What happened to Borders? A look inside the final days of the beloved bookstore

  • Thread starter waht
  • Start date
In summary: I don't usually buy books on-line.In summary, Borders is closing down many stores, including the one near where I work. This is a sad day for book lovers, and I hope that the store survives.
  • #1
waht
1,501
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This has been a long time coming, even before the recession they had financial problems. Now it's time to go, along with their cozy little cafes, and hang out lounges, free wi-fi, the smell of books and coffee atmosphere, hundreds of feet of shelves and corridors leading to dead ends filled with books you never thought existed, and the great classical music collection, all but fizzled into a distant memory.

:cry:
 
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  • #2
I thought they were only closing some stores.
 
  • #3
Evo said:
I thought they were only closing some stores.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/16/2070944/borders-files-for-bankruptcy.html

I have one in my city. I hope it does not close. I can just see B&N raising prices.
 
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  • #4
They closed the nearest one to me (in Charlotte, about 90 miles away) in December. I happened to go there during Thanksgiving break, discovered they were having a blowout clearance sale, and bought about a dozen CDs. There are still two other stores in the Charlotte area but they're further away and a hassle to get to. I suspect only one of them (at most) will survive the next round of closings.

I was a grad student in Ann Arbor in the days when there was only one Borders, a block from the U of M campus. I spent a lot of time there and bought a lot of books there. So when they became a chain, after I left A^2, I made it a point to visit their stores whenever I had a chance.
 
  • #5
Man I sure hope they aren't getting rid of the one that is right next to where I work. Sad day indeed.
 
  • #7
that's horrible. The one close to my house is still open though. I hope it won't close. Although I usually go to B&N. It's still sad when bookstores close down.
 
  • #8
Borders - "HAI INTERNETZ. HAI APPLE"
Internet - "HAI BORDERS"
Apple Inc. - "HAI BORDERS. Ok you shut down now pl0x kkthx"
 
  • #9
i don't even know where the borders are in my area. we have a lot of B&N, Books-A-Million, i think maybe a B Dalton somewhere, and several religious bookstores. a new mall nearby actually has a surplus outlet type store.

not sure i buy any hype about bookstores going out of style like record stores. you can't exactly browse records like you do books.
 
  • #10
jtbell said:
There are still two other stores in the Charlotte area but they're further away and a hassle to get to.

Looks like both of the remaining Charlotte stores will remain open. One of them actually isn't too much out of the way for me to visit, which I didn't realize until I looked at its map on borders.com just now. Maybe I'll check it out when I go to Charlotte this weekend.

I see they're closing one of their three Ann Arbor stores, in a shopping center on the edge of town. I remember that shopping center, but the store dates to after my departure.
 
  • #11
I figured something was up; I was receiving 30% off coupons via email everyday for about a year and a half. I bought a lot of math and physics books from my local store. :frown:
 
  • #12
That's really sad and has just ruined my day... I didn't know...:mad:
 
  • #13
My daughter is a barista at the local Borders. This one is not shutting down, but they've already cut back her hours so severely that it doesn't really matter.
 
  • #14
We've got 4 Borders locations in Maine, none of which is being closed. I buy books from Amazon, nowadays, anyway. Sadly, an old-fashioned bookstore in Bangor closed recently, and was featured in the local news this week. There aren't a lot of stores left where you can buy new AND used books from a knowledgeable seller. Need an out-of-print book? You'll have to resort to Abe's or other on-line sellers.
 
  • #15
This is terrible. Fortunately the Borders near me is remaining open but they probably won't have all the deals that they use to. I don't understand how B&N remains open when their stores suck so hard. Their prices are always high and they never have anything in stock.
 
  • #16
Bummer. What will I do with my Borders rewards card?

I might buy more books on-line than I do at Borders or Barnes and Noble. If I'm looking for a specific book, I almost always buy it on-line. But I also do a lot of browsing at book stores and wind up buying books just because the part I've read so far is interesting.

I like the bookstore experience.
 
  • #17
6 Borders are being closed in Boston. I've always like Borders a little more than B&N. Hopefully, I'll still have one reasonably close by after this.
 
  • #19
G01 said:
6 Borders are being closed in Boston. I've always like Borders a little more than B&N. Hopefully, I'll still have one reasonably close by after this.

I don't see much difference. My favorite bookstore is the B&N near the Citadel mall in my town (not only do I like the store, but it's close to a few other stores I like that are also near the mall). My second favorite is the Borders in the southern end of town. My third favorite is the Borders in the Chapel Hills mall at the northern end of town. My fourth favorite is the B&N across the street from the Chapel Hills mall.

There's not much difference in the chains - only a difference in the particular stores, and not a huge difference between them.
 
