Borders sale

I've already posted about this on ILFilm, but it might be of interest to American ILXors: Borders stores are getting rid of their multimedia sections except for bestselling DVDs and top ten CDs, and as such they've marked down about half their DVD inventory (including loads of Criterion titles if that's your thing) and all CDs to 50% off. They don't exactly have the widest music selections, but I managed to find Dusty in Memphis, the collector's edition reissue of Forever Changes, Sandinista, and a couple of Spoon albums.

Cool. They have had some nice African and Latin stuff in the past that was priced high, so that may be worth buying now. I only bought cds there when they were on sale, or as desperate last-minute gift purchases, but now with a decreased inventory I will be even less likey to buy stuff there.

got some good deals - I just wait for things to go below amazon prices - very much enjoying godfather blu-ray and 'when we left earth' - I get bummed that my local borders stores - chi, il , evanston, il, have such SUCKY music sections ...

holy shit!

the DC location isn't doing this, i don't think

or at least the one on L isn't

I'll head down to the two Borders near Union Square for lunch and get some mall Korean food at the same time.

lemme know if they're actually doing this sale - the wife may want to run an errand to pick up some deals

when does this go to?

Small print=call your local Borders store I guess...

In-store CD & DVD clearance; 50% off list price on selected titles, while supplies last. Some store locations excluded from clearance.

*CD and DVD clearance not valid at the following Borders stores. Arizona: Tucson (E. Broadway); California: Mira Loma; San Diego (Mission Valley); San Francisco (Stonestown); San Francisco (Union Square); San Rafael; Sand City; Connecticut: Stamford; Delaware: Newark; Florida: Miami (S. Dixie Hwy.); Hawaii: Honolulu; Maui; Kentucky: Louisville (Gardiner Lane); Illinois: Chicago (Michigan Ave.); Chicago (State St.); Oak Brook; Maine: South Portland; Maryland: Annapolis; Massachusetts: Boston (School St.); Michigan: Beverly Hills; Nevada: Las Vegas (S. Decatur); New York: Manhattan (Columbus Circle); Manhattan (Park Ave.); Manhattan (Penn Plaza); Manhattan (Wall Street); Oregon: Tigard; Pennsylvania: Philadelphia (Chestnut Hill); Washington, D.C. (L St.); and Puerto Rico: Hato Rey.

oh well fuck that then

Isn't there still a Borders in the SF Center, Shakey?

the only ones I know are Stonestown and Union Square...

Just called. There is and they are in the clearance sale biz.

Yeah it's right next to Bloomingdales below the movie theater.

Waste of time (except for the mall korean food.) Selected CDs were few and far between and generally mediocre. I didn't stay long.

i guess for NYC that leaves 32nd & 2nd

wife picked up Broadway Danny Rose, the Hudsucker Proxy (and a few other things I can't remember) for $5 apiece at the one in Tanforan

Three Neko Case albums (Furnace, Blacklisted, Fox) plus The Complete Birth of The Cool* for a total of less than $30 today.

*This sale has been good for canonical Jazz stuff that I'd been holding back on.

I did learn today that some stores (like the W. Alabama one in Houston) are doing the "selected items" sticker discount thing (like the DVD sale) on their music selection too, as opposed to a blanket sale. NOT COOL.

Selected items on sale at Bailey's X-Rds/Falls Church, Virginia. Got Syd Barrett-madcap; Hector Lavoe; Johnnie Taylor best of.

BTw, in the book section there were numerous paperback copies of Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up, postpunk book for $3.99

The discounted items seem kind of randomly chosen-- I went to a Borders in New Jersey and picked up a few CDs, then I went to the one in Center City Philadelphia and the same CDs I bought earlier were not discounted there. Weird.

The one in Marlton? I was going to try to hit that up tomorrow.

I did learn today that some stores (like the W. Alabama one in Houston) are doing the "selected items" sticker discount thing (like the DVD sale) on their music selection too, as opposed to a blanket sale. NOT COOL.

That's what they were doing at my local Borders, it was a wasted trip.

finally bought chocolate & cheese

Made one last trip today- got a couple of George Carlin CDs, a bunch of Tarantino soundtracks (everything but Reservoir Dogs, which they didn't have, and Death Proof, which I already had), Hounds of Love, and the Justice live album. Also DVDs- Mann's Thief, the Criterion disc of Under the Volcano, and the original House of Wax. Thankfully they're pretty much cleared out of stuff that interests me, I was getting dangerously close to having nothing but Ramen for a month.

x-post Yes, the one in Marlton.

got a couple brian eno remaster albums that, when half off, are reasonably priced at borders...marvin gaye "here, my dear", fugazi, talking heads 77

hey you guys stay outta marlton, that's my turf!

After knifing Hawkwindz in front of the Marlton Trader Joe's I picked up:
Magic Sam West Side Soul
Kraftwerk Minimum / Maximum
V/A Johnny Greenwood is the Controller which is the first Radiohead thing I have owned. Not that I don't like them, but I always figured that I'd be able to pick up most of their discog used.

Picked up the Fall's complete Peel sessions boxset for cheap last weekend.

Debating going back and picking up the Herzog/Kinski box they had for 50% off.

Oh my gosh you need to do that.

UK bookshop chain fans: Borders is closing its Oxford Street store in August.

This year's Woolworths?

They're currently accepting vouchers at half their value (ie. letting you spend £5.00 if you have a ten pound voucher), apparently.

A Borders executive...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/Henry_Potter.jpg

:( borders is teh best chain book shop tho. if only it was waterstones

I'll have a scout at the Glasgow branch tomorrow.

Borders is very much on deathwatch. Closing 200 stores after the holidays. 200 others are part of "Project Phoenix" which means they will be run with as little staff and resources as possible and will not have their leases renewed when they run out. Also, they're trying to fire off their long time employees, presumably so they'll have less severance to pay out when they close each store down.

This e-mail from earlier in the year, from a Borders exec to store General Managers (GMs) is already a classic. Seems like an attempt at a "Coffee is for closers" speech.

Hello Leaders,

I am going to beat the dead horse,

One usually beats a dead horse, not the dead horse. In English, anyway.

because I feel the need of explain it again. This e-mail will not motivate you and it will not make you feel better.

My expectations and standards are:

You need to have flawless execution. I said flawless execution. You need to execute flawlessly and then some, but some will never come before flawless execution.

I will not accept excuses like: Anne approves it. Bill approves it. Kelly approves it. Or anything likes that. Now is me. Now is Julio. From now on it is what I say or the highway.

I ask you this. If I was interviewing you because you were unemployed and can not pay your debts, but have the GM experience and I ask you to do this job under the very worst circumstances. Very little payroll. Section movements, High Standards, high expectations, flawless execution, high csi, high borders rewards, low shrink in the store and café, to be the #1 in make items, to be #1 in everything but giving you nothing. Just depending in your GM experience, talents and skills to meet these expectations. Will you take the job? Will you tell me. Julio. You have the right person in front of you! If you will say those words. Please stay, but if you are not willing to do what I need you to do. Please leave.

Today I had a very nice conversation with a GM and she was telling me that she does not understand how Alex at store 231 make it with the little payroll that he has, the little mgmt structure that he has and how beautiful was his store and my response was. Because he has to. Payroll does not fix the problem. Mgmt skills do. An excellent GM does not needs external motivation.

If you are planning to complain to me. Don’t do it. If you are planning on telling me how difficult is the job. Don’t do it. Just leave.

Let me tell you something else. I can talk and talk and talk, but if you haven’t understand the message so far. I can talk and talk all day long and you will never understand. I am going to finish saying this: You know who you are. You know it. Don’t lie to you. Don’t lie to you. Leave and avoid the part of me letting you go. If you are planning to stay, you only can stay if you do everything I have written so far and then more. A lot more!!! Or please leave.

Note: as I said. This e-mail is not intended to be rude. But if you feel offended, I am going to ask you: Why? Why do you? Please. Let’s have the conversation and I can tell you why, but that will hurt, because I will be honest with you.

Thanks

http://rlv.zcache.com/now_is_julio_tshirt-p2351070636246664103gli_400.jpg

"Project Phoenix"

evocative name!

yikes.

this is not good news on any level. there's a degree of hypocrisy in decrying it in that i use amazon, but borders also had the best selection of magazines anywhere in my town.

^^ this - was also the only place in town to buy 33 1/3s, and the first place iirc to bother selling rock music crit at all

(also it has a mini-branch of Paperchase inside which had the best selection of greetings cards around and was also conveniently situated for buses, but hey)

Hypocrisy seconded re Amazon. I love physical bookshops, but the difference in range and price is just too high. I use bookshop cafes wherever I can to ease the guilt - but for buying books, generally not. (also, I noticed that my local Waterstone's has installed a terminal for access to waterstones.com and waterstones.com prices, which cannot be good for the shop's business)

Are Borders in the US going under too?

The 200 stores closing are mostly in the US--and mostly Borders Express mall stores. If you live in a big city with a busy Borders it will probably stay open--depending on whether anyone will give the company a loan when their operating cash runs out next April.

That letter is creepy.

president keyes, where does your inside knowledge spring from, out of curiosity

I used to work there, but left years ago-- I still have friends at my old store and there's an LJ blog:
http://community.livejournal.com/iworkatborders that is depressingly tracking the decline and fall of the company.

Huh. Who'da thunk that allowing people to sit and read and smudge and dog-ear and spill things on and into your now unsalable product without actually paying for anything would be an unsustainable business model? The world of business, it makes my head spin!!!

I mean, seriously: there have been a number of times, in my role as a mensch, that I went into Borders intending to actually buy something at cover price, only to find that their sole copy of a book was pretty much destroyed and was nothing that I would ever pay full price for or actually want to own. So stupid.

I find my old store pretty much unshoppable--every aisle is full of people sitting on the floor reading manga, deoing tarot readings, leaving through Men's magazines or just making out. The homeless people are actually preferable to other customers as they usually not shouting into cell phones or spilling coffee.

deoing=doing

We had an OD in the bathroom nearly every day--and quite a few masturbaters in the Kids section!

