Books-A-Million to Install Wincor Nixdorf's BEETLE Point-of-Sale Systems At 204 Stores.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 14, 2002

Wincor Nixdorf Inc., the leader in the delivery of open systems solutions to the retail and banking industries, today announced that Books-A-Million (Nasdaq/NM:BAMM) has selected Wincor Nixdorf's BEETLE(R)/S point-of-sale (POS) systems for its stores nationwide. Wincor Nixdorf will install the BEETLE systems at all four Books-A-Million store brands: Books-A-Million, Books & Co., Bookland, and Joe Muggs Newsstands. The installation will involve approximately 1,000 BEETLE/S systems at 204 stores, and installation will be completed this year. In addition to POS hardware, Wincor Nixdorf will provide integration, staging, and testing services; project management; and performance-guaranteed supplies through WinXpress.

The selection of Wincor Nixdorf's BEETLE hardware is a cornerstone of Books-A-Million's migration from a DOS system to a Microsoft(R) Windows(R)-based system. Books-A-Million selected Wincor Nixdorf over competitive vendors after Wincor Nixdorf completed a successful one-store pilot test in only a week.

"With one week's notice, Wincor Nixdorf had one of our stores up and running," said Cy Fenton, executive vice president of operations for Books-A-Million. "It was a very impressive logistical effort."

"I feel strongly that Wincor Nixdorf had the best POS hardware," Fenton continued. "Because of the BEETLE's engineering and simple design, we are training a group of store associates to serve as `super users' who can provide Tier One technical support. These associates can simply loosen the thumbscrews on the BEETLE units and swap out hard disk drives, CD ROM drives, and other components that need to be upgraded or replaced. This significantly lowers out support costs and reduces Total Cost of Ownership."

"As one of the nation's leading book retailers, Books-A-Million has very prominent brands throughout the United States, and Wincor Nixdorf looks forward to supporting the company's rapid growth," said Jeff Soisson, president and CEO of Wincor Nixdorf USA.

Benefits of the new POS systems, which include JDA's Win/DSS software and electronic payment systems from AJB Software, include faster credit card authorization, the ability to handle debit cards, automatic check handling, and enhanced capabilities to handle gift cards at the point of sale. Just as important, the BEETLE systems can accommodate future growth at Books-A-Million. "One of the key selling points about Wincor Nixdorf was their support for both Linux and Windows XP Embedded," Fenton said. "If Books-A-Million decides to change operating systems in the future, the BEETLE gives us both options."

About Books-A-Million

Books-A-Million is one of the nation's leading book retailers and sells on the Internet at www.booksamillion.com. The company is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala. and presently operates 204 stores in 18 states. The company operates four distinct store formats, including large superstores operating under the names Books-A-Million and Books & Co., traditional bookstores and combination book and greeting card stores, both operating under the names Bookland and Joe Muggs Newsstands. The company's wholesale operations include American Wholesale Book Company and Book$mart, both based in Florence, Ala. NetCentral Inc., an Internet development and service company is located in Nashville, Tenn.

About the BEETLE Family of POS Appliances

Wincor Nixdorf's BEETLE family of POS appliances addresses the complete spectrum of customer touch points in the retail store environment. With solutions that encompass thin-client POS terminals, lean-and thick-client POS systems, kiosks, lottery terminals, and mobile POS devices, the BEETLE family is the industry's most comprehensive POS product line. An open design supporting commonality of components across the entire BEETLE family substantially simplifies software deployment and hardware maintenance, keeping costs down and productivity high.

More than just PCs, BEETLE appliances are rugged, designed to withstand the rigors of retail environments. Built on Embedded Intel(R) motherboard technology, all models include standard retail interfaces, accept a wide range of peripherals, and are compliant with established retail software standards. Standard operating systems include Red Hat(R) Linux(R), the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) family, and Microsoft DOS. The BEETLE appliances also offer the most expansive and complete set of OPOS(TM) and JavaPOS(TM) drivers for POS peripherals.

The BEETLE family of POS appliances is the industry's first and only complete line of customer-proven, Linux-ready POS systems in production. The family is also the first in the industry to be certified for Windows XP Embedded.

About Wincor Nixdorf

Worldwide, Wincor Nixdorf Inc. is one of the fastest growing providers of IT products and solutions for the retail and banking industries. Wincor Nixdorf's offerings include hardware, application software, professional services and a complete range of multi-vendor service programs including on-site support, depot service and Advanced Exchange. Wincor Nixdorf is the world's third largest provider of POS systems and automated teller machines. Employing more than 4,400 people, Wincor Nixdorf operates in 40 countries with manufacturing plants in Germany and Singapore. North American headquarters are in Austin, Texas and Boston, Mass. For more information, visit www.wincor-nixdorf.com/usa.

BEETLE is a registered trademark of Wincor Nixdorf GmbH. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.