Borders Bookstores to Liquidate

[Simon_Jester]

I'd like to hear about the management batshitting too.

I wouldn't worry about the death of the printed book. I imagine that eventually you will be able to tell Amazon or some other online retailer to print and bind the book instead of sending you an e-book. Sure, it will no doubt be more expensive, being printed on demand and all, but you'll probably be able to customize it. It's a definite market niche and someone will exploit it.

You rang? They are in the business since 2002.

What bugs me, though, is that that's going to be such a niche market that it'll practically self-destruct. People who just want a 10$ paperback or 20$ hardback will be priced out of the market, until it winds up being a very minority, specialist thing that I simply can't afford to indulge in.

I like paperbacks enough to pay 1$ or 2$ extra; maybe even 5$ because I really like being able to carry them around without having to haul an extraneous electronic device just to read my damn book. But not 10$ extra... and yet, if I have to pay 10$ extra to get paperbacks, while I'll stop buying paperbacks, I won't stop regretting the demise of the paperback.

Moreover, a shift to electronic bookshopping would probably screw over my browsing habits. I'd be looking online at too-smart algorithms that only bother to present me with books they think I'm interested in. That is, the ones that are on the same thing I already have books on, thankyouverymuch...

I prefer being able to pick through something a bit more diverse.

[Ralin]

Is this your way of saying "I'll have to find somewhere else to get my free internet"?

Pretty much. Though it's not really free given that I'm buying something everytime I go there.

[Faqa]

Moreover, a shift to electronic bookshopping would probably screw over my browsing habits. I'd be looking online at too-smart algorithms that only bother to present me with books they think I'm interested in. That is, the ones that are on the same thing I already have books on, thankyouverymuch...

You give "smart" algorithims too little credit. Amazon has for the most part been very good about recommending books in a similar genre but not on the same topic.

Besides which, if that's your problem, and you are on a website that doesn't let you just browse (doubtful, most keep their recommendations to a specialized part of the screen), just log out. This is honestly a non-problem.

While I nostalgically mourn the death of the bookstore, the fact is, as a reader, e-books are better in every way. Now if only someone would break the publisher pricing mafia on them. Just about the only real problem with the decline is that bookstores were, hands down, the best place to read. They had an atmosphere that cannot be equaled. But that's not worth giving up the bigger selection, easier carrying and overall convenience of an e-reader.

[Darth Fanboy]

While I still have a lot of print books I am gradually making the switch to e-reading out of necessity, space in the apartment is at a premium these days. However I mostly enjoyed going to the Borders here in town to actually thumb through and see if I wanted before I bought it, I still don't feel like I get quite as good of a sampling online. I'm also still opf the opinion that it's nice to be able to enjoy the content with no batteries or an outlet required.

[Lonestar]

Pretty much. Though it's not really free given that I'm buying something everytime I go there.

Diet Cokes?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Honestly, it'll just help the remaining independent bookstores survive. And why not? There's a market for a the mass-market Starbucks With A Bunch of Mass-Market Tree Slop Attached, which is Barnes and Noble, and a market for quirky independent bookstores that you shop at mainly for the experience of shopping at a quirky independent bookstore, and there is a market for online buying cheap of anything you want to get. The first and third are filled by B&N and Amazon respectively and independent local bookstores that exist as much for experience as for selling books fill the third niche. "Multiple Barnes and Noble" is simply an anachronism from an era when e-commerce didn't exist, and that is exactly what we didn't need now, since the existence of Borders just further diluted the market and bit into small independent bookstores further. Now at least they only need to compete with B&N and Amazon, and they can sell books, especially used ones, to mitigate the competition effect with the latter.

[mr friendly guy]

This seems to be a bad year for book stores. Borders in Australia (I know they are separate from the American stores) also closed down, as well as Angus and Robertson, another big book store franchise over here. I wonder how much is simply due to the fact that Australian books are sold much dearer vs ordering over the internet. It will only get worse with the strong Australian dollar.

[Xon]

Angus and Robertson & Borders Australia have the same owners.

[weemadando]

And let's face it, the Aussie publishing industry brought it on themselves when they lobbied themselves into the ground to renew the protectionist laws that extorted Australian book buyers.

