Books-A-Million, Inc., is the second-largest book retailer in the nation, operating more than 200 stores in 32 states and online at Booksamillion.com. The company also owns 2nd & Charles, a fast-growing new and used bookstore and pop culture purveyor with more than 40 stores in 18 states and counting. Headquartered in Birmingham, AL, Books-A-Million maintains strong roots in Florence, AL, where it began as a street-corner newsstand in 1917 and still operates its wholesale and distribution subsidiary, American Wholesale Book Company.
WH Smith (also known as WHS or colloquially as Smith's, and formerly W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery. The company was formed by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in 1792 as a news vendor in London. It remained under the ownership of the Smith family for many years and saw large-scale expansion during the 1970s as the company began to diversify into other markets. Following a rejected private equity takeover in 2004, the company began to focus on its core retail business. It was the first retail chain in the world, and was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book identifier. WH Smith is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. It celebrated its 225th anniversary in 2017.