Barnes & Noble purchased Funco, Inc. in 2000 and merged Babbage's Etc. to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Funco. Funco changed its name to GameStop, Inc. and became independent from Barnes & Noble by 2004. Since then, GameStop has phased out the Software Etc. name from its stores. ==References==