I used to work there, but left years ago

haha me too

xpost -- Well, reading that woke me up better than coffee.

Yeah, every time I go into the Borders downtown (Chicago), I feel like I'm going to catch something if I touch anything. Soooo skanky.

Sad to see any bookshop go under, but the prices were just not competitive enough. Even with 20% off, 'Englands Dreaming Tapes' by Jon Savage was still £6 more expensive than Amazon.

Huh. Who'da thunk that allowing people to sit and read and smudge and dog-ear and spill things on and into your now unsalable product without actually paying for anything would be an unsustainable business model? The world of business, it makes my head spin!!!

That business model works quite well. Ask Barnes and Noble. The shrink from damaged items is trivial compared to the profit resulting from letting people camp out in the store all day. Borders is failing primarily because they have been managed by a series of total incompetents at the corporate level. See above email.

I'm guessing this will have a big impact on the magazine industry - or certain parts of the magazine industry.

I suspect I've spent more money on coffee in Borders, whilst reading magazines/books that I haven't subsequently purchased, than I actually have on books.

The absence of the Borders in Oxford (handily positioned for the bus stops) might have a strange social impact re the removal of toilets.

i think there is probably a market for borders minus the books and dvds/music, i.e. magazines + coffee.

nope. next to no profit margin on magazines, coffee profits go to SBC ( a starbucks subsidiary)

i'm not saying borders + sub-letting coffee place is the way to do it, and yeah, probably not sustainable, but it would have customers.

That business model works quite well. Ask Barnes and Noble. The shrink from damaged items is trivial compared to the profit resulting from letting people camp out in the store all day.

Not true. (I used to work at Borders in Loss Prevention). Reported shrink costs 1-3% of Borders' revenue, and comes largely FROM people camping out in the store all day. There is hardly any profit from the campers: they steal, damage, drool, sleep, spill.... and rarely (/if ever) buy.

here is the first half of something a friend of mine is gonna clean up and write for real later:

Here's the deal with Borders:

As an ex-employee, I need to say the company has done virtually everything possible to destroy their own reputation, credit, stock, and customer base. At this point in their downfall it is hard to have any sympathy for them, because they have shat on the many, many chances for new life that they have been breathed. At this juncture in time, CEO Ron Marshall is basically just engaging in a pump-and-dump scheme, because BGI has basically no chance of repaying a (twice delayed) $42.5 million dollar loan with the Pershing Group at something like 9.8% interest. Shares in the company, which traded at $15 a couple of years ago, are now around $1, and have been as low as $.30 in the past 12 months.

Once upon a time - the mid '90s, - the company revolutionized corporate bookselling with a computerized scannable inventory system (BINC) (e.g. the little yellow/white stickers) that allowed them to intuitively replenish stock without much possibility of human error. They specialized in carrying individual titles of less-common and more literary books. They had a strong children's section and did well in areas of special interest: science fiction, religion, metaphysics, business, health [...] where having a large selection of single copies (and less of an emphasis on bestsellers) made them very successful with discriminating and educated consumers. Their Special Ordering system was useful too; allowing customers to request books be delivered for examination before purchase. They hired a number of capable booksellers and promoted them to low-level management; their model was to have many well-trained full-time supervisors at relatively low wage as opposed to a few managers at a high wage. They felt that this way customers would be able to receive assistance from any number of sources, and that they would create a work-environment where the possiblity of advancement was tenable and rewarding to those who sought it.

But then they started to fuck up. First, they came really, really, really, late to the internet. They partnered with amazon.com in 2001, but did not allow online ordering from their stores. They hired and fired a parade of CEOs, who began to invest increasingly in non-book merchandise at the expense of the books. In 2004 they acquired a controlling share (97%) of British stationer Paperchase for upwards of 20 million dollars. They began selling movie posters, t-shirts, film paraphernalia. They hemorrhaged money in 'concept stores' that featured unremarkable and regressive technologies like 'burn your own CD stations' and 'video displays' and they fired a lot of long-term low-level supervisors based on (frequently) arbitrary performance metrics. They allowed Seattle's Best Coffee ( a Starbucks brand) to claim even more of their floorspace, even though the cafés rarely earned any profit. They invested in a printing and marketing division, to sell 'Borders Exclusive' titles. Their inauspicious first novel 'Slip and Fall' - a debut mystery/thriller by author Nick Santora, executive producer for Beauty and the Geek, posted strong sales for exactly one week before tumbling off the publishing charts into near-obscurity amidst milquetoast reviews.

And then began the cost-cutting. CEO George Jones was given the axe and replaced by turnaround artist Ron Marshall, who has been credited with saving Target (and occasionally running into legal/ethical trouble at other failing companies). Managers and supervisors were given specific instructions to be positive about his hiring, and increase the morale of their stores while drastically cutting back the staffing hours of the rank-and-file employees. Holiday bonuses had been suspended for three years, and annual raises had been halted under Jones, and starting last January hours were chopped across the board. This was galling to many long-time employees, and the many good and loyal staff members left immediately. The decrease in hours was especially difficult in light of labor-heavy mandates passed down by Marshall to reinventory books, to drastically reduce stock (as much as 30% in some stores), to close down or limit the multimedia sections to a single digit percentage of the previous quantity. If Marshall's goals were not met in scant time and with extremely limited hours, managers faced disciplinary measures including further hours reductions, lambasting phone calls from Marshall himself, staff firings, and loss of their own jobs.

Woes for management did not end there. Between January and June of last year, a number of mass-firings occured. One infamous day in March (Black Tuesday, I think it was called) every store was foced to cut management based on their success to Marshall's plan, signalling the loss of 1200 jobs. The decisions were made based on largely arbitrary performance criteria that cost many capable, loyal, and intelligent long-time employees their position, while insulating each store's current managers, regardless of ability, in their positions. Morale sank even further. Instead of the many low-paid managers that had once comprised the supervisory structure, now there were few low-paid managers forced to take on even more responsibility, and with far fewer hours. Some stores reported as few as four employees at a time: a cashier, a barrista, a supervisor, and a single bookseller.

In addition to the lack of staff hours, poorly equipped management, and employees insecure about their future employment, a plan developed under Marshall's watch to (more than) decimate the number of titles carried by each store. Instead of promoting the large, relatively varied, and self-replenishing selection that had been Borders stock-in-trade during its salad days, during its profitable period, it was decided to place more emphasis on discounted bestsellers. The same bestsellers available at any supermarket, pharmacy, Target, at Walmart, at Costco. The net effect of this in Borders superstores was that many smaller authors, niche interests and shelving subcategories were removed or reallocted, condensed, shifted, and otherwise destroyed between October 2008 and June 2009. The Special Ordering system was scrapped, and the "Borders 2.0" search mechanism, a finicky and malfunction-prone application was used to replace the extant system.

my friend says he will write the second half later, and edit the first half so it is not quite so embarrassing.

i feel like all those tactical problems are second order issues, which ignore the strategic fact that, even with the best management in the world and favourable economic circumstances, there is no future in physical book, CD or DVD sales on the scale borders operates at.

i agree with you absoutely on the cd/dvd sales, but i don't think most people who buy physical books will ever stop buying physical books, even w/ kindle, nook, sony e-reader, et al. those seem much more of a threat to the newspaper and periodical market than the books themselves. i would gladly carry a little portable reusable newspaper doohickey, but until it's cheaper in price than single clothbound edition, i'll always prefer to carry around a softback that i can beat up and eventually stick in my library.

borders' partnership with amazon came after plowing much of the profit of the late '90s into its own borders.com site, which could never dent amazon (or even b&n.com iirc)

and even in the good times, a tremendous proportion of the chain's sales came from a handful of flagship stores, yet the strategy of growth/cannibalization was apparently never seriously questioned.

sure xxp, but they can't compete with amazon on price. i don't remember the last time i bought a book in a shop tbh.

there is a market for browsers/impulse buyers, but it relies on an extremely well-stocked and comfortable store, but the rub is that that market is nowhere near big enough to sustain those stores.

Borders pretty much sealed its fate when it began expanding hugely in the late 90s. They wanted to hit every market that B&N was in, and others besides. Now that the economy and the book & music industries are contracting Borders finds itself way overextended. They spent this decade fearful of closing down stores that were losing them money because it would look bad. The company may have been sustainable had it stayed smaller, only opening stores in major markets. When mid-level cities have 3 or 4 Borders locations, you know that they aren't all making money.

Re cafes: I presume that how it works is that the bookshop sublets floorspace to the cafe at some kind of premium, and then both businesses benefit from each other's customers - how much of the shop's rent overhead might typically be covered by such an arrangement?

Not true. (I used to work at Borders in Loss Prevention). Reported shrink costs 1-3% of Borders' revenue, and comes largely FROM people camping out in the store all day. There is hardly any profit from the campers: they steal, damage, drool, sleep, spill.... and rarely (/if ever) buy.

New hires get annoyed with campers all the time and management always tells them to get used to it, because it makes money for the store. I've met our region's LP guy when helping open a new store, and I asked him about this specifically because managers will tell booksellers anything to shut them up. He backed up the manager's position. It might increase shrink, but the increased sales more than make up for that.

The policy that seems to anger current employees most is this thing called "Make Books" where the corporate office picks a couple of titles and then expects every employee to push those titles on every customer they come in contact with, even if it makes no sense. The whole thing seems to just be a way to bleed the company of long-time workers who can't get with the program. People are being fired left and right for not selling enough copies of "The Girls From Ames", "On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet", "City of Thieves" and "The Middle Place." Whatever the hell those are.

How does the company think it can save itself by selling a few more copes of some specific obscure titles? Does anyone go into a bookstore and impulse buy a $30 hardcover by a first time author because it was pushed on them by a nervous clerk?

re: campers

I talk to people all the time who stopped shopping a Borders because of all the people sitting in the aisles, so it also loses the store money. It may work in some stores, maybe in the suburbs--but not in a big city store. The trouble with the company is that they can not see any differentiation between markets and want every run to be run exactly the same, with the same product on the shelves regardless of the community being served.

