Half Price Books was founded in 1972 by Pat Anderson and Ken Gjemre, in Dallas, Texas. The original store was a remodeled Laundromat where the pair put 2,000 of their own books on sale and advertised that the company was buying and selling books. After buying thousands of books, records, and magazines, the company expanded their location.
Today, the company has more than 120 locations and outlet stores in 16 states. Half Price Books is the largest family owned chain of bookstores in the U.S. Pat Anderson’s daughter is current CEO. The company is well-known for donating millions of books to non-profit organizations such as American Red Cross and Feed the Children.
Half Price Books also owns their own printing company, Hackberry Press, which reprints non-copyrighted titles or English language translations of books from other publishers.
