Books-A-Million returning to Aiken

Dede Biles, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·2 min read

Apr. 29—Books-A-Million is returning to Aiken.

According to a banner in front of the Kalmia Plaza on Richland Avenue West, the store is "coming soon" to the shopping center.

Books-A-Million's location will be between Roses and Hibbett Sports.

The retail space for the bookstore is being renovated.

Based on a comment posted recently on the Books-A-Million (Aiken, S.C.) Facebook page, the new Kalmia Plaza shop will open "around the first weekend in June."

The Books-A-Million in the Aiken Mall closed last July.

A Books-A-Million corporate email sent to the store's customers in June stated the following: "We're in the process of securing a new location nearby and can't wait to return to the area better than ever!"

The closure and plan for the future also were announced in June on social media.

Since then, a large portion of the Aiken Mall, including the section where Books-A-Million was located, has been demolished because of plans for a major redevelopment project on the site.

Belk is the only mall business that is still open.

Books-A-Million is a bookstore chain. It began in 1917 as a newsstand in Florence, Alabama.

Clyde W. Anderson was the founder.

Charles C. Anderson inherited the business in 1950 and expanded it into a chain of stores operated by a company known as Bookland.

In 1992, the name was changed to Books-A-Million.

Based in Birmingham, Alabama, Books-A-Million Inc. "currently operates more than 260 stores in 32 states and the District of Columbia," according to booksamillion.com.

The corporation also has a book wholesale and distribution subsidiary, American Wholesale Book Company; an e-commerce division, and an internet development and services company.

For more information, about Books-A-Million locally, visit facebook.com/BAMAiken.