Private company
Defunct American bookstore chain
Encore Books was a regional chain of bookstores based in the eastern United States until its closure in 1999.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0
Last updated Oct 21, 2026.
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Encore Books was a regional chain of bookstores based in the eastern United States until its closure in 1999.2
Encore Books was started by David Schlessinger, who went on to found the Zany Brainy and Five Below retail chains. It enjoyed a prosperous early life and was sold to the Rite Aid Corporation, which later spun the company off.
From Wikipedia’s article on Encore Books, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3
Most Encore Books locations were small operations, similar to the B. Dalton and Waldenbooks stores popular in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the company operated two large stores, dubbed Encore Books and Music—complete with a music section, plush chairs, and a coffee shop—in Princeton, New Jersey, and Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Its two other largest stores operated in State College, Pennsylvania, and Middletown, New York. It operated a smaller, but very successful store on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
From Wikipedia’s article on Encore Books, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3
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