[Xon]

+200% markup over importing the damn book yourself and not declaring it as a book. It's no wonder it went south for them.

Now if only console & PC games could lose thier 100% markup over US pricing (when the fucking Aussie dollar is equal or stronger).

[Azazal]

Well this does suck. I grew up in Ann Arbor and spent a lot of time in Borders. He'll several of my first dates with my wife were at Borders. However, this was coming for a long time. About 15 years ago the inventory at the A2 store started to thin out and the shelves were moved further apart. Thrn about five years ago, the carpeting stopped being cleaned and started to be patched with duct-tape, you knew things were getting bad.
So Borders, so long and thanks for all the fish.

[Ralin]

Pretty much. Though it's not really free given that I'm buying something everytime I go there.

Diet Cokes?

Look, I drink a lotta soda, alright? It comes out to more or less the same as if I was drinking coffee.

Now I'll shut up about the Life of Ralin.

[Cecelia5578]

I'd like to hear about the management batshitting too.

One of their problems, and one which jumped out at me here in the SF Bay Area, was that they really did overextend and open up too many stores. Prior to the earlier round of closings this year, they had four bookstores in the city of San Francisco, and two (SF Center mall and Union Square) were ridiculously close. In addition, it seemed like every suburb in the East Bay had one. In fact, I think the store near AT&T Park was closed even before the round of closings earlier this year.

Oh well, looks like this weekend is a good time to go bargain shopping, maybe.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

A business failing isn't a thing to mourn. It's to be celebrated. Their failure is our opportunity. Now, the floor space that used to be wasted by this shit will be available for someone new. People who used to waste their time with this shit will have time and money to spend elsewhere. People who used to work for this shit will now be available for the new guys to snatch up.

Eh nope. If you paid attention, lots of these big floor spaces have been left empty for ages and no one is going to pick them up.

[Alkaloid]

To be fair, its not clear that Borders in Australia, Angus & Robertson and I think there was a New Zealand chain that were closed as well were in trouble individually, it was the company that owned them went belly up. I'm just checking the A&R website now, and it looks like a heap of franchise stores are still open, so the actual businesses themselves are probably still making a profit. That said, we don't seem the have the same saturation of chain bookstores here as you do in the US, so the situation may be different there.

[Dartzap]

A business failing isn't a thing to mourn. It's to be celebrated. Their failure is our opportunity. Now, the floor space that used to be wasted by this shit will be available for someone new. People who used to waste their time with this shit will have time and money to spend elsewhere. People who used to work for this shit will now be available for the new guys to snatch up.

Eh nope. If you paid attention, lots of these big floor spaces have been left empty for ages and no one is going to pick them up.

Very true. Over here there is a massive problem with shops being left empty because the rental agents are usally based in London and no grasp of what local rents should be.

As to Borders - the UK arm closed three years ago now, IIRC.

[Hillary]

Very true. Over here there is a massive problem with shops being left empty because the rental agents are usally based in London and no grasp of what local rents should be.

Yeah, that'll be it. If in doubt, someone in London must be at fault.

Do you honestly think that rental agent are sitting in their gold armchairs wondering why they can't rent out property outside London? Or that the massive concerns that usually own these buildings (people like L&G and Land Sec) allow useless agents to advertise their properties at stupid rents? The problem is almost certainly down to the lack of any credit-worthy business wanting to take on a lease at a sensible rate. After all, the owner isn't going to let out to any Tom, Dick or Harry - the legal fees required to remove a non-paying lease-holder will probably outweigh any rental income they may get.

[Dartzap]

Very true. Over here there is a massive problem with shops being left empty because the rental agents are usally based in London and no grasp of what local rents should be.

Yeah, that'll be it. If in doubt, someone in London must be at fault.

Do you honestly think that rental agent are sitting in their gold armchairs wondering why they can't rent out property outside London? Or that the massive concerns that usually own these buildings (people like L&G and Land Sec) allow useless agents to advertise their properties at stupid rents? The problem is almost certainly down to the lack of any credit-worthy business wanting to take on a lease at a sensible rate. After all, the owner isn't going to let out to any Tom, Dick or Harry - the legal fees required to remove a non-paying lease-holder will probably outweigh any rental income they may get.

