In January, Anders Bookstore will celebrate its 50th anniversary serving Auburn University students and Auburn football fans.
The store was opened by Ronnie and Rosemary Anders in 1966. The original location of the store was in the former Lambda Chi house, which stood where Moe’s Southwest Grill and Balcony Bar are currently located.
Ronnie, who was born in Tuscaloosa, moved to Montgomery in fourth grade. After graduating, he spent two years at the University of Alabama before transferring to Huntingdon College. There he met Rosemary, whom he married soon after graduating.
“I saved him from that Alabama degree,” Rosemary said.
Ronnie worked for a short time in Savannah, Georgia, at a trucking company before coming to Auburn to operate his father’s bookstore.
“I majored in accounting, and I thought that was what I wanted to do, but the computer changed that,” Ronnie said. “The computer tied me down to a desk, and I didn’t like that.”
Ronnie’s father Troy Anders had opened an Anders Bookstore in Montgomery to service students in grades first through 12th. When the Alabama Legislature passed laws mandating that schools provide books for students, Troy decided to open a business in Auburn to sell books to college students.
“We didn’t feel like there was a lot of competition here,” Ronnie said.
In the ‘60s, the only off-campus bookstores were J&M and Burton’s.
“Burton’s was a great old bookstore,” Rosemary said. “It was like one of those original bookstores with the big ladders that went up to the books.”
Ronnie said students’ options used to be limited.
“At the time, Burton’s was still open, but they sold more marriage stuff than actual books,” Ronnie said. “J&M pretty much dominated everything.”
The Auburn University Bookstore was open then too, but it was different from today’s version.
“When we got here, the University bookstore was just a little hole in wall in the basement of Foy Union,” Ronnie said. “You went down and stood in line and gave them your schedule, and they got the books.”
The University store would prove to be a major competitor for Anders when it came to students on scholarships.
“Of course at that time, if you were on a scholarship, you had to buy books from the Auburn Bookstore, and we had a legal fight over that,” Ronnie said.
With help from other off-campus bookstores, the Anders led a legal battle to make competition more fair. The actions went straight to the Alabama Legislature, which decided universities couldn’t prevent scholarship holders from shopping at other bookstores.
“We had one dissenting vote,” Ronnie said.
Thirteen years after the bookstore first opened, the Anders decided to move the store farther down Magnolia Avenue after McDonald’s bought the property for their current location.
The new store, adjacent to McDonald’s, remains their current location. The property featured two old houses. They moved one into the country for the family to live in. The other house was torn down to make way for their new location.
“It really doubled the size of the store,” Ronnie said.
Over the years, the Anders became involved in the Auburn community. When the first baseball stadium scoreboard was built, Anders Bookstore co-sponsored the construction with Coca-Cola Co.
“That was quite an investment for Anders Bookstore at the time,” Rosemary said.
One of the most lasting imprints from Anders Bookstore on Auburn came from one of its first artists. The symbol of the Auburn “A” with the War Eagle flying through the middle was designed for Anders Bookstore by its art department.
“We used it for probably 30-40 years, and it’s been on all kinds of things,” Ronnie said.
The Anders’ sons, Ronnie Jr. and Kirk, both attended Auburn University. Ronnie Jr. went on to become Auburn’s mic-man and cheered on the different sports teams when Bo Jackson and Charles Barkley attended Auburn. Both brothers pledged Phi Gamma Delta, and the elder Anders were known to have made an appearance or two at Phi Gamma social events.
“My wife and I used to go to Fiji island parties,” Ronnie said. “We weren’t allowed to go on Saturdays, but we enjoyed the Friday night parties.”
Ronnie Jr. went on to become an Auburn City Council member while Kirk became involved in real estate.
In 2005, the Anders decided to sell the store.
“The time was just right, and we had a great offer,” Rosemary said.
Anders was bought by Nebraska Book Company. In summer 2015, the store was acquired by Follett Higher Education Group, a corporation that owns about 1,300 bookstores across the United States as well as in Canada, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
Looking back on years of success at the bookstore, the Anders take pride in the relationships made at the store.
“Our student employees have been a lot of joy to us,” Rosemary said.
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