I remember when the last Luther Vandross CD came out in around 2004. Tower Records got in 600 copies and sold them all the first day--we got 5, even though our Music Supervisor sent a bunch of e-mails telling the Ann Arbor music buyer that it would be big at our store. When the Game's first CD came out we got zero copies.

shopping at

every store to be run

grrr

It may work in some stores, maybe in the suburbs--but not in a big city store.

Yeah, my stores are all suburban ones. Probably makes a big difference. If it helps, we have the same problem re: market differentiation. The buyers in NYC can't fathom the idea that maybe an Austin location will need more than four copies of the new Willie Nelson CD, and they balk when we order 200, assume we meant 20, and send 10.

Yeah, I'm a fairly regular shopper at Borders in Austin and wasn't even aware of the camping out problem. It must not be so bad here.

I love Bitch About Borders sites! Though I'm surprised that others care. I just quit working there in August after 10 years to stay home with my boy. I have not missed one aspect of my job (apart from my coworkers, yadda yadda). It was really bad towards the end. As a supervisor, I was actually getting weekly messages like that horrific email posted above, from a DM who I since learned has quit the company.

And yeah, the music section has sucked for a while.

Anyway, here's a previously written rant about things in Borders' sinister Annual Report that angered me (they actually used the term "Golden Parachute"):

1. "[CEO since 2006] Mr. J ceased to serve as an executive officer on 1/5/09. Included in column (i) for Mr. J is an aggregate of $2,312,784 payable in accordance with the terms of the severance agreement between the Company and Mr. J. In addition, Mr. J will receive a payment in the amount of $765,000... after the six month anniversary of the effective date of his termination of employment."
[from the Summary Compensation Table, p. 16-17]

Some context: Mr. J did not go willingly into the good night. But, because it was "necessary" to attract Mr. J's level of talent in the first place, he now gets $3 million for getting fired. You see, the "Cause Termination" that would render Mr. J ineligible for his severance pay includes only felony conviction; "willful and continued failure to substantially perform the duties and responsibilities of his position" (accusation of which could easily be challenged by Mr. J in a lawsuit); damaging the reputation of the company (which he did, but again, only through everyday incompetence, not in any "gross misconduct" sort of way); breach of contract; or gross negligence (p. 21). Since he didn't do any of these things, or at least could launch a cash-draining lawsuit if the Board accused him of such things, he gets his "Golden Parachute"--a term actually used elsewhere in the Annual Report.

2. Speaking of Golden Parachutes, also on p. 21: "If... [current CEO] Mr. M is subject to the golden parachute excise tax under Section 4999 of the Internal Revenue Code, the Company will make a tax equalization payment to Mr. M to insulate him against the impact of the excise tax." Presumably Mr. J got the same deal. Meanwhile...

3. p. 65, under "Employee Benefit Plans", the 401 (K) part: "Our expense related to this plan was $1.6 [million], $4.0, and $4.2 for 2008, 2007, and 2006, respectively, and consisted primarily of a match of certain employee contributions. We suspended this match payment as of 7/1/08."

Note that the shortfall in 2008, after the company stopped matching 401 (K) contributions, is less than the amount of Mr. J's compensation for gracefully ceasing his employment without litigation.

4. from Form 10-K, p. 6, "Employees": "All new store employees participate in a training program that provides up to two weeks of in-store training..." Ha! Maybe for a GM. Regular staff used to be a week, and now they'll be lucky to get three days, because payroll hours are more precious than gold. Not that we're hiring. And then...

"We believe that our relations with employees are generally excellent. Our employees are not represented by unions."

Maybe employee relations were excellent before we cut payroll by a third (in my location; I hear we've got it good), suspended the company 401 (K) match, started requiring "bag checks" for employees who aren't carrying bags, and trimmed a bunch of other little benefits (free coffee, full-time merch credit), each of which on its own is understandable, the cumulative effect of which is devastating. And that may have been the case before we started requiring employees to recommend specific books they haven't read to as many customers as possible, and forcefully implemented a new aggressive "greet-and-say-your-name" strategy that so far shows no correlation to increased sales. In fact, I've been working there for 10 years, I can say: employee relations were generally excellent before we settled on a culture of desperation. Now, not so much.

Not that I necessarily favor union representation for us. (I certainly favor it for my wife the teacher.) But unions are one of two ways (the other being profit-sharing or commissions) a workforce can make itself economically invested in its work. (Well, stock options, I suppose. Ours have long been a joke.) To sort-of paraphrase Virgil Thompson on music criticism, unions are cumbersome and inefficient, but they're also one of the only antidotes to a disposable workforce.

my exp of borders:
I first found a borders in Cambridge about 5 years ago. I loved the combination of books, music (which at the time was quite a large selection,with the listening booths which was great for the time/area. Never really went again because there wasnt one local.

Then last year, I started workig in the Charing Cross store. At temp level it was awful. There was a morning meeting where basically we were given a full sales run down, given books to specifically push that day (over the tannoy, at the tills etc). Temps were generally treated so awfully.

Strange thing is. Just after Christmas someoe from 'Waterstones head office', like admin staff guy or somethig, came in and said 'Borders isnt doing great is it?" "No?" "You're going under within the next 12 moths, maybe 6." Didn't think anything of it.

This November just gone, started working at Waterstones; Waterstones is absolutely great; temps are treated as part of the team. Ad we don't push books, it feels like what a bookshop should be. It's like Rough Trade but for books almost, even though its corporate. Personally I've found nicer staff there than I have in an indepdent, and more experienced.

Its sad that Borders has closed, its a shame any bookseller could sell.

"Project Phoenix"

Does it sound to anyone else like they're planning to burn these stores down for the insurance money?

Harry Potter and the Borders of the Phoenix!

Amazon: we're not stupid

I'm a big borders fan so this doom & gloom gets me worried. but I looked at the list of 200 stores closing in 2010 and none of the locations I frequent is on there. it's all locations I never step foot in - waldenbooks and borders express. the contraction is a smart move if they're closing small, underperforming stores. 200 stores has to be almost 20% of their total US locations, no?

re: that Amazon article, it reminds me I always thought Argos missed a truly awesome window of opportunity to partner/compete with Amazon in the early days, when people were still a bit lairy about internet shopping. they're not in trouble now, afaik, but they could have been massive(r).

They partnered with amazon.com in 2001, but did not allow online ordering from their stores.

their amazon partnership always confused me. they didn't have the same prices, there didn't seem to be a logical reason behind the partnership to my eyes, and it didn't really help w/finding something in the store.

I always thought Argos missed a truly awesome window of opportunity to partner/compete with Amazon in the early days, when people were still a bit lairy about internet shopping

... and Amazon was still just doing books and CDs.

Closing BSRs taken off of the Store Locator
We had a customer come in the other day and she mentioned to a co-worker of mine that our store wasn't listed on Borders.com. He was skeptical and checked it out and low and behold we're gone! According to Borders.com, my store and all BSRs that are closing don't exist. That's really nice. We aren't gone yet, you know!!!

also, i think the design of borders stores tend to run a little on the antiseptic side compared to B&N. and the high shelves don't make it a very open and welcoming place; B&N feels a little more homey, classy, and relaxing. there was a borders on the third street promenade in santa monica, a couple of blocks down from a B&N. the former was three floors, always seemed a little messy, and was poorly laid out. towards the end it just seemed to be a harried place, despite it being half as packed as the B&N, which is still there and still very successful without breaking a sweat (as far as i can tell.)

I'm saddest for places like my hometown, where Borders is pretty much the only bookstore in town and where they're all-too-used to businesses folding left and right.

yeah but unless it's a waldenbooks or borders express it sounds like it will still be open so maybe save yr sadness?

their amazon partnership always confused me. they didn't have the same prices, there didn't seem to be a logical reason behind the partnership to my eyes, and it didn't really help w/finding something in the store.

they tried to do the e-commerce thing themselves and weren't pleased with the results, they probably saw the amazon partnership as a way to leverage e-commerce infrastructure without investing in or owning it

made sense I guess but the actual implementation was dodgy

Meanwhile, they've got Cohen's Live in Concert and Dylan's Unplugged for $5.99.

Several of the Borders in Chicago work as social public-space hubs for their neighborhoods--Clark and Diversey, in particular. I would love it if somehow the Chicago Public Library were to take them over when/if they close--keep the shelves, keep the popularity as a gathering place, and go from there.

they are selling off the fittings and furniture in my local.

likewise. kind of wanted some bookshelves.

The Borders in Birmingham are closing, final day = today.

I did get Juliana Hatfield's autobiog yesterday, £3.40

Popped into the Charing Cross Road branch in London, grim...a handful of books on mostly empty shelves, big piles of unsorted crap on tables, 90% off everything, massive queue...did see Hubert Selby's "The Room" though! Yours for 79p.

Just back from Teesside Park branch, absolute chaos. Came back with £400 worth of books, magazines and cds for £40. Queued 40 minutes to pay for them.

Anyone bought any bookshelves or other fitments?

Yeah, I wandered into the Charing X one as well the other day... Fled the scene after about two minutes. I used to quite like that branch.

I did get Juliana Hatfield's autobiog yesterday, £3.40

― Mark G, Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:43 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Holy mackerel this is a real thing! o_O

Anyone bought any bookshelves or other fitments?

Unless you live in an old mansion I don't see how these could fit into most people houses or flats.

I was all for pouncing on some (of the smaller) bookshelves etc., but here they aren't really very cheap at all. Just as well going to Argos. Also I suspect that they won't do delivery and I am not convinced I can make the two mile walk in icy conditions with a huge bookcase on my back.

I got a bunch of books at 70% off (couple of David Foster Wallaces, couple of the nice newish Penguin Nabokovs, blah blah blah), but my friend who works there (wahey!) assures me that there is nothing but pish left now that it's 90% off. Although she and all of her colleagues, of course, have had piles of stuff hidden away for weeks waiting for this glorious glorious day. Of losing their jobs.

They [huge bookcases] would go down very nicely in Glasgow tenement housing with the 15 foot ceilings and massive rooms.

Aye I guess so, bastard getting them up the stairs though.

