Quote:
Originally Posted by Hellmark
Retailers are different beasts than the publishers. They know their business survives based on customer traffic. I mean, why else would so many stores start opening up on Thanksgiving day itself now, instead of just waiting till Black Friday? Retailers also have a chance to get in on ebooks, so it doesn't scare them as much. I mean, thats why there is ebook download kiosks in stores, and stores are pushing readers as well.
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*throws up hands*
Fine. Borders did everything it possibly could to drive traffic to their stores and the fact that I spend thousands of dollars on books per year and NONE of those dollars at Borders was not their fault but rather me being mean spirited. There is no other explanation.
I maintain that our local Borders did not try to innovate and as far as I can tell depended on sheer inertia to keep their business afloat. There seems to be an argument in this thread that that simply isn't
possible because businesses are smarter than that. I disagree. Considering that Borders IS closing, I think Occam's Razor demands a more likely explanation than that they were fated to fail in spite of all their best efforts.
EDIT: And if that seems snippy, well, I find it tiresome to provide REAL examples of how my local Borders could have gotten my business only to hear the circular reasoning that my idea of opening earlier on Sundays COULDN'T have been profitable because if it was they already would have done that. Provide your evidence that businesses always act in a rational, smart manner -- provide something
other than just "business are smart 'cause they are businesses", please.
