Booklein Book Store in Summit Mall
Akron, Ohio - circa 1970s
Booklein Reading Center book store, in Summit Mall during the 1970s. I like the design here. Very Earthy and rustic looking. Makes me think of Pier 1 Imports. And Summit Mall is one I haven't blogged yet, btw, so it's a new one to add to the archive.
Anyway, I've never heard of Booklein stores. Anyone know if they're still around (I do see a few passing mentions online)? Here's the postcard caption:
"When you are in Akron, Ohio stay at the beautiful Hilton Inn West, 3180 West Market Street, and for your reading pleasure visit BOOKLEIN READING CENTER across the street in the center of Summit Mall."Mall history: 1965 - present
Developer: Edward J. DeBartolo, Sr. (DeBartolo Corporation)
Current website: here
Current aerial view
Info from Wikipedia
Previous entries: none
posted by Keith @ 11/02/2006
15 Comments:
What happened to bookstores in the mall? I used to work at a B Dalton. We were always busy. Now, there isn't a bookstore in the mall at all. Is Barnes & Noble that popular? Maybe it's moved online.
Scott
I don't think in-mall bookstores are dead yet. Many malls have a Borders or Barnes & Noble in them, and I'm still seeing plenty of Waldenbooks/Borders Express locations. My local mall, Alpena Mall, has hung onto its tiny Waldenbooks (read: size of a GNC) since day one, and that store seems to be doing well. Granted, it's the only bookstore within ~50 miles...
That's a great store. Never heard of Booklein before.
You still see Waldenbooks and B. Dalton (substantially more of the former than the latter) but usually in malls or markets too small for Borders or Barnes & Noble.
Most books at Walden, Borders, B&N, etc are way overpriced in my opinion. Usually I buy them used rather than new. This could be a factor of the demise of bookstores in malls.
With that said, I can just smell the pulp fiction in this joint and I echo Cora's sentiment about wanting to be able to browse.
As an American who complains about the prices of books I didn't used to. I was actually content once upon a time with prices at Waldenbooks and the like. In those days I just couldn't wait to buy any book no matter the price. Then I discovered the thrift store and well, I never went back to paying full price for a book especially when there are always outlets that are cheaper. I have saved lots of money and that is why I bitch about the prices everytime I set foot in Borders.
Also I work in a library and I have a friend that repairs torn parts of some of our collection and if only some people saw how cheaply made some of these books are you would see immediately that they are not worth the value charged. At least that's the way she and I see it.
Its nice to see a close-up of an old store. Anybody heard of an old mall novelty store that was in the florida malls called "Barefoot Mailman", it was like Spencers Gifts but much better and much bigger.
I miss the days when it seemed like every mall in Toledo had at least a B. Dalton or Waldenbooks in them. Nowadays we just have a Borders inside Westfield Franklin Park and that's it. There used to be the one I LOVED going to before Borders bought them out, "Thackeray's", that existed at the currently-redeveloped Westgate Shopping Center. It was the only place I could go to in ordering a paritcular book without feeling too much a geek doing so. :-)
I think they were local to the Akron area. From stuff I've seen, I *think* they ran some stores in local malls (like Rolling Acres and Summit) and I believe they ran a bookstore near the University of Akron. I'm not 100% on it. For instance, the Booklein name turns up with the same phone number as Churchhill News & Tobacco, another book/magazine spot at Rolling Acres.
My father had a store in Summit Mall when I was a kid in the late seventies("Helter Skelter"... a headshop, believe it or not). I spent a LOT of time hanging out in that little kiosk reading magazines and comic books while he worked and I ran all over the mall all day in the summer. It was much more of a newsstand than a bookstore. They did have a much larger storefront location on Exchange Street near Akron U. I bought the first Kiss comic book there.
Booklein was an amalgamation of the words Book and Klein, from the George R. Klein News Company, Cleveland's largest newspaper and magazine distributor. Locations included the Arcade on Euclid Ave in Cleveland, Summit Mall in Fairlawn, Randall Park in North Randall, and the Halle building on Euclid Ave as well. It offered periodicals and special-run paperback glossy books only, with legit news up front and adult selections in the back.
Booklein in Randal Mall was apparently different than the ones described by Scott above. When I was a kid we used to go to the Booklein at Randall Mall and head straight for the back of the store where the "special interest" magazines were. We'd pretend to be going for sports 'zines so that we could walk past the adult rack in the middle of the store on our way (hoping to catch a glimpse of side-bewb or something on the way). That was a great store... all I remember is more magazines than I ever knew existed and wondering what happened to all the unsold copies.
There's still a Booklein in the Halle Building. Seems to mostly sell drinks and snacks. Not much of a newsstand (what is anymore?).
That Summit Mall Booklein was around until the late 80s, in the center of the mall. It was cleared out during a re-design, never to return. The Randal Park Booklein, which wasn't a stand-alone store, just a typical one along a side hall, lasted until the late 90s.
During its Seventies heyday, the Summit Mall Booklein it carried magazines, paperbacks and newspapers. No comic books, which was a major flaw, as far as I was concerned, but a few comic magazines like the Warren books (Creepy, Vampirella, etc) and Heavy Metal. In fact, I bought #1 of the latter there. It was where I picked up my National Lampoon every month, too. It had a nice selection of sci-fi paperbacks and lots of cheesy romance. And a rack of classier porn like Playboy and Oui.
The Randall Park Mall store was famous for it huge selection of porn magazines. Nothing creepier than a bunch of old men looking at spank magazines. I remember they had a sign that said 15 minute time limit for browsing. And they had a black lady working there that would let you know when your time was up!
My sister and i would take the metro bus from st v to mall and wait for our mom to get us from bath. Whoever was working at helter skelter was always very nice and we would always chat em up and laugh at the crazy stiff there...good memories
Sandusky Mall had a Booklein. Tobacco and pipes and lots of adult magazines. They closed in the early 1980s
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