I also heard that they weren't particularly cheap though.

all the good shit had departed from cambridge during the 20–30% era.

RIP

Just had a dream that I walked into my local Borders and they were selling cellophane-wrapped pallets of "Bringing Out the Dead" for $920 a ton.

My old local Borders (Marlton, NJ) is closing, but I guess the company is sticking around awhile longer.

Oh snap, dude, you used to live in Marlton?

More like Cherry Hill, but Marlton was the closest Borders.

not too sure how long the company will stick around

http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/?cat=66

Kinda sad that the Thousand Oaks Borders is closing. When I worked out there I discovered that it was a pretty good place to have lunch (the rest of Thousand Oaks was a suburban wasteland). The barista there listened to Bikini Kill all the time and made brutally strong coffee.

Ever go to the Marlton Tunes? Is it nice?

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/01/what-went-wrong-at-borders/69310/

The one across from my office is advertising a clearance sale, up to 75% off.

When I was a teenager I went there a lot for music. They were one of the first stores that I remember having like shitloads of stuff on various listening stations, and I really enjoyed that. Good coffee too.

My dad always used to call it "Borders and Books," which drove me crazy.

But when Borders expanded, they brought in executives from supermarkets and department stores (all of whom insisted they were readers)

at a borders general managers meeting in the late 90s, one of these supermarket guys enthused about sales of under the tucson sun to the enormous amusement of book ppl

lols

The other day I made a purchase at a good neighborhood bookshop, and the crotchety but interesting owner chatted me up about the books I was buying for a bit, and I was thinking "In the internet age, this and the ability to wander the aisles for a while are pretty much the only things a bookstore has going for it." I guess Borders at least has the second thing, although it's kind of sterile compared to a nice used bookshop.

filed for bankruptcy, finally

will close some 200 stores and shed much of its staff. The company currently operates more than 650 stores

I wonder where they're keeping stores?

The article talks about how Barnes & Noble will benefit. I find B & N less consumer-friendly now. Who buys stuff there?

This has a list of the stores that are closing, in a sortable database.

The B&N near my house is actually really fantastic. Good customer service, always lots of people. The only drawbacks are, as usual with these chains, price and the fact that they keep pushing their damn Nook on me everytime I walk in. Which, in and of itself, always struck me as funny. I mean, aren't those the very things contributing to the demise of brick and mortar stores?

The one near me was for years very good, about 2 years ago the range of stock they carried diminished a lot, then a bit under a year ago it closed. TBH I thought they already had gone into admin.

yeah, the one near me radically cut back on the music selection a few years ago. too bad, when i was a kid, borders really had a nice range of stuff.

Goodbye downtown Santa Cruz Borders. I will miss your white-chocolate-chip and caramel cookies a little bit.

Will there be a big store-closing sale?

BASTARDS they are closing the one a block away from my office

although the one 2 blocks away from my church gig will still be open, so phew

man borders was literally the only place in my hometown to get a book that was not about hawaiiana or weaving. also the only place to get a CD that wasn't the place where all the CDs cost exactly the same as borders but was also a head shop. the store closed last year, my mom tells me. rest in peace, borders, even though softcovers should never cost eighteen fucking dollars.

Don't get me started on the trend of overpriced softcovers. The person that decided that every softcover ever should get slightly larger and be priced over twelve dollars should be tried for crimes against humanity.

http://brianoneill.us/This%20says%20it%20all.JPG

Man, both of the large stores in Tampa are closing. I guess I'll have to get a kindle after all.

wow this is messed up

Man, both of the large stores in Tampa are closing. I guess I'll have to get a kindle after all.

I think thats the goal. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is a really sad fucking thing because for a lot of small to mid-sized cities in middle America, these chains were the only decent places for kids to hang out and learn new shit. I would have been lost when I was 16 and 17 without a Borders or Barnes & Noble to visit. Yeah yeah, everything is available online and cheaper, I get that (I use amazon too), but something is really going to be lost when there are no more bookstores and record shops for people to browse in.

None of the three (!) Borders in the five-mile radius in which I live are closing. I have mixed feelings about Borders -- paying almost twenty dollars for a Vargas Llosa novel is a bit much -- but for a national chain its customer service is surprisingly strong.

Execrable business model aside, I don't have a problem with Borders. Each time I've visited, I'm surprised by an unexpected treat: a Sciascia novel, or a limited edition of John Adams' Discourses on Davila.

When I heard the news, the first thing that came to my mind was a possible liquidation sale and all the books/movies/music I could lap up. After looking at the closure list, I don't see any store near me closing. Oh well.

you realize that with the exception of imports/crazy special orders, the publishers set the retail prices? some people (amazon/b&n/walmart) discount that more than borders did, but that's the price on the book.

I think thats the goal. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is a really sad fucking thing because for a lot of small to mid-sized cities in middle America, these chains were the only decent places for kids to hang out and learn new shit. I would have been lost when I was 16 and 17 without a Borders or Barnes & Noble to visit. Yeah yeah, everything is available online and cheaper, I get that (I use amazon too), but something is really going to be lost when there are no more bookstores and record shops for people to browse in.

― rendezvous then i'm through with HOOS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, February 16, 2011 7:13 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah, seriously. I mean, I use Amazon too, but not being able to just stop in at my neighborhood store to brouse for a few hours is gonna suck.

Man, both of the large stores in Tampa are closing. I guess I'll have to get a kindle after all.

― musicfanatic, Thursday, 17 February 2011 14:03 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Kobo's fine

yeah, I'll miss borders, definitely my favorite chain

but oddly enough there are 2 in RI and neither of them are on the close list!

"public visitation, we [didn't] me[e]t at borders"

;_;

this is a good opportunity for enterprising locals who know the community to step up & fill the void imo.

Don't get me started on the trend of overpriced softcovers. The person that decided that every softcover ever should get slightly larger and be priced over twelve dollars should be tried for crimes against humanity.

For me it's more that trade paperbacks are now printed on the shittiest thinnest pulp paper. It used to be part of the thing with tp's that you got a higher-quality object, not just a dimensionally larger one.

lol there I was thinking 'lol our borders is unaffected lol' and then this happens

this is a good opportunity for enterprising locals who know the community to step up & fill the void imo.

In theory, yes, but lol @ any lending institution handing out loans for a bookstore in the current economy.

But what about a cafe/bookstore?

Bit sick of all the people who are crowing about the death of paper books (as opposed to ebooks). It's one bloody book chain, it's hardly the end of print.

two book chains, really.

Borders is essentially dead in the water and, rumor has it, Barnes & Noble isn't far behind. Sure, you could look at them as just "two book chains", sure, but they are easily the most widespread and well-known in the U.S. Losing both of these will be a HUGE blow to the publishing industry, at least here. A lot of smaller publishing houses are already freaking out over the Borders news.

Yeah u wont b blahzay wen the next generayshun kant reed.

Y

Amazingly the one in Atlas Park is not closing.

"Losing both of these will be a HUGE blow to the publishing industry"

Why should anyone care about the publishing industry btw?

Seriously?

ppl that work in the publishing industry iirc

are book sales going down or up?

"Seriously?"

Completely.

Sorry if I don't indulge yr trolling.

ebook sales are definitely going up in the US but not enough to kill paper books.

how do you feel about...books?

I love books! I don't care about the publishing industry though.

Or new bookstores.

It's like the death of music industry. So it dies? Who cares? It's not like there won't be stuff to read or listen to.

ebook sales are definitely going up in the US but not enough to kill paper books.

― egregious fannydangling (Autumn Almanac), Thursday, February 17, 2011 9:34 PM (32 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well yes but they were zero a couple of years ago so this is kind of a trivial statement.

i'm asking whether, aside from having only one company to sell to, which is obviously not a problem, closing down a chain that apparently makes a loss and presumably sells relatively few books is a problem from a cash flow pov for _publishers).

I was answering your question by saying I don't see how the rise of ebooks is strong enough to dent paper sales, I wasn't being a smartarse.

yeah but it's not zero sum. both could go up or down.

except it seems like there isn't a comparable system in place for independently manufacturing/distributing/promoting books like there is for music? i feel worse for writers these days than i do for musicians.

Borders owes publishers and distributors ~$272 million

Alex in SF clearly doesn't give a shit about people earning money for their efforts.

"except it seems like there isn't a comparable system in place for independently manufacturing/distributing/promoting books like there is for music?"

Blogs? Lulu? Beats me. I'm sure people'll figure something out.

"Lol sorry you guys aren't getting paid! Somebody will figure something magical out or you guys. Good luck!"

"Alex in SF clearly doesn't give a shit about people earning money for their efforts."

Writing efforts? Or publishing efforts? Cuz I wish the best for people writing, but no I'm not terribly invested in the continuing financial health of publishing folks.

except it seems like there isn't a comparable system in place for independently manufacturing/distributing/promoting books like there is for music?

(aa here) Smashwords? Baen? Those are ebooks admittedly, but they exist and independent authors and publishers are using them.

It's not like most writers make enough that writing isn't a labor of love anyway.

Ales has a point, if his point is that publishers shaft most authors the way major record companies shaft most of their artists.

do they?

idk

http://www.fonerbooks.com/images/books_2.gif

i.e. total book sales are going up

of course 275m being written off is bad, and of course a diverse retail sector is good for publishers, but otherwise *shrug* rip borders

$9bn in 2002, $13bn in 2009

Bit pointless having enormous bookshops these days, what with Amazon having such an enormous range and doing that 'look inside' thing.

I'm not crying "boo hoo for Borders" (or any other big chain), I just think it points towards a future with fewer and fewer brick and mortar stores. Which, given many of your comments itt I'm alone on apparently, I find sad. I love being able to browse for stuff. Amazon recommendations engine doesn't fix that for me.

xpost - "Look inside" /= to real life browsing, you still need to know somewhat specifically what you are looking for

That's what message board threads are for.

there will always, always be bookstores. always!

Sure, big cities will still have independent shops and there will always be a market for "rare book" places, but people living in Bumfuck, Idaho aren't going to have any bookstores.

that's what you get for living in a town called "bumfuck"

seriously though, small towns might not have book stores but there are lots of things that small towns don't have. that's what makes them small.