  • #20
Looks like the Lawrence, Kansas Borders will be closing. :(

Hell. Lawrence is a University Town. WTF
 
  • #21
BobG said:
I don't see much difference. My favorite bookstore is the B&N near the Citadel mall in my town (not only do I like the store, but it's close to a few other stores I like that are also near the mall). My second favorite is the Borders in the southern end of town. My third favorite is the Borders in the Chapel Hills mall at the northern end of town. My fourth favorite is the B&N across the street from the Chapel Hills mall.

There's not much difference in the chains - only a difference in the particular stores, and not a huge difference between them.

Perhaps I'm just like Seattle's Best Coffee more than Starbucks! :biggrin:
 
  • #22
BobG said:
If I'm looking for a specific book, I almost always buy it on-line. But I also do a lot of browsing at book stores and wind up buying books just because the part I've read so far is interesting.

I like the bookstore experience.
Same here. When I could get out in public more, there was a used-book store that I liked to patronize, in large part because the owner had an idea what kind of book(s) might interest me, and he brought them to my attention. When I lived nearby and visited his shop regularly he sometimes tucked away a book for me (on speculation) instead of shelving it for sale. That kind of service was top-notch, in my opinion, and he made more sales (to me, at least) because of that level of service.

There is a record shop in the nearest small city where I got similar service. Bob knew what kind of music I liked, and what I performed, and he'd tuck away old albums for me. One time, I swung by his shop after a road-trip to Mass and described a song I had heard on the radio. I hadn't caught the performer's name, but the announcer had claimed that it was a "new" song by that performer. The song was "I Say a Little Prayer for You" and it was the most beautiful version I had ever heard. I told Bob that the back-up music sounded European, with an accordion of some type in the mix. He said "I'll order Mary Black's newest CD. It's probably her." He was right. Can't get that kind of customer service in any chain store.
 
  • #23
turbo-1 said:
Can't get that kind of customer service in any chain store.

Not quite true. Some people are class whether they work for someone else or they work in their own store. I remember when one particular Pep Boys was the only place I'd take a car to be worked on. The problem with chain stores is that the good employees are as likely to move on as the bad employees, while a store owner stays in it for the long term.
 
  • #24
Phwew, none near me are closing. I received a gift card to there for Xmas that I still haven't used.
 
  • #25
I told my daughter about the closing of the Lawrence store and told her they might be having some good book sales. I haven't been there to see though.
 
  • #26
S_Happens said:
Phwew, none near me are closing. I received a gift card to there for Xmas that I still haven't used.

I bet you can use it online
 
  • #27
Goodbye to mine. :uhh:
 
  • #28
Greg Bernhardt said:
I bet you can use it online

Uhhhh... yeah... Of course I already thought of that.



/thoroughly convincing cover
 
  • #29
Borders Closing Checklist:

1. Are there any books I purchased from Borders which I'd like to immediately return? No.

2. Do I have any Borders gift cards I've not used? No.

3. Are there any really nifty birthday/Christmas gifts available only at borders? No.

Checklist complete.
 
  • #30
I'll be heading to the local Borders store later. Unfortunately, it's closing. On the other hand, we seldom go in that direction, prefering to go to BN, which is a bit closer.

Maybe they'll have some Dover books of interest.

In general though, the selection of math and science books, or detailed history books is skimpy. I mostly order on-line - often directly from the publishers.
 
  • #31
Astronuc said:
In general though, the selection of math and science books, or detailed history books is skimpy. I mostly order on-line - often directly from the publishers.
That was my problem with Borders, too. When I'd look for books in specialized fields, they often struck out, IMO. I have a very large collection of astronomy-related books, and found it impossible to add to my collection by visiting their stores. They seem to have popular-science books by Gleick, Penrose, etc, but very little in-depth stuff.
 
  • #32
Borders sells mostly popular literature, they aren't in the hard sciences market.
 
  • #33
Evo said:
Borders sells mostly popular literature, they aren't in the hard sciences market.
Even B&N has only one section - 4 shelves in one stack - in the entire store on Math and Science.

I used to frequent Brown's bookstore in Houston, or the university bookstores. Brown's was a place where engineers or scientists could browse textbooks and professional books, like those from McGraw-Hill, Academic Press, Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, CRC Press, etc. I loved that place!

I also hung out in the university libraries on the weekends.
 
  • #34
Astronuc said:
Even B&N has only one section - 4 shelves in one stack - in the entire store on Math and Science.
You can get textbooks and specialty books from Borders, but only on-line. That's the rub - you can't visit their physical stores and browse. I have books on advanced astrophotography that cost me a day's take-home pay decades ago, but I had to rely on reviews in astronomy magazines, and mail-order them. I would much rather have been able to browse them to make sure they weren't re-hashes of other materials or (worse) superficial treatments of otherwise complex subjects, like reciprocity failure, film hypering, etc.
 
  • #35
It's the same trying to find history books. Popular book stores don't have much of a selection, the really good books are expensive and have a limited market, they aren't going to fill the store with them. You really have to find specialty stores.

Now I just use Arildno for my history fix.
 

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