Thirty-two years ago this month, the Exchange took over operation of the Pacific Stars & Stripes bookstores on Okinawa and Guam, renaming the stores BookMark. Thus began an Exchange bookstore chain.
The initial stores didn’t differ much from the Stars & Stripes version—except for the discounts. Some books were discounted as much as 70%.
“Until the last days of the Pacific Stars and Stripes bookstores on Okinawa, such sales were unheard of,” David Allen, the Stripes Okinawa bureau chief, wrote in the September 1994 Exchange Post.
Allen noted the similar inventory: Racks of paperback books, “an assortment of magazines guaranteed to satisfy most narrow interests,” Pacific Rim travel guides, language tapes and children’s books.
Bookstore Manager Ron Riseman had worked for the E.C. Corp., the contractor for Pacific Stars and Stripes, before the May 1 change. He said the first couple of months of the transition in operators were a little rough.
“[We started] with little inventory and got beat up bad by the customers,” Riseman said. “They expected AAFES to be as good as Pacific Stars and Stripes or better and we just didn’t have the merchandise. We only had two months to take over and open six bookstores.”
But Riseman’s team eventually won over the customers with services that Stars & Stripes hadn’t offered.
“I knew what the bookstores were before and worked hard to change things,” he said. “Our magazines are now fresher, flown in weekly, and cover a broader range of interests. We’ve started a section on computer [books and magazines] that fills a void, and we are automated and linked with the states by email, which enables us to special order, something we did not offer at E.C. Corp.”
Riseman also added a paperback bestseller section and increased the number of cooking and crafts titles. The Exchange allowed credit-card purchases; Stars & Stripes only took cash or checks.
Congress had issued a mandate for the Stars & Stripes stores in the Pacific and in Europe to be turned over to the Exchange or the Navy by Oct. 1. The Okinawa stores changed hands earlier because the E.C. Corp. contract expired May 1, and the decision was made to hand over the stores to the exchanges rather than find a short-term contractor.
When the Oct. 1 deadline happened, BookMarks started opening in Europe as well as in Pacific. The first one opened at the Wuerzburg Exchange, which didn’t have the initial inventory problems that the Okinawa stores had. Customers were immediately impressed with the current magazines and the discounts on paperbacks.
In November 1998, a Mega Bookmark opened at the Heidelberg Exchange. Along with a much larger inventory, it featured a Vescovi coffee shop offering German baked desserts as well as a coffee, espresso and cappuccino. Other “Mega” locations followed.
BookMarks held multiple events for military children, especially when Harry Potter books were published. For example, when “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was released in 2005, the Wiesbaden BookMark remained open until midnight for customers awaiting the release. The first three Harry Potter movies were shown on a big-screen TV; cake, popcorn and beverages (including slime punch) were served. At 12:01 a.m., a truck carrying the books opened (complete with smoke and light show), the books rolled out on a conveyor belt and more than 150 books were sold in the first half-hour.
It’s unclear when the last BookMark closed, but the last mention of BookMarks in the Exchange Post archives is a customer comment in the March 2011 issue. For some perspective, 2011 was also the year that civilian bookstore giant Borders closed its last store.
Although the Exchange no longer has a bookstore chain, some Exchanges still offer a selection of books and even host authors’ book-signing events.
Sources: Exchange Post archives, HistoryOfInformation.com
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