People in Bumfuck probably have bigger problems anyway.

Or what n/a just said.

Okay, not really just small towns though. Small-market cities without colleges probably won't either.

Obviously I'm in the minority here, but I just don't consider Amazon to be the equivalent, sorry.

People in Bumfuck probably have bigger problems anyway.

for one thing, neighboring townspeople call them Bumfuckers.

"Small-market cities without colleges probably won't either."

Don't live in Bakersfield basically.

good life advice regardless

I didn't read most of this thread so sorry if this doesn't address your concerns about towns/small cities not having bookstores, but if you're just worried about people having a place to access books and hang out, most towns/small cities do have libraries. some of them even have coffee.

In the small town I grew up in our library closed at 5:00 PM and was closed on weekends, pretty useless iirc.

i have being saying for years that people should move out of small towns

"get out of small towns" i say

"get out"

The reason this matters to me isn't so much small town bookstores but the fact that I work at a small publishing enterprise that has seen a lot of layoffs for unrelated reasons and Borders potentially screwing us out of money could mean more people I know get laid off, which would suck.

Also I don't work in contracts or agency or whatever but I'm pretty sure we treat our authors well on the $ side of things, otherwise they'd just go elsewhere.

i've never read an e-book or a self-published book, nor has a good review of one ever showed up on my radar that would make me check one out. maybe we will move to a model where independent publishers put out e-books and people are buy them in enough numbers to make being an author worthwile, but we're not there yet. and musicians at least have the luxury of making some money from live shows, even if records are a write-off in terms of $. i'm assuming young authors aren't making tons of bank from readings or book tours.

maybe novelists will become like poets, ie no expectation of making money from your work or having many readers outside of a very niche group.

xp to alex in sf

Also I don't work in contracts or agency or whatever but I'm pretty sure we treat our authors well on the $ side of things, otherwise they'd just go elsewhere.

haha o_O don't you work for a university press?

yah, talking about money wrt this place is kind of lol isn't it

"maybe we will move to a model where independent publishers put out e-books and people are buy them in enough numbers to make being an author worthwhile"

How many authors actually make a living solely from writing? I'm not saying royalty checks aren't nice, but seriously if your name isn't JK Rowling or James Patterson you probably have a side gig.

no, i mean more "Also I don't work in contracts or agency or whatever but I'm pretty sure we treat our authors well on the $ side of things, otherwise they'd just go elsewhere" is a total misunderstanding of why academics publish. the money is terrible, and we can't go elsewhere, so it's not that.

In the small town I grew up in our library closed at 5:00 PM and was closed on weekends, pretty useless iirc.

― rendezvous then i'm through with HOOS (jon /via/ chi 2.0)

Didn't you check books out and take them elsewhere to read?

i've never read an e-book or a self-published book, nor has a good review of one ever showed up on my radar that would make me check one out. maybe we will move to a model where independent publishers put out e-books and people are buy them in enough numbers to make being an author worthwile, but we're not there yet. and musicians at least have the luxury of making some money from live shows, even if records are a write-off in terms of $. i'm assuming young authors aren't making tons of bank from readings or book tours.

CDbaby recently launched a similar service where they help authors who pay a fee make their books available as e-books via all the big e-readers - seems like the obstacle here is that no one reputable is going to review a self-published e-book unless it gets a ton of buzz somehow

xp Where would you go and not see bums fucking?

I don't get why you guys feel the need to poke holes in every single one of my posts itt. As I said upthread, I am bemoaning the lack of a place for kids to gather and go to learn new stuff.

(xpost)

Some of you are infuriating, but I suppose thats your intention.

I'm not trying to bust your chops man. Just was curious

Not you, I get what you are saying, its just that not all libraries like the one I live near now have those "teen spaces" and late night hours and stuff. Sure I was a huge nerd, but I would have loved something like that when I was in 7th, 8th grade.

sure, but isn't a good teaching gig often contingent on having a decent amount of work published (and at least critically well-received)? it'll be interesting to see if/how that changes.

What I learned itt today - bookstores suck, writers should write for love only and not expect to get paid, and never use the fictional town name "Bumfuck" again.

I guess I don't see the big deal here. The world changes and kids'll change with it. It's like lamenting the death of the drive through or the soda jerk. Believe me nerdy kids'll make due.

"writers should write for love only and not expect to get paid"

Thing is MOST writers already do this!

"sure, but isn't a good teaching gig often contingent on having a decent amount of work published (and at least critically well-received)?"

This work doesn't have to be sold in Borders. In fact most of the time it isn't sold in Borders.

* bookstores are great
* my feelings about professional artists and complicated. basically i think that some artists should get paid to do what they do, but also think being an amateur artist (ie one who does it in their spare time and does other things for money) should be seen as a good, realistic goal and one that should be celebrated, and that not all people who make art (even ones who are good at it) should make a living from their art.
* sorry i was silly about the name "bumfuck"

ARE complicated

I was teasing about "Bumfuck", guess I thought that was a more common term used to describe tiny towns in the middle of nowhere.

don't apologize for using the term "bumfuck"

basically I think that there's too much of a perception that you're not a "real artist" unless your art is your primary source of income. but this is turning into a digression.

I actually liked this idea of this town called Bumfuck with this thriving community of nerds hanging out at Borders. Sadly they are probably talking about Twilight or LARPing.

no, i mean more "Also I don't work in contracts or agency or whatever but I'm pretty sure we treat our authors well on the $ side of things, otherwise they'd just go elsewhere" is a total misunderstanding of why academics publish. the money is terrible, and we can't go elsewhere, so it's not that.

I didn't mean to imply any academic publishes for the money, only that they aren't getting shafted a la musicians in the recording industry to the best of my knowledge. We publish reference works and other not-strictly-academic stuff that helps subsidize the rest of the operation.

And they can and do go to other publishers, I've seen it first hand.

Sorry, Twilight and LARPing would both be banned at my Bumfuck, USA chain of nerdy library stores.

Lake Bumfuck Days

xxp, ok i was thinking more journal publishing. why only yesterday nrq was complaining he didn't even get a copy of his own article. going to another journal is not an option in many/most subjects because of the professional culture.

The best bumhouse in fuckview.

MY EX-ROOMIE SAYS eAST bUTTFUCK

I've also heard "West Bumblefuck" as an acceptable substitution.

We can also use the term "Podunk" as an alternative

My wife uses the term "Poo-dunk" instead

xps Yeah, I still work in journals and it's a different story here for sure. Our books division is definitely reacting to the Borders situation, though.

Most of my journals give a complimentary copy to authors, btw!

iirc, that was deemed offensive to the Podunkian tribe in 1973

I prefer "Jerkwater".

most towns/small cities do have libraries. some of them even have coffee.

yes, but they'll be the first to go in fiscal crisis, like, now

I like that everyone is keeping their chin up through this tragedy.

my journal (i) doesn't give me a copy (ii) charges me to include colour figures. good deal.

From google maps search:

Podunk, Barry, MI 49058
Podunk, New Haven, CT 06437
Podunk, Windham, VT 05341
Podunk, Gladwin, MI 48624
Podunk, 231 East 5th St # SE, New York, NY 10003
Podunk, Coolbaugh, Monroe, PA 18347

"yes, but they'll be the first to go in fiscal crisis, like, now"

Soon they will close at four. And only serve Folgers.

nothing found for "bumfuck"

This work doesn't have to be sold in Borders. In fact most of the time it isn't sold in Borders.

sorry, i wasn't talking about borders anymore, just responding to your "fuck a publishing industry" comments.

my feelings about it are complicated too...no one's entitled to make a living from writing fiction, but i have friends who i see just sacrificing and working for years to write a good novel, and i think it would be nice if there were some mechanism in place for those novels to at least get read. actually it would be nice if they were properly edited first, and i guess that would have to be done by someone for the love of the game too.

i wonder if, in the post-publishing industry dystopia, it's gonna be cool to start your own indie e-book label? i guess?

"Jerkwater": Hopewell, PA 16650

Looks like the upper midwest and northeast have some explaining to do

Terry County Airport (where?) has an airport code of BFE

Yeah, I thought about bringing up that particular one, but I kinda thought Egypt deserved better after their rough month.

"i wonder if, in the post-publishing industry dystopia, it's gonna be cool to start your own indie e-book label? i guess?"

Anything is possible. I'm pretty sure that if you want to write a novel, there will probably be some avenue for getting people editing/producing/reading it.

What happened in Bumfuck Egypt? I've been living in a shanty in Podunk, Idaho for the last year

BFE or Bumblefuck, Egypt (also Bumfuck, Egypt, Butt Fuck, Egypt or Beyond Fucking Egypt) (vulgar), refers to an unspecified remote location or destination, assumed to be arduous to travel to, unpleasant to visit and/or far away from anything of interest to the speaker (e.g. Man, you parked way the hell out in BFE). In Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, this is often referred to as Japip or East Jabip/Jabib. In the Chicago metropolitan area, the term was coined to refer to the region in downstate Illinois known as "Little Egypt", centered in Cairo, Illinois, for being the furthest from the urban center in both distance and way of life.

I believe I have also heard the politer term "East Hell."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placeholder_name#Places

i like "east cupcake"

Bit pointless having enormous bookshops these days, what with Amazon having such an enormous range and doing that 'look inside' thing.

Amazon doesn’t allow for the eye-catching impulse purchase, doesn’t let you see if the paper quality / text size / art repro / binding are any good, doesn’t show you three other books available by the same author that you might be interested in (instead shitting up your curiosity with four pages of lists of 33 out-of-print titles and audiocassettes), doesn’t let you walk out and start reading on the bus

Didn't you check books out and take them elsewhere to read?

Presumably not, since the library was never open to either check books out or return them

you used to be able to pick up girls in my borders. or, you know, run into girls you knew from school. that's the main functionality i'd miss w/ amazon.

i guess there will still be girls though.

Yeah, at home. Their home.

