Books-A-Million Inc. or BAM! was founed in 1917 as a street corner newsstand in Florence, Alabama. Books-A-Million has become the third largest book retailer in the United States (after #1 Barnes & Noble and #2 Borders Books). Its corporate office is located in Birmingham, Alabama, which operate over 200 stores located in the Midwest, the Southeast, and the District of Columbia, with about 4,900 employees as of 2005.