Hah, maybe I was knee-jerking there Unfortunately alot of the business that have closed down recently, have cited main cause as 'rent too high' Normally you would get a reason of 'people arnt buying anything' We have had some town centre shops empty for almost three years now, in the middle of a town that that has tens of thousands of tourists hanging around.

[Akhlut]

Now, the floor space that used to be wasted by this shit will be available for someone new.

Maybe, maybe not. We had an old Circuit City's building sit unused for nearly 3 years before being used again.

People who used to waste their time with this shit will have time and money to spend elsewhere.

Maybe, maybe not. In larger cities that have multiple bookstores, yes. In my hometown, though, there isn't another large book retailer within 30 miles, so there is a possiblity of money that would go into circulation in the economy not doing so in the same sort of time frame as it would be otherwise.

People who used to work for this shit will now be available for the new guys to snatch up.

Yeah, 11,000+ unemployed people in this job market is a grand thing to have.

[Bluewolf]

I can't think of the last time I saw a commercial space stay empty for more than a month. This kind of specific thing varies by location.

To give an example on my end, a supermarket nearby closed down and it's floor space stayed empty for almost 2 years until eventually, in a streak of creativity, another supermarket. So yeah, it deeply varies on the location.

[Hillary]

Very true. Over here there is a massive problem with shops being left empty because the rental agents are usally based in London and no grasp of what local rents should be.

Yeah, that'll be it. If in doubt, someone in London must be at fault.

Do you honestly think that rental agent are sitting in their gold armchairs wondering why they can't rent out property outside London? Or that the massive concerns that usually own these buildings (people like L&G and Land Sec) allow useless agents to advertise their properties at stupid rents? The problem is almost certainly down to the lack of any credit-worthy business wanting to take on a lease at a sensible rate. After all, the owner isn't going to let out to any Tom, Dick or Harry - the legal fees required to remove a non-paying lease-holder will probably outweigh any rental income they may get.

Hah, maybe I was knee-jerking there Unfortunately alot of the business have closed down recently, and the main cause is often cited as 'rent too high' Normally you would get a reason of 'people arnt buying anything' We have had some town centre shops empty for almost three years now, in the middle of a town that that has tens of thousands of tourists hanging around.

To be fair, that's happening everywhere - you'd think there's a recession going on

In my town (Ealing) there are also some shops that have been deserted for years - yet they are in the midst of building a massive residential AND business block and another was refused planning permission. It's a strange market at the moment, that's for sure.

[Dartzap]

The curious thing about Torbay is there are literally tens of thousands of EFL students who spend millions on random crap - there must be a market there, but no ones doing anything. Bloody strange.

[Norade]

There are also those few locations in town where you know the rent is too high because nothing ever lasts a year in that location. We can all think of a few places that always have for lease signs on them where they sit empty for a month and then a new schmo moves in only to be having a closing sale in a few months.

[Connor MacLeod]

I haven't gone over completely to ebooks mainly because I still like having a hard copy for certain things (like the 40K stuff I waste my time on - having the book on hand is useful.) I also like just having some books because a good book can't run out of power, have a malfunction or anything like that. That doesn't mean I won't switch over to a Kindle or Nook or some generic ebook reader - my cell phones for the past few years have all had a pdf function and I sometimes used it as a makeshift reader (and before that I would always download and read Baen stuff online on and off) but it was always more "something to do when I didn't have anything else."

Oddly, I've been hooked on ebooks for quite some years now, simply because they allow me to enjoy a book when I can't be physically holding one (good for the sorts of games I enjoy playing, or sitting in a waiting room, or whatever.) It can be expensive though (moreso than some hardcovers at least) so I usually have to shop around or use the local library (which has a very extensive sharing network AND a huge audio library - which is how I got into this to begin with.)

[White Haven]

Amusingly enough on the rent tangent, my old job (eight years plus back and counting) closed up because the owner didn't want to play ball with Yet Another Rent Increase. Every time I drive past, I have to just smile and laugh at the fact that its former location is still empty, standing as a mute, derelict testament to the fact that greed is fucking stupid.