OKCupid can do targeted ads on Amazon

xpost - "Look inside" /= to real life browsing, you still need to know somewhat specifically what you are looking for

― rendezvous then i'm through with HOOS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 18 February 2011 08:54 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Running way behind but I want to respond to this. Online perusing will never ever replace going into a shop and opening a book, odderviously, but economically it's not an enduring proposition to operate what for many consumers has become an elaborate preview service. I know in Australia it's especially silly because (and Borders is the perfect example here) you go into the shop, find a paperback book you want, see that it costs $42 (Borders sticks to (or exceeds!) RRP), balk mightily, go home and import it including shipping for $18. idk if the US has a similar problem with brick & mortar charging even 5-10% more than online shops but it's a certainly a pattern that's developed here and it's already killing book retail as witnessed this week.

i said this on another thread but a couple of weeks ago i ordered a book from Borders' website for like $7 less than it cost in the Borders store

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of massive book shops, I just don't think it's terribly viable anymore, even after putting aside the GFC, the supposed ebook 'revolution', etc. Melbourne has about 4m people and nine Borders outlets, I mean that's sort of ridiculous considering most customers are probably just buying Twilight books anyway.

xp to n/a: See, that's crazy too. Borders and B&N shops seem to be pushing online and ebooks to their own detriment. It's like if car yards had big 'CATCH THE TRAIN!!' banners out the front.

Every week I get an email from Borders with a coupon usually for 30% to 40% off any item. The place doesn't have to be as expensive as some might suggest.

Are you in the US?

Yes

Bumfuck, United States

lol

I was asking because we get the same offers here, e.g. 40% off adult fiction until the following Monday or whatever. Problem with that here is that we can regularly save >60% on anything at all by ordering online from the US/UK, so those offers are totally useless.

borders closed in the UK just over a year ago, which, yeah, they're not an independent store blah blah, but it sucked coz they stocked magazines no-one else did. mag i write for lost 3% os sales year-on-year and they attribute that to borders going under.

Bit sick of all the people who are crowing about the death of paper books (as opposed to ebooks). It's one bloody book chain, it's hardly the end of print.

Print will survive. Why, some of us can recall a time when ILX was something you got in the mail every week. You'd read the threads, fill in your own responses (now called "posts") and suggestion ideas for new threads and send it all back in the mail. Good times.

Another interesting point about Borders shops (at least here) is that they became less about books and more about stationery, toys &c. Too diluted.

They were great in the beginning when they were just a massive bookshop with every book you could imagine in stock. I can't remember the last time any Borders had a niche book I wanted. What's the point of a massive bookshop if its range is no more comprehensive than the tiny competitor across the road?

They were great in the beginning when they were just a massive bookshop with every book you could imagine in stock.

I was never in a Borders like this

Wow. That's pretty much what they were like when they first opened here (1998?). I distinctly remember looking for the wackiest books I could think of and finding all of them on the shelves.

As a teenage boy, I found Borders to be a neat little place to visit on lonely and sad Friday nights.

What a disaster for nerdy and sexually deprived teenage boys etc

Wow. That's pretty much what they were like when they first opened here (1998?). I distinctly remember looking for the wackiest books I could think of and finding all of them on the shelves.

I said this yesterday. To this day, my Borders will carry, say, the unexpected second-tier Conrad novel while my local independent bookstore will only sell Heart of Darkness.

I haven't been in a Borders in years and years cuz it just wasn't worth bothering. I pretty much only frequent two bookstores now - Borderlands in SF (specializing in sci-fi/fantasy) and Powell's in Portland (which is easily the best bookstore I have EVER been in).

powell's is laying off a bunch of people, i've heard

Back in the day Borders really did have pretty much anything I was looking for--small press poetry, Sun & Moon, Dalkey Archive--But it totally changed in the past five years or so. B&N was always the devil--with their face-outs and tiny selections. Sad to see this happen to so many Borders employees, but the company became shit in the last few years. B&N scumbags deserved it more, but were smarter, I guess.

From what I understand the newish management at Borders did not give a shit about books and were solely focused on moving "product".

Borders (and B&N) have NEVER had the books I'm looking for; I go there twice a year to pick up FANTASTIC MAN and that's it. Some dumb relative of mine thought it'd be a good idea to get me a Border's gift card for xmas and everything was so expensive! Picked up some used graphic novels iirc.

Borders was expensive, but by using the coupons and taking advantage of their 3 for 2 sales made them really not anymore (and sometimes less!) than a lot of other chains. But just walking in for your average book, yeah, ridiculous. Again, I'm not really upset over losing Borders, its just that the overall trend is not looking good for a lot of other bookstores either.

http://www.edrants.com/list-of-independent-alternatives-to-closed-borders-bookstores/

Very very cool that someone took the time to put that together!

Except that I've been to some of those "alternatives" in the north suburbs of Chicago and they are awful places that sell "used" books but will only stock the most popular of the most popular or romance novels.

Also, no Myopic?

i'm curious about 'title wave' in anchorage. i worked for the borders there when it opened and it really was a big deal, because there was nothing like it there at all. (it was the first borders outside the lower 48 at the time.)

i remember a woman excitedly asking when they would open a store in wasilla. pretty sure it wasn't sarah p. tho

I haven't been in a Borders in years and years cuz it just wasn't worth bothering. I pretty much only frequent two bookstores now - Borderlands in SF (specializing in sci-fi/fantasy) and Powell's in Portland (which is easily the best bookstore I have EVER been in).

― ice cr?m's world of female people (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, February 17, 2011 4:14 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM with Powell's. About the only thing keeping me moving from Portland, lol.

Oh man I tried going into Border's sale and the lines were to the back of the store! Fucking insane! And only for 20∞ off – p sure the avg amazon discount is steeper than that without entering your crone phase while waiting in line.

uh I mean 20% off
20∞ off might be a good deal if I understood even what that meant

yeah, it's that kind of "ooh, people wil flip for 20%" thinking that sunk the company. i mean w/ cover prices, stores/retailers are making about 45% profit, so a 20% discount is skimpy and still greedy given the sinking ship piloted by ann arbor

fuck borders hard! (i mean as a fella who worked on and off for them for them from '99 – 09) before getting fired because my boss - who suffered from anterograde amnesia – refused to admit that he'd approved my vacation.

stores/retailers are making about 45% profit

that is the markup on (some) books, though most are a bit less and music is significantly less.

in any case, 20% off everything in the store is a *huge* loss-maker after rent/salaries/benefits/distro/etc. the chain's profit margin in the good days was only a couple percent.

Our Borders isn't doing special sales but it is refusing to honour gift vouchers unless you purchase goods totalling DOUBLE the amount of the voucher. Nice goodwill gesture there, good luck with yr poxy business.

that . . . doesn't seem legal. although maybe some bankruptcy thing applies.

reckon our Borders is p much getting ready to shut down though, not reorganising to carry on

What has given you that idea?

mookie: Voluntary administration gives them a magic cloak that protects against legal action so basically they can do whatever they like and get away with it. Pretty poor form especially as they were selling gift cards the day administration was announced.

What has given you that idea?

they've been closing stores, liquidating old stock, and limiting new, for over six months now (the latter being A&R SOP obv)

during this time they tried to extend return terms to 120 days and were refused

they've actually been cut off by some suppliers in the midst of this

they only bought up Borders in order to swell the accounts before flogging the company, but shitty misunderstanding of how to stock or sell books, as opposed to widgets or soap, saw profits plummet and the float cancelled

and the very fact that they're pulling this gift card bullshit shows they're so desperate for pennies short-term that they have no intention of retaining customers for a single repeat purchase ever, let alone long-term

I went to the Borders sale at a store closing north of Seattle, and I was disappointed with only a 20% sale. I bought the new Edmund Morris book and a Sibelius 3cd set. I would have saved MORE if I had gone to a store that was NOT closing. I had a coupon for 30% off and it would only be accepted at non-closing stores. Oh well

Cheers sic, I had no idea about any of that. I was alarmed that a private equity company had dug so deeply into books, though. And yeah, stocking toys and mugs and crap was ridiculous. Last I saw the 'new releases' section had become a wall of B&B coupons.

yea 20% off borders regular pricing i reckon abt what id pay at amazon or deepdiscount + s&h but w/e ppl love a sale there were a lotta ppl out at the one i went to

i bought s3 mad men as a gift for someone & 'a visit from the good squad'

lol goon squad i mean

i also bought a visit from the goon squad!

Stopped by my local Borders last night and even though stuff is still only 20% off, the books and movies had been picked through pretty heavily. The music section had slightly more to offer, but even with 20% off the prices were still mostly too high. But I did dig through the section of already cheap stuff ($5.99 or $7.99 before discount) and picked up a few things:

David Bowie - Heathen
Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage
David Gilmour - David Gilmour
The Clash - Cut the Crap (lol, for like 3 bucks I figured it would be worth getting "This is England" and finally getting to hear how bad it really is)

haha, I think I bought that Herbie Hancock album cheap at a Borders like 3 years ago, on I'm guessing a similar thought process to yours

never really listened to it more than once or twice. but I do remember that it has flugelhorn! flugelhorn!!!

oh no wait sorry I was thinking of Speak Like A Child. for some reason I get those confused?

there is a song on the latter called "First Trip" so if anyone asks that's my excuse

The Clash - Cut the Crap (lol, for like 3 bucks I figured it would be worth getting "This is England" and finally getting to hear how bad it really is)

liveblog?

Haha, perhaps one of these days.

per the earlier discussion about the possibility of people publishing e-books independently:

26-year old Amanda Hocking is the best-selling "indie" writer on the Kindle store, meaning she doesn't have a publishing deal, Novelr says.

And she shouldn't. She gets to keep 70% of her book sales -- and she sells around 100,000 copies per month.

http://www.businessinsider.com/amanda-hocking-2011-2?utm_source=feedburner#ixzz1FMsklkGD

holy shit

the original USA Today story has more details:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-02-09-ebooks09_ST_N.htm

well there you go

i'm not really sure why an author would want a traditional publishing deal at this point anyways. sure, there are lots of people who still can't afford e-readers and e-books, but they probably aren't going to be able to afford $26 hardcovers either.

i wonder who the first big author is going to be who will figure out how much more $$$ they could make publishing their own e-books, a la Radiohead going out on their own. I think that'll be the big milestone that could really shift the thinking about this.

