A Bas Bleu Anniversary: Celebrating 25 Years

From March 2019

Put on your party hat and pop the champagne: Bas Bleu is celebrating our silver anniversary!

Twenty-five years have passed since we mailed our first catalog, but it seems like just yesterday our stock was stored in a hall closet and our first order arrived via fax. What began in 1994 as a one-woman production in our founder’s Atlanta, Georgia, home is now…well…considerably larger! We may have grown over the last twenty-five years—larger staff, larger warehouse, more catalogs mailed and more books and gifts on offer—but the essence of who we are hasn’t changed. We still aim to find entertaining, interesting, meaningful (and sometimes downright odd) books and gifts for avid readers.

We wanted to host a blowout Bas Bleu anniversary party to mark the occasion…but we couldn’t find a venue large enough to fit all of our customers! Instead, we’ve sprinkled our Spring 2019 edition with special features and opened an anniversary “department” on our website. (Just look for the blue anniversary logo on our homepage.) We invite you to explore the special features at your leisure, to meet the editors who select and review our products, read our founder’s take on why she started Bas Bleu, find out once and for all what a “bluestocking” is, snag deals on our Top 25 products of all time, and hear from our readers—in their own words—what Bas Bleu means to them. We’re especially excited to introduce you to some of the wonderful folks who staff our call center and pack your orders. We hope you’ll enjoy getting to know our team.

The last quarter-century has been a grand adventure, complete with growing pains, market shifts, and twenty-five hectic Christmas seasons. Our success wouldn’t be possible without the support of the wonderful customers who have shopped with us over the years and told us time and again (often in wonderful handwritten letters) how much you appreciate our carefully curated selection of books and gifts. So cheers to you…to another twenty-five years of reading with Bas Bleu!