About Rahva Raamat
Rahva Raamat AS is the largest book retail and wholesale trade company in Estonia, which has twelve stores and one restaurant in eight cities and also an e-shop.
In addition to our stores, we cater to Estonia's largest retail chains: Selver, Prisma, Kaubamaja, Rimi, Maxima, Coop Eesti, and also to most of the Estonian libraries and bookstores.
Our Mission:
The mission of Rahva Raamat is to share knowledge and the joy of discovery.
We will work hard so that people would read more, and that their picture of the world will become richer.
Our Vision:
The vision of Rahva Raamat is to be the most reader-friendly bookseller in Europe.
Our bookstores are the coziest, customers are the most satisfied, and we are the trend setters of our field.
Our Values:
Commitment: We firmly stand for the Estonian culture and language. For us professionalism and dedication to books are important. We are involved and a supporter of local communities.
Passion: We love books and our work. We value experiences and emotions, customer and employee satisfaction, and joy in all our endeavors.
Innovation: We feel it is important to be ahead of the times and to act with long-term goals in mind. We are ambitious, desirous to inspire our customers both in bookstores as well as in the virtual world.
Reliability: We have a century of experience in mediation of culture and knowledge, an effective interface between the reader and the author. We are honest and accurate and deliver on our promises.
Our history:
Rahva Raamat is a book business with long-standing traditions, which has been in operation in Estonia since the year 1912. Today Rahva Raamat has thirteen bookstores in eight different cities, but once upon a time, it all began with one man's brave intention to do some business with the books of his publishing house and with office supplies.
In 1912, in the lot between Suur-Karja and Jaani streets was completed the building of the Tallinn Mutual Credit Association designed by the famous Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen. At the time, this was one of the most outstanding buildings in Tallinn. In 1912, in this building opened the doors also of the Gustav Pihlakas book and stationery shop.
In the 1920s, however, the shop of Gustav Pihlakas was replaced by the publishing company “Rahvaülikool".
In 1935, the newspaper "Vaba maa" points out that the biggest bookstores in Tallinn are the "Rahvaülikool", "Päevaleht" and Kaiser Mann stores.
In 1938, this building housed as many as three books stores: besides OÜ “Rahvaülikool" were also the stores of Tallinna Eesti Kirjastusühisus and the publishing house OÜ “Kultuurikoondis".
In 1940, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union, the publishing houses together with the bookstores belonging to them were nationalized and were transferred to the State Publishing Centre.
In 1962, the Bookstore No 1 was named Rahva Raamat (People’s Book).
The early 1990s, Rahva Raamat located in Pärnu mnt is privatized.
2003 12,000 signatures are collected against the closure of Rahva Raamat, a meeting and poetry evening are organized.
2004 Rahva Raamat is purchased by Ekspress Grupp, who six years later sells it to its then executive management.
December 2004: In Viru Centre opens its doors an 800 square meter flagship store of “Rahva Raamat”, which extends by half in 2008, and in 2014, by another 200 meters.
2005 Rahva Raamat launched its online store
2006 Rahva Raamat opens its doors in Viljandi.
2008 Rahva Raamat opens its doors in Tartu, in Rocca al Mare shopping center, and in Ülemiste City
.
2009 Rahva Raamat opens its doors in Pärnu.
2010 Rahva Raamat is opened in Kuressaare.
2012 Rahva Raamat celebrates its 100th anniversary.
2013 Mustika store opens its doors in Tallinn.
2014 the shop of Rahva Raamat in Narva opens its doors.
2015 Rahva Raamat opens its tenth store in Rakvere and the stores have a total of ten kilometers of bookshelves.
2015 the app of Rahva Raamat is launched.
2016 The Rahva Raamat Viru store was chosen as one of the world's four best bookstores at the London Book Fair. With this, Rahva Raamat also won the title of Estonian Trade Fair of the Year.
2016 Rahva Raamat won the title of the most user-friendly e-store.
2017 Rahva Raamat opened a cozy gift shop on the ground floor of Rocca al Mare Center, where you can find special gifts for yourself and your loved ones.
2018 Kantar Emor asked Estonian residents to recall recent shopping or service experiences in trade, and to assess how satisfied they were and what feeling that experience left behind. Bookstores can offer the most positive emotions among the more mentioned shops and the highest score was awarded to Rahva Raamat.
2018 Rahva Raamat eStore won the most user-friendly e-shop title in the hobby category.
2018 Kantar Emor asked Estonian residents about their opinion on brands in the field of culture and education. It became clear that besides the University of Tartu and Estonian Television, the most beloved brand is Rahva Raamat.
2019 Rahva Raamat opened its first restaurant and shop in Telliskivi.
2019 Rahva Raamat eStore won the most user-friendly e-shop title in the hobby category.
2019 Rahva Raamat is opened in Jõhvi.
2020 The Rahva Raamat Vanalinna store was chosen as one of the world's three best bookstores at the London Book Fair.
2020 Telliskivi Rahva Raamat turned into a cosy restaurant LITERAAT, where you can still find a large selection of books.
