Vroman's Bookstore - Success and Expansion

Success and Expansion

In 1929, Vroman's signed a 49-year lease on property at 695 E. Colorado, moving the wholesale department out of the bookshop's crowded basement and into the leased building at its new location. By 1930, Vroman's had a mailing list of 3,000 names, classified by readers' interests. The 1930s marked a period of expansion for the Vroman’s corporation. In the space of seven years it opened a San Diego branch, moved the Pasadena retail store to larger quarters, started an office furniture department, and launched a popular series of book and author luncheons (1939). Its first program was held in February 1939 at which about 150 women (and a few men) gathered at the Pasadena Athletic Club to hear Lloyd C. Douglas speak. Subsequent luncheons included authors like James Hilton, Irving Stone, and Upton Sinclair. No book and author programs were held during World War II, but they resumed in 1949 and continue to this day.

1944 marked Vroman’s 50th anniversary, and in 1945, with the purchase of a textbook distribution company, Vroman's became the largest book dealer west of the Mississippi. As the 1950s ended, Vroman's was operating in nine different communities, with retail stores in Pasadena and San Diego, warehouses in Pasadena & San Francisco, and department store concessions in Ogden, Spokane, and the Los Angeles area. Vroman's had become a major corporate business, employing 129 people a year and grossing more than $13.5 million annually. Vroman's was also a noted pioneer among bookstores in its use of data processing equipment. By 1962, the School Book Depository was fully computerized, and by 1968 so was the Pasadena retail store, one of the earliest examples of such technological implementation.