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 Robert Haft sitting on large stacks of books with the caption "Books Cost Too Much, That's Why I Opened Crown Books.")At the beginning, Crown Books day to day operations were managed by Jose Gonzales (Vice President of Operations) and Jeanne Herrick (Vice President of Merchandising) Once the decision was made to expand into other areas the dynamic of Mr. Gonzales & Ms. Herrick was replicated into the California Market with the addition of Steve Young & Miriam Bass. Later Crown made the decision to enter the Chicago Market and that entry was managed by Richard Lowe & Rhonda Branch.
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 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. While Classic Crown Books stores, which afforded customers between 2,000 and 3,000 square feet (280 m2) of book selection, had been the backbone of the company since its founding in 1977, they were gradually phased out in favor of the larger, more competitive, superstore format adopted by the company in 1990. Stocking up to 80,000 titles--10 times the number carried in Classic Crown stores--Super Crown Books locations supplement the Classic Crown holdings with a large line of greeting cards, games, computer software, and an assortment of gift items. Each superstore provided between 12,000 and 35,000 square feet (3,300 m2) of retail space. 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. With the advent of its Super Crown Books locations, as well as the boom in sales volume of competitors like Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Books-a-Million, the company reevaluated its Classic Crown locations and determined that several of the smaller stores would become increasingly unprofitable as the trend toward larger bookstores continued. In 1993, under the guidance of Glenn E. Hemmerle, president and CEO of the company from October 1992 through June 1994, Crown prepared the financial groundwork for closing several of its smaller stores.
