Here in Albuquerque, the Borders (the two I know of) were within walking distance of the B&N: One Borders across a busy main street from a B&N and another Borders in the same large strip shopping center as the B&N (one on each end). Maybe Borders would have had better luck (and a chance at a Books a Million pick up) if they had put store in, say, the area of the University or downtown or somewhere else without so obvious competition. Also, the Borders stores always looked so poorly maintained and dirty
...
Slightly off topic: I visited a B&N on Saturday to see if they have a book I wanted. They didn't. I know I can get it
for the very same price as a download, but whether or not I own it then bugs me. So I ordered it and several others... from Amazon. I'll scan them, OCR/rtf them, and then they'll be
mine. If ebooks were less, reflecting no need to use the mails, for example, that would affect my decision certainly, but that's not the case, so...