Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
Borders is on the ropes for reasons unrelated to volume discounts. I can't say for certain, but I'd guess that they are in trouble due to the usual issues -- they expanded too rapidly, incurred too much debt, ownership changed too many times and so forth.
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I'd bet a big cause of their problems is their choice of locations for their newer stores; both they and B&N have been pursuing a confrontational basing strategy of targetting each other's pre-existing locations while ignoring un-served locations. Some (densely populated) parts of the country you have to drive for an hour or more to find a Borders or B&N while others have multiple pairings in the region, each a block or so away from the other.
They've been trying to strangle each other for years.
And they're *both* succeeding.
Only question now is which one passes out first and it looks to be Borders.
And the price for surviving the suicidal death match?
Hanging around on life support for the transition of print books to a niche business best served by online sales.