Borders in USA to close

[Fbone]

There are reports that Books-A-Million may purchase 30 Borders stores. Both superstore and smaller sized locations. Most are in the northeast. This may save 1500 jobs if the deal goes through. Negotiations are ongoing.

This link provides specific store locations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...UTI_story.html

[Boston]

I went to the Borders in Boston yesterday...one last time before liquidation. I will miss the many lunch hours spent there. With the closing of Borders, some who had worked long in the retail book industry, having come from the various closed independents, will lose not just their jobs but possibly their careers.

There was a recent article in the Boston Globe that interviewed customers at this particular location and suggested that a large part of the problem was that while the store was always busy - people went there to browse and read..not buy. People interviewed said they liked to "touch and feel books before buying" but after going to Borders would then buy on-line where the prices were cheaper.

While I think there are many other factors, primarily strategic missteps, that led to the demise of Borders, I do think this phenomenon is one that is why so many U.S. based companies are failing. We want the jobs kept and we demand good wages/benefits...yet we don't want to pay the cost to sustain these businesses. Book stores have higher overhead than an on-line warehouse operation...so to expect prices to be the same is not reasonable.

I am guilty too....browsing at the store and buying e-books from home. However, I always made a point of buying whenever I went there...whether it was cookbook (I have piles that I will never get to as a result), a gift or an occasional paper book for myself. It may cost more than what I can find on-line but for me, I am paying for the experience and to keep the store in business. If we want something to stay around, we need to give it our business.

[luqmaninbmore]

Fair enough, but why support a soulless corporation when I can support locally owned, independent book stores?

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

Fair enough, but why support a soulless corporation when I can support locally owned, independent book stores?

Because those have been killed off in most areas? Many people are now choosing between the corporate book store, and the corporate webpage, and mourn the bookstore because nothing remains.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Because those have been killed off in most areas? Many people are now choosing between the corporate book store, and the corporate webpage, and mourn the bookstore because nothing remains.

I'd love to say, "oh, now that Borders is closing and B&N is shaky, the little bookstores will come back." But I'm not sure that's true; I'm trying to think what a small bookstore can offer to compete with Amazon and coming up almost blank.

Used paperbacks at half cover price, perhaps, which are cheaper than Amazon's standard penny-plus-shipping cost. But I don't think that's enough to sustain a store. Locally-preferred niche out-of-print books that are overpriced at Amazon. Nonbooks tailored to the local community--espresso shop, internet cafe, tchotchkes and small gifts--but those are all moving away from "bookstore."

Other than specializing in certain used books--rare, hard-to-find books or signed author copies, with a side order of dollar books (which take up rack or table space like crazy, so rent would have to be cheap), I can't think of a sustainable business model for pbooks. Especially new ones. I expect that in some places, a small bookstore could do well--it doesn't take too many customers who prefer not to shop online. But it would take the lucky coincidence of finding those customers in the local area.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I'd love to say, "oh, now that Borders is closing and B&N is shaky, the little bookstores will come back." But I'm not sure that's true; I'm trying to think what a small bookstore can offer to compete with Amazon and coming up almost blank.
...

The ones that remain here are seeming to focus on local authors, events - readings, signings, etc. I think that is about all that is left.

[fbrII]

Local independent book stores may and probably will survive as kind of small specialty shops selling books, that you can feel, hold, browse, etc., in a small but possibly vibrant niche market and I don't see anything wrong with that. I assume, that is how most independent bookshops got there start, in the first place. Now, they have an opportunity to survive without the threat of the "big box super store" hovering over them.

Internet buying and e-books time has come. I don't see either going away in the near future because they both offer advantages over the "old" way of buying books, but the "old" way of buying books has it's merits as well and that is why I think it will survive and why I think independent books shops will be the choice for those who will want the feel and smell of books going forward.

While I don't see this as necessarily, as a renaissance for independents, I do think it is an opportunity for their survival and possible reemergence over time.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

Fair enough, but why support a soulless corporation when I can support locally owned, independent book stores?

What if the person who runs the indie book store is a complete prick, and the staff gives me attitude every time I ask for assistance?

What if a bunch of executives and shareholders of a big company live in my community?

"Small" and "local" does not necessarily mean "morally superior" or "beneficial." In many cases it can mean "inefficient" and "expensive."

[bliss108]

I didn't want to believe it, but went to the store last night, at last it looks like countdown time to the final end. I'm so sad to see Borders closing, going to seriously miss it. This is the bookstore I counted on. Compared to B&N, their prices and staff were much more customer friendly. For every ten books I bought, at least half were from Borders, they had great coupons. The rest from Amazon, maybe once in a blue moon from B&N.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

What if the person who runs the indie book store is a complete prick, and the staff gives me attitude every time I ask for assistance?

What if a bunch of executives and shareholders of a big company live in my community?

"Small" and "local" does not necessarily mean "morally superior" or "beneficial." In many cases it can mean "inefficient" and "expensive."

Now you're just arguing for the point of arguing.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Now you're just arguing for the point of arguing.

Haven't you seen Kali Yuga's self-description under his name... "Professional Contrarian?"

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Now you're just arguing for the point of arguing.

Doesn't mean he's wrong. Small and local does often mean that the store is more expensive, since they can't buy huge bulk amounts at lower prices. Amazon is cheap because they spread the risk/margins over such a large variety of product. A specialized small store doesn't have that luxury.

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

Doesn't mean he's wrong. Small and local does often mean that the store is more expensive, since they can't buy huge bulk amounts at lower prices. Amazon is cheap because they spread the risk/margins over such a large variety of product. A specialized small store doesn't have that luxury.

There are hidden costs, often in quality of life and in destructive social changes, to the race to the bottom in commodity prices. One of those costs is the banalization of real world interaction. Another is the increased isolation and alienation of an increasingly atomic individual. I, for one, shudder at the thought of lived commercial interaction being reduced to an endless sea of Walmarts, Targets, Starbucks, and Giants. These trends are not just unfortunate; they are useful for those in positions of economic and political power because they undermine the sentiment of solidarity (and the lived experience of empathy, compassion, and brotherhood) which motivates people to band together and resist the usurpation of their political rights and the violation of their economic interests.

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

What if the person who runs the indie book store is a complete prick, and the staff gives me attitude every time I ask for assistance?

What if a bunch of executives and shareholders of a big company live in my community?

"Small" and "local" does not necessarily mean "morally superior" or "beneficial." In many cases it can mean "inefficient" and "expensive."

1. I would first look at inward and ask myself the question: Why are so many people having such a negative reaction to me? I would not assume that I'm some kind Nietzschean superman who is being resented by the hoi polloi.

2. Unless you are yourself a member of the dominant economic class, that is unlikely (though not impossible). And if you are, I have nothing to say to you, other than it shopping at those stores would simply be a matter of class solidarity.

3. Mass production is very expensive. It's just that the costs are externalized in the form of environmental degradation, exploitation of labor, and deformation of the political process. As to efficiency, I ask, "Efficient for whom and for what purpose?" Efficiency of rent-seeking behavior, for example, is not the same as efficiency in effecting a social good.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

There are hidden costs, often in quality of life and in destructive social changes, to the race to the bottom in commodity prices. One of those costs is the banalization of real world interaction. Another is the increased isolation and alienation of an increasingly atomic individual.

All of which matters less than nothing to a corporation interested in making money. Whether that's good or bad is beside the point... welcome to the grand new world.