Borders in USA to close - Page 2

Deniseg53 · 07-19-2011, 12:11 AM

I'm a soon-to-be former Borders employee of over 12 years. These days and weeks ahead are going to be horribly difficult. Not only will we miss working together, but we'll sorely miss some of our awesome regular customers.

I'd recommend that you spend your Borders gift cards immediately as they probably won't be accepted once the liquidators move in...

fjtorres · 07-19-2011, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by porkupan

Very sad indeed. The surprising thing for me was that the "turnaround experts" couldn't find anyone with a couple of hundred million bucks, who would believe in the future of brick and mortar book selling business. Not a single person!

Actually, they did.
They found exactly one who was willing to ante up over $200 million in cash and assume another $200+ million in Borders debt; essentially half a billion for an operation half the size of B&N but without a Nook-equivalent side business.
(Considering B&N itself barely fetched a single offer--for a full billion--the bid they got was market-value or better.)

And what was the answer from the BPH/creditors? They demanded any future Borders pay for their precious books in cash up-front instead of the standard 30day net they give B&N and Amazon and every Tom, Dick, and Indie out there. They penalized the bidder for trying to salvage half the wreck.

The bidder took the hint; the BPHs *wanted* Borders killed.

And now the same BPHs that put 5000 people on the street are whining that they are going to have to lay off a couple dozen account reps.
Oh, woe is them!

I'd call them maggots but that would be an insult to the larvae.

I don't mind if they want to play the cold-hearted capitalists--it's their usual stance, anway--but spare us the whining, jerks!

Fbone · 07-19-2011, 02:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deniseg53

I'm a soon-to-be former Borders employee of over 12 years. These days and weeks ahead are going to be horribly difficult. Not only will we miss working together, but we'll sorely miss some of our awesome regular customers.

I'd recommend that you spend your Borders gift cards immediately as they probably won't be accepted once the liquidators move in...

Sorry to hear this and I certainly hope an even better opportunity will come your way

Quake1028 · 07-19-2011, 07:49 AM

Sad to hear. We lost all of ours here in Tampa earlier this year, but it's still sad to see a bookstore anywhere close down.

tubemonkey · 07-19-2011, 07:59 AM

A shame; and I'm sorry to see so many lose their jobs. We still have about half a dozen stores in the Seattle area that will now shut down.

Kali Yuga · 07-19-2011, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjtorres

And what was the answer from the BPH/creditors? They demanded any future Borders pay for their precious books in cash up-front instead of the standard 30day net they give B&N and Amazon and every Tom, Dick, and Indie out there. They penalized the bidder for trying to salvage half the wreck.

...or, they saw that Borders had been mismanaged for years, had lost money for 4 years in a row, did not have a viable plan to rescue its business, and that giving Borders credit was like flushing inventory down the toilet.

B&N, Amazon, and indie stores get credit because they can pay their bills. Borders couldn't.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The bidder took the hint; the BPHs *wanted* Borders killed.

Oh, really?

So I guess it was the publishers who "forced" Borders to lose money for several years in a row, to start going into the red at the start of a huge recession and credit crunch, and thus saddled the company with massively expensive debt? I presume the publishers also forced Borders management to become a revolving door with seven-figure payouts to departing execs, to outsource its web sales to Amazon for years (which gave a competitor key info and slashed its profits), to outsource ebooks to Kobo, to undercut the value of its product and its profits with tons of discounts, to over-expand in areas already serviced by big chains, to take out expensive leases?

It's patently absurd to blame the publishers for the ineptitude of Borders' managers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjtorres

...spare us the whining!

Yes, please. Spare us the whining.

HarryT · 07-19-2011, 08:15 AM

Borders in the UK closed in the UK a couple of years ago. They were only ever a very minor player in the British market, which is dominated by Waterstones.

Hellmark · 07-19-2011, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shack70

Can't say I didn't see this coming. They moved the ebook store to Kobo, that didn't help one bit.

They never really operated their own ebook store. Sony ran it for them at first, and Kobo has done it for the last year and a half. The recent change over to Kobo merely made it so Kobo didn't have to pretend to be Borders anymore.

Beerman · 07-19-2011, 09:17 AM

I spoke to a small, university type bookstore employee recently and she said B&N and Borders hit small bookstores hard just like Walmart has affected small businesses throughout the U.S. She does think that ebooks is having an effect though said it's more than that.
Somewhat similar, our mailperson (postal clerk????) has told my office that email, epostage and the internet in general is the main reason the USPS is in trouble. I'm sure uber poor management had nothing to do with it.
I hate to see any business go down but I never did go to these bookstores much and got what I wanted thru Amazon before going the ebook way.

jbcohen · 07-19-2011, 11:46 AM

I see little need for them, between the several electronic book stores I should have reading materiel for the rest of my life.

