At the age of 72, owner Carl Kroch decided to step down as president and CEO and sell the chain to his 700 employees in 1986. At the time of the transition the chain had 17 locations. Increased competition from Crown, Borders, Barnes & Noble, and other discount bookstores forced the company to close all 10 of its suburban mall locations and leaving the remaining 7 Chicago locations open in 1993. A few months later when the company was on verge of bankruptcy, Kroch bought back the company and then turned around and resold the company to Businesship International. After closing more stores, the new parent company was unable to turn the company around and was forced to file for bankruptcy in June 1995 and was liquidated. The remaining stores finally closed on July 31, 1995.