As of the 1970s, there were four Brentano's in New York: the Fifth Avenue flagship store at Rockefeller Center, one in Greenwich Village, one in Manhasset, and one in White Plains.

There were two stores outside of Washington, D.C.: one in the Seven Corners shopping center in Falls Church, Virginia, and another in Prince Georges Plaza in Maryland.

Soon after, Brentano's became a part of the Waldenbooks subsidiary of Borders, an Ann Arbor, Michigan–based book and music retailer.

[6] Unfortunately, the firm acquired a lot of debt in the process and its creditors forced the company to reorganize in 1930 while still allowing the Brentano family to manage the chain.

[8][9][10] During the bankruptcy sale, financier (and later U.S. ambassador) Stanton Griffis and Chicago bookstore owner Adolf Kroch bought the firm.

For his part in the bankruptcy sale, Kroch received the Chicago branch store and the exclusive right to use and control the Brentano's name within the states of Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin.

[14] Kroch succeeded in preventing MacMillan, Waldenbooks, and Borders from using the Brentano's name within the Chicago area market.

[21] First store in the rapid expanding and lucrative southern California market was opened in the affluent suburb of Beverly Hills in 1972.

[37] This store was closed during the German occupation[16] but was one of the first American owned businesses to reopen after the Liberation of Paris.

[38] The Brentano's on Avenue de l'Opéra in Paris closed in 2009[39][40] but was bought and reopened in 2010 by Iranian businessman Farock Sharifi.

[citation needed] In an attempt to prevent possible liquidation of the company, the publishing department was sold to Coward-McCann in 1933.

[46] In the 1943 film Heaven Can Wait, Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche) met his future wife Martha Strable (Gene Tierney) in Brentano's.