I'm going to break this out into its own thread.

But this e-book self-publisher just got lured to an old-school company:

H.P. Mallory, another self-published paranormal e-novelist, has sold 70,000 copies of her e-books since July. Her success caught the attention of traditional publisher Random House, with whom she just signed a three-book contract. "Selling e-books on Kindle and Barnesandnoble.com basically changed my life

Author makes "millions" through independent e-publishing

I finally checked out the Park Ave. Borders and was pretty unimpressed. I'm supposed to get excited about getting literary fiction paperbacks for $12 instead of $16? I might as well just use my free student prime account and order on Amazon.

I might as well just use my free student prime account and order on Amazon.

well i think we've gotten to the bottom of this mysterious death

Right well that was kind of what I was thinking -- even in their death throes they STILL can't compete.

They're finally killing my neighborhood location. Mags are 40% off, so it's a good time to stock up on import music/skin mags etc.

Did notice a Classy move they made: the tables of reduced price dvds ( avg. sale price $7.99 against $12-14.99 list) have lost their discount tags, so now they are running @ 20% list. If you bought some last week before the "Going Out of Business" sale started, you would have saved more money.

"@ 20% off list"

Kinda bummed they're closing the Center City Philadelphia store. I've still got some friends working there and they were promised last month that their store was safe.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704474804576222642969830886.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews

Book retailer Borders Group Inc., which is shuttering hundreds of stores in a bid to stay alive, is seeking bankruptcy court approval to hand out more than $8 million in executive bonuses, including nearly $1.7 million to President Mike Edwards.

I can't think of a more nuanced opinion than "fuck these ugly assholes", but I'm open to suggestions.

Tbh, the best job you could have in America right now is running a failing company.

Borders Liquidators Race Clock, Squeeze Cash From Doomed Stores

March 29 (Bloomberg) -- At the Borders Group Inc. store on Broadway near Wall Street, box sets of Stieg Larsson's best-selling "Millennium" trilogy, including the "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," sat on a table near the door last week on sale for $69.39 -- a liquidation markdown of 30 percent.

The set costs half as much on Amazon.com Inc.'s website, where it was listed for $34.58 -- with free shipping. Amazon's Kindle e-book editions were even less, priced at $27.97. At Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s website, the three books sold for $34.96.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-29/borders-liquidators-race-clock-squeeze-cash-from-doomed-stores.html

Uh, sounds like some kind of collector's box, which you can't really compare to Kindle editions.

Of course this was a strange item to pick since Amazon is selling the box for over 60% off, which isn't their typical markdown..

i was in that store an hour ago. slim pickings imo.

Mine still has a fairly decent (for a Borders) selection. They've only been going about a week, but the discount just isn't good enough yet.

That said, I popped in today and found a copy of the OOP Paul Simon remaster for $6 with both the regular discount and my rewards one. They must have found it in the back or something. I know a new version of the album is out in a couple weeks, but I'm pleased w/this edition.

I got an already cheapo book of Jack London's "The Sea Wolf" for like $2. Not enjoying it at all and don't think I'll finish.

The window of time where deals were actually good but not everything was cleaned out was very small.

http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_ePwDySjVdyo/TZePqpzDhKI/AAAAAAAAAnM/4aVrnf0Rgfc/s512/norestrooms.jpg

Oh snap.

If they're selling all the equipment, how does one purchase the last cash register? "OK, let me just ring that up...oh, shit."

Money belts.

'OUR FINAL CUSTOMER!! YOU WIN oh wait'

I got vol. 1 of Berlin by Jason Lutes, Charles Burns' X'ed Out, and some of those Complete Peanuts volumes today at 50% off. Alright.

Popped in today. They've bumped everything down a further 10%. Still not the greatest deals, but I picked up the Legacy Edition Raw Power and the Mad Men: Illustrated World book.

Also noticed that the box set cabinet, which was moved by the information desk after xmas, has been more or less untouched. On the other hand, the boxes they've left out on the floor (Big Star, Born to Run 30th) haven't gone anywhere either.

16 of our 25 stores are closing. We're about to see the same pointless run-out sales you guys did. 40% off my arse.

why are Borders selling your arse?

Because it's hot goods.

I had a gift card I wanted to kill so I got Poems For the Millennium: Vol.3 at %40 off. Soon there won't be a single store left in my vicinity.

All our gift cards were annulled. All of them.

Made it over to the downtown Glendale location and even this late, I managed to snag a bunch of things on my wishlist...

MFK Fisher's Art Of Eating
Baader-Meinhof Inside Story
River Of Doubt
Tokyo Vice
Basque History Of The World

One of the employees explained that to me. The closing Borders aren't actually Borders anymore. The stock in those stores has been sold to a liquidation outfit, and so you're actually doing business w/them instead of Borders. So they won't honor the cards because they don't have access to the monies on those cards.

That said, I can see Borders still canceling gcs and keeping the money.

(x-post)

Our Borders is similar, but there's some sort of protection given to companies under voluntary administration that allows them to break a load of laws and get away with it.

i.e. legally sanctioned theft

True, true.

yeah, same thing happened with the Virgin melt. (did Fopp have gc's?)

The owners here are now suing franchises of the other bookstore group they own that are attempting to continue trading. Nice!

The annoying thing is that since they don't allow returns they cross out the bar code on the books you buy. Thanks! I really wanted a big Sharpie mark on the $35 book I'm buying.

I always feel guilty at liquidation sales, like I'm looting a wake. When I get to the cashier I suppress my delight at getting so many bargains and look regretful.

http://pics.livejournal.com/al_grecco/pic/00001k9z/s640x480

They lopped off another 10% yesterday, and the vultures finally came out. Dropped in this afternoon and many shelves are begining to actually look barren. Still some decent pickings (and the box set cabinents looked barely molested, maybe they lost the key, still have a Beatles mono box, the Springsteen Darkness... set, Big Star, Where The Action Is...).

Making up for the fact I'm probably gonna miss RSD cause of work and other catastrophes, I picked up QotSA-Rated R (deluxe ed.), Joni Mitchell-Hejira and the new Wanda Jackson for my dad, plus Dogtooth on DVD.

As much as I hate to see any book store go out of business, I wish I was down there for all of this. When Chapters and Indigo merged up here in Canada a decade or so ago (how I remember it is that Chapters went under, and Indigo came in and bought up all the stores), there was a year-long window where I ran around the city getting the greatest deals of my life. More even on CDs than books; Chapters had foolishly tried to be a major music retailer along with the books, so they ended up trying to clear out all that overrun in the $3-$5 range. I just bought so much during that year.

i'd stay tuned if you need bookshelves

This thread reminds me that I have to spend my Barnes and Noble gift cards before they too go out of business.

Things are winding down. In lieu of advancing most of the blanket discounts, they've instigated a bulk-buy discount of an additional 15% on 6 items or 25% on 8 or more items. Brought my parents this time so between us we could hit that level. My take: Los Lobos-Kiko and Little Feat-Feats Don't Fail Me Now fro the bargain bin and Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia from the box set cabinet all for about 25 bucks (the 8 item discount plus my 10% rewards discount).

It was while getting the latter item that I discovered why the box set selection was still so good. Apparently one employee on the shift has the keys to the cabinets. It took a long while to pin the guy down and get him to open the case.

They've been cleaning out the warehouse as well. In the shelves behind the registers I counted about 10 Springsteen Darkness sets (couldn't tell if they were all standard dvds or if they still had any blurays) and a few Beatles Mono boxes. I might come back for the former next week.

Lastly, someone finally did buy the Big Star box!

the borders finally closed here in downtown santa cruz, after weeks of selling the paneling off their walls and peddling a few meager shelves of 80% off books. truly not a very sad day

10 days left. Minimum discount 60%. Mostly got books this time around, classic lit I've never got around to*--plus some things for friends upcoming birthdays. But I finally did get the Springsteen Darkness... set (standard def.) for about 40 bucks. They've still got three of 'em, plus a couple Beatles Mono boxes.

Most of the music boxes are gone now, as are the cds and regular dvds. DVD boxes are still reasonably plentiful; good stuff too--Noir collections, Criterions, Warner signature sets.

*While I was checking out they voided one special on books and replaced it with a better one, which meant my clerk had to re-start my checkout, which led to another problem and...about 30 minutes (I counted) and two clerks later I was out the door only to discover they still mis-charged me on a couple books. For my opportunities to say this are drawing to a close, I'm going bold:

FUCK BORDERS

so a store run by a liquidator made you wait for crazy discounts. unfortunate

It wasn't so much the wait as it was just that nobody knew what the fuck was going on. But point taken just the same.

Four Days Left, Minimum discount now 80%. Not a lot left. The remaining CDs are on one table, Blurays on half of another. Table and a half of DVD boxes (99% TV collections). A couple of spinner racks partially filled w/DVD movies. Pretty much everything left in stock fills the front half of the store. Picked up just two albums, Grinderman II & Elvis Costello's Momofuku plus both seasons of "The United States of Tara", season 4 of "30 Rock", the 2-disc edition of True Romance, Please Give, Broken Embraces and a bunch of books. Probably will be my last time visiting.

The Borders I worked at for 7 years is closing on Sunday. I don't think I'm going there this weekend. Too sad.

http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/end-time-for-borders-here-and-down-under/

US: fucked
Aus: fucked

haha fuckers, haha you stupid dickweed idiot chain of self-destroying morons.

love, a long-time former employee.

ha

concerned that the hottt girl w/ horn-rimmed glasses hasn't been at the borders over the road from work in a few weeks

Went past the A&R on Collins st (part of the same group here) and it's completely empty now, with a FOR LEASE sign on the window.

I keep reading that the Kindle will drop to under $100 this holiday season. I'm getting closer to giving in and buying one. I'll miss the ol' brick and morter stores, though.

xp oh the Queen St one? Yeah the hand-written sign says something like "we are closed FOREVER". Now where am I supposed to find a limited range of books at artificially inflated prices?