SCION · 07-19-2011, 11:48 AM

Perhaps if gas prices had remained around $1.75 many folks wouldn't mind running back and forth to the bookstores. I'm not one to pinch pennies, but I tend to calculate fuel expenses when considering trekking somewhere. My nearest Borders is 40 miles one way. My primary vehicle gets around 20 miles/gallon. That's an expense of around $16 just to take a peak at inventory. Then factor in the price of in-store books. Unless I plan to patronize other area stores or a restaurant during that trip, I'll just browse and buy from Amazon.

tubemonkey · 07-19-2011, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCION

Perhaps if gas prices had remained around $1.75 many folks wouldn't mind running back and forth to the bookstores. I'm not one to pinch pennies, but I tend to calculate fuel expenses when considering trekking somewhere. My nearest Borders is 40 miles one way. My primary vehicle gets around 20 miles/gallon. That's an expense of around $16 just to take a peak at inventory. Then factor in the price of in-store books. Unless I plan to patronize other area stores or a restaurant during that trip, I'll just browse and buy from Amazon.

Wow! You must live a long way from civilization.

Here in the Seattle Metro area, we have 7 Borders and 14 B&Ns; plus numerous independents.

kennyc · 07-19-2011, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Wow! You must live a long way from civilization.

Here in the Seattle Metro area, we have 7 Borders and 14 B&Ns; plus numerous independents.

Everything's bigger in Texas!

tubemonkey · 07-19-2011, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kennyc

Everything's bigger in Texas!

Including vast stretches of nothingness.

SCION · 07-19-2011, 12:17 PM

You two are making too much out of it. I live 25 miles from the south Dallas area. 40 miles from a Borders. Hardly in the boonies.

07-19-2011, 11:48 AM	#26
SCION Séduisant Posts: 4,706 Karma: 2107018 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Texas, USA Device: Boox Note Air2+; Kobo Libra2; Kindle Scribe, Oasis3; iPad Mini6	Perhaps if gas prices had remained around $1.75 many folks wouldn't mind running back and forth to the bookstores. I'm not one to pinch pennies, but I tend to calculate fuel expenses when considering trekking somewhere. My nearest Borders is 40 miles one way. My primary vehicle gets around 20 miles/gallon. That's an expense of around $16 just to take a peak at inventory. Then factor in the price of in-store books. Unless I plan to patronize other area stores or a restaurant during that trip, I'll just browse and buy from Amazon. Last edited by SCION; 07-19-2011 at 11:52 AM.

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07-19-2011, 12:11 AM	#16
Deniseg53 Member Posts: 11 Karma: 3598 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Kobo	I'm a soon-to-be former Borders employee of over 12 years. These days and weeks ahead are going to be horribly difficult. Not only will we miss working together, but we'll sorely miss some of our awesome regular customers. I'd recommend that you spend your Borders gift cards immediately as they probably won't be accepted once the liquidators move in...

07-19-2011, 07:49 AM	#19
Quake1028 Guru Posts: 917 Karma: 9155462 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Tampa, FL Device: See signature	Sad to hear. We lost all of ours here in Tampa earlier this year, but it's still sad to see a bookstore anywhere close down.

07-19-2011, 07:59 AM	#20
tubemonkey monkey on the fringe Posts: 45,767 Karma: 158733736 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Seattle Metro Device: Moto E6, Echo Show	A shame; and I'm sorry to see so many lose their jobs. We still have about half a dozen stores in the Seattle area that will now shut down.

07-19-2011, 08:15 AM	#22
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,556 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Borders in the UK closed in the UK a couple of years ago. They were only ever a very minor player in the British market, which is dominated by Waterstones.

07-19-2011, 09:17 AM	#24
Beerman Member Posts: 24 Karma: 1286 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Ipad 2	I spoke to a small, university type bookstore employee recently and she said B&N and Borders hit small bookstores hard just like Walmart has affected small businesses throughout the U.S. She does think that ebooks is having an effect though said it's more than that. Somewhat similar, our mailperson (postal clerk????) has told my office that email, epostage and the internet in general is the main reason the USPS is in trouble. I'm sure uber poor management had nothing to do with it. I hate to see any business go down but I never did go to these bookstores much and got what I wanted thru Amazon before going the ebook way.

07-19-2011, 11:46 AM	#25
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,032 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	I see little need for them, between the several electronic book stores I should have reading materiel for the rest of my life.

07-19-2011, 12:17 PM	#30
SCION Séduisant Posts: 4,706 Karma: 2107018 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Texas, USA Device: Boox Note Air2+; Kobo Libra2; Kindle Scribe, Oasis3; iPad Mini6	You two are making too much out of it. I live 25 miles from the south Dallas area. 40 miles from a Borders. Hardly in the boonies.

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