I’m very sad about it too. I am familiar with the local Border’s employees and they are sad. So many business’ are going under. It is a really sad state of affairs.
I did shop at Borders because I often received 30-40% off coupons. Also, they had a great return policy, unlike Barnes & Nobel who only allow 2 weeks to return a book. Sometimes, I don’t even get to look at it within 2 weeks.
One of the employees told he his store will be remaining open through September. I don’t know any information about the viability of borders.com.
Don’t forget about your local independent bookstores. They may not be able to afford to offer the same discounts, but they’re all struggling to stay in business in this economy. The personal attention you’ll receive will be well worth paying full price for a book.
Don’t forget about your local independent bookstores. They may not be able to afford to offer the same discounts, but they’re all struggling to stay in business in this economy. The personal attention you’ll receive will be well worth paying full price for a book.
I’m not aware of any independent shops locally, other than used book stores. I think no matter what they economy, independent shops are doomed. Most were driven out of business by the superstores, and any that remain will be done in by digital books. There’s no sense in a physical presence when you can download anything you wish.
An update: I went to Borders with the intention of spending a gift card I received. I was going to stock up. Welllll, when I got there the 40% discount promised was now 10% off the original price. I spoke to an employee and he said Borders no longer exists. He could not understand how I received an email from Borders this morning. Outside the store were people carrying signs and in very small print were the words “up to” after the 40% off.
This is deceptive to me but I am not surprised because my entire experience with Borders as of late was deceptive. Let me explain why…
There has been a huge drive to sign-up members, for $20 a year, for their “Rewards Plus” program. The sales person told me I would get a “Free book worth $30 in July” and a “$10 off coupon in August” among other coupons which totaled a value of $300.
When the free $30 book coupon became viable, it wasn’t a book of my choice. Instead, you can pick from an array of 10 books ( and believe me, the choice was books nobody would want ). I ended up selecting a phonics book worth $3.99 instead of a $30 cookbook I was looking forward to getting.
I am sure the higher-up employees were aware of the imminent demise of the business yet they forged a campaign to elicit the $20 fee from as many people as they could, knowing full well the Rewards Pus program would cease to exist when Borders died.
I am really annoyed at this and the fact that I especially made a trip to Borders today, a half hour trip for me, to participate in a sale which wasn’t a sale at all.
Don’t forget about your local independent bookstores. They may not be able to afford to offer the same discounts, but they’re all struggling to stay in business in this economy. The personal attention you’ll receive will be well worth paying full price for a book.
I’m not aware of any independent shops locally, other than used book stores. I think no matter what they economy, independent shops are doomed. Most were driven out of business by the superstores, and any that remain will be done in by digital books. There’s no sense in a physical presence when you can download anything you wish.
It seems as though the ‘mom and pop’ stores of the past are going the way of the dinosaurs in all business.
As for books, it is hard for any business to sell books when they compete with companies prefer to undersell their competitors and make it up in volume.
Borders was the hub & self’s fave place to hang around on a Saturday or Sunday morning - go and have coffee and then browse magazines, usually buying one or two. I also got all my weird ‘Euro’ cookbooks there. They closed the store we went to in, I think, March. Then Joseph Beth Books closed—it was the 2nd best and had a really good magazine collection. Now all that’s left is Barnes & Noble, and we both really dislike the store and the clientelle.
The odd thing about Borders closing is that is was ALWAYS doing a lot of business. Then they started opening later and later, so that much of their business wound up at Barnes & Noble (including ours, for a time, simply because they were open), which made little sense to me.
I remember the Borders Rewards thing, too, right on top of the closing! It was very sleazy!
Anyway, I mourn their absence. We definitely had mellow mornings there!
The Wall Street Journal has been regularly reporting the trouble at Borders. When the special Rewards program came out, I thought it was a crazy effort to raise some cash for the company; even publishers haven’t wanted to ship books to them in the past few months, so bad was the outlook. But I, too, liked the staff and store layout of my local Borders more than the other big box bookstore. Yes, I, too, used the e-mail coupons all the time, but I also purchased other material as well in hopes of keeping Borders in my area. It is a sad day for Borders lovers, but a sharp business lesson on reading the future!
I have not crossed over to reading e-books. I only read forums online. For me, there is a glare and it is not as comforting as lying on the couch with a real book.
I feel an ebook would come in handy when I am traveling and an e-cookbook would come in handy when I want to cook for the people I visit; but, to take the place of real books…not so much for me
The Wall Street Journal has been regularly reporting the trouble at Borders. When the special Rewards program came out, I thought it was a crazy effort to raise some cash for the company; even publishers haven’t wanted to ship books to them in the past few months, so bad was the outlook. But I, too, liked the staff and store layout of my local Borders more than the other big box bookstore. Yes, I, too, used the e-mail coupons all the time, but I also purchased other material as well in hopes of keeping Borders in my area. It is a sad day for Borders lovers, but a sharp business lesson on reading the future!
I believe Barnes and Nobel filed chapter 11 a while ago. I hope they don’t suffer the same fate.
There are many stores which have gone out of business; Linens And things, Hollywood Video and now Borders, to mention a few. Yet construction crews are building more malls and shopping centers everywhere you look. I don’t get it???
I have not crossed over to reading e-books. I only read forums online. For me, there is a glare and it is not as comforting as lying on the couch with a real book.
No glare with a Kindle, and the one-handed operation is quite convenient. But not really suitable for reading online stuff. I have saved some web pages out as .html and then had Amazon convert it to Kindle format, but that’s not really convenient.
I agree that an e-book isn’t a perfect replacement for a real book, but it does have numerous advantages, too. And the economics of production are so compelling that I expect that printed books will eventually go extinct, just like vinyl records.