Had a weird Borders experience today at work--my old manager, a freaky type-a dude who lost his job a week ago or so, was hanging around the library all day. Then as I was walking to the train I saw him on the sidewalk ahead of me. He kept stopping to sniff the trees.

I keep reading that the Kindle will drop to under $100 this holiday season.

I dunno what holiday season is but B&N just announced a new Nook for US release in June, so the price collapse could happen in a matter of weeks.

Had a weird Borders experience today at work--my old manager, a freaky type-a dude who lost his job a week ago or so, was hanging around the library all day. Then as I was walking to the train I saw him on the sidewalk ahead of me. He kept stopping to sniff the trees.

rewrite as koan plz

http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4d6bf95bcadcbba60b210000/chart-of-the-day-kindle-price-forecast-feb-2011.jpg

I can't wait until 2012, when they'll pay me to take it.

All our Borderseseseses are closing. Just got the email.

It's over!

good riddance, shitheads

bummer, I hate B&N and 3 borders locations are my closest bigbox bookstores

It was better than B & N even if many of its cds and books were as expensive as at B & N

Eh, I'd say about 5 years ago it was better than B&N, but it seems like at some point they just stopped giving a shit.

bn > borders

still: miss u

My local Borders didn't have much left the last time I was there,so not counting on finding much in the liquidation sale. Feel bad that some folks will be out of a job.

The two Borders stores I patronize were as solid as usual -- more so. Lots of NYRB editions!

I feel bad about the jobs thing but part of me is teetering at the thought that I'm gonna score some good deals out of this.

the employees at my local Borders are really nice folks so I do feel bad for them. there's only one in my area anymore.

wow weird, no borders I've ever been in was even remotely as good as a b&n. maybe it varies by location.

wonder if they'll prorate those of us who actually had a Rewards+ membership for the unused months. Somehow doubting that.

Afaik, they stopped even acknowleding the Rewards memberships back when they announced the first round of store closures.

wow weird, no borders I've ever been in was even remotely as good as a b&n. maybe it varies by location.

I said this upthread but in my experience every B&N, whether it's in Raleigh or Portland, stocks the same novels and biographies.

nah, I just used my membership the other day, and was still getting coupons for it as well. used a 30% off on Friday and got an additional 10 with the card. th

I just bought an implausibly tiny umbrella at the Borders near my workplace last week and they encouraged me to become a Rewards member.

why did you purchase an implausibly tiny umbrella?

well, i hope all those 'doctors without borders' jerks are happy now

To protect my tiny head from the rain. xp

there's an 'indie' bookshop in melbourne called reader's feast that was owned by the same incompetents that ran aussie borders and angus & robertson - the staff ran it without any interference from the finance wizards but as it's the parent company that's gone into administration, they've gone down too, which is a shame. (i got a nice cookbook and a couple of paperbacks from there at their closing sale on the weekend.) the manager reckons she's got plans to get back in the bookselling game, though.

i scored an 'exile on main st' keyring last time i visited the borders across from work. it seems pretty solid.

I received an e-mail this morning with a 30% deal on books and mentioning reward cards. But according to the Washington DC tv news reports I saw last night, the liquidation sale is going to start on Friday. I guess the reason to use the e-mailed coupon is to buy something now before it is gone Friday morning (books and cds bought by people who are not at work).

I guess I misspoke. I was thinking of the liquidation sales where they refused to scan the Rewards cards. I guess I am still getting the occassional coupon sent to me.

the closest borders to me is nearly 30 miles away, boo

I've always thought of Borders as a little classier than B&N, but part of that may be a function of location: there were more B&Ns in the suburbs when I was growing up, and there were more Borders when I moved to the city. Also, in the early 90s when neither store had very many locations, there was a lone Borders a few suburbs away to which my family would occasionally make a "special trip."

There's a Borders not far from me so I guess I'll swing by here and there to see what's up. Not really interested in adding too much to my collection at this point -- I reduced heavily given the move -- but there's bound to be a couple of things that turn up.

Whenever I go to one of these liquidation sales (they happen a lot these days) everything still seems to be priced too high.

Yeah, the 40% off usually just brought some of the stuff down to actually competitive level.

Exactly, Tower was the same way of course. Better to wait, but never hurts to scout.

e always thought of Borders as a little classier than B&N, but part of that may be a function of location: there were more B&Ns in the suburbs when I was growing up, and there were more Borders when I moved to the city. Also, in the early 90s when neither store had very many locations, there was a lone Borders a few suburbs away to which my family would occasionally make a "special trip."

― jaymc, Tuesday, July 19, 2011 10:44 AM (15 minutes ago)

In my experience, the big difference was that in the mid-90s, Borders had at least twice the selection of B&N. I could find DFW and Vollman books at the former but not the latter, was how I broke it down. I held tightly onto this notion and didn't really start shopping at B&N until 2007 or so. By that point, B&N's selection of books had picked up considerably and every Borders that I went to had huge, useless sections of birthday cards and stationary and crap.

I bought so many BBC Doctor Who books from Borders

RIP

Perhaps suspecting the end, I've used my 40% off Borders Rewards coupons every week. Good deals.

my taste skews to the weird and I could usually find more offbeat books and movies at borders, it always seemed like their buyers were more in tune with that kind of stuff

with the 40% off coupons the prices were competitive, and it was nice to be able to buy somebody a miike dvd as a gift and know they could return it easily

will run in to price the Ernie Kovacs box

Cosign

good riddance, shitheads

― Капитан ☭ (remy bean), Monday, July 18, 2011 4:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's really strange to me that ppl cheer for ppl losing their jobs and companies going out of business

the big difference was that in the mid-90s, Borders had at least twice the selection of B&N.

Yeah, that could be it, too; I don't entirely remember. Also Borders had a huge inventory of CDs, with dozens of listening stations.

i worked for borders for 7 years, on and off before i got fired for taking my vacation

@ van ingalls wilder – i worked in the one in north attleboro, briefly

ah gotcha

Very bemused at how packed Borders was having just started their markdowns. Only areas worth checking out at this point were Blu-Ray and magazines each at 40% off.

kinda debating whether to wait until the markups go up, knowing full well that usually the best product is already gone by then.

when the FYEs went out of business here, some of the markdowns hit 50-75% off....

Also Borders had a huge inventory of CDs, with dozens of listening stations.

It's funny, but I'd forgotten how great their music selection used to be. I bought most of Merle Haggard's 60s output at Borders, and lots of Sun Ra and Gyorgy Ligeti.

xpost -- All depends on 'best', my own experience was that Tower still had things to offer of interest even up to the last days.

CD selection in my local store was looking decidedly weak already.

yea my local Borders had a pretty terrible CD selection (although strangely has always been decent in the Showtunes department).

I'm more interested in hawking books. Their DVDs were so marked up to the point where the markdowns probably still don't put them below what most other stores sell them for.

My closest Borders was a lunatic asylum: it wasn't this crowded during the week before Christmas. Plenty of books available. The markdowns weren't as drastic as I expected.

They won't be for a while. I'll probably swing in again in a couple of weeks.

yea...I plan to raid the graphic novels section if it ever hits 40-50%.

Every week they generally lop off 10%.!

Can we just burn down the remaining ones?

Dirty people take what's mine
I can leave them all behind
They can never cross that line
When I get to the Borders

A+

Seconded.

yeah, the one next to Madison Sq Garden was a zoo on Friday, and not many deep discounts; no Ernie Kovacs box, so I fled.

that's the only borders I'm gonna miss...everyone needs to kill time around penn station once in a while and it was nice that it served as a basically-public-space

The Michigan Ave. Painted Silver Statue Man gets ready in the bathroom of the Borders by Water Tower place. I am sad for him and hope he has a plan b.

my local borders looked heavily picked over on sunday, and discount was only at 10%

o_O

hey ppl a couple weeks ago you could've had anything in the store at 40% off

God, I made the mistake of stopping in the Michigan Avenue Borders Friday afternoon and it was a complete madhouse, so I figured they must have some great deals going on. When I walked in there were workers stationed at the entrance to let you know the estimated wait in line was 2 and 1/2 hours. Anyway, despite all of the signage outside promising 40% discounts, every single section I looked at had signs clarifying that this section was only 10% - art & architecture books, movies, CDs, music & film books, etc etc etc. I was kinda glad there wasn't anything tempting me to even consider waiting in that line.

Oh, also they had shut off the air conditioning and it was about 94 here that day, so it felt and smelt like you were walking through a fog of swamp-ass.

Jesus. Did they set out to make it as unpleasant to shop there as possible?

Pretty much, it was miserable. The employees were shockingly friendly though, given the situation. One of them even kept apologizing to pissed off customers about the misleading 40% off signs outside.

Anyway, despite all of the signage outside promising 40% discounts, every single section I looked at had signs clarifying that this section was only 10% - art & architecture books, movies, CDs, music & film books, etc etc etc.

This REALLY pissed me off.

But it didn't seem to stop the vultures, I couldn't believe how many people were there. The queue to check out wound up, down and around the entire first floor level. It is kinda surprising to see how little they really care about actually getting rid of the stock. I'm wondering if they've got a backup plan for ditching the leftover stock because, if these closures follow the last round of Borders sales, they cuts will never reach beyond 40-50% at the most.

they will sell the remaining stock to a disposition channel

picked up a bunch of books in the history section of the providence borders this weekend. 20% off, so not a huge discount, but enough to make me buy. they were doing p brisk business, but everything except for greeting cards and erotica was only at 10% off

the problem with a Borders 40-50% sale is that for some things, that brings it down to what all the other retail stores are selling it for

(xpost)

they usually sell books at list price, in my experience at leaset

some books aren't too bad (although the Harry Potter series is marked up well beyond what I see other retailers selling it for), and I usually only made purchases when the rewards program released a coupon (which was fairly often).

it's mostly stuff like DVDs and such that they sell at much higher prices than elsewhere, although admittedly that's not what I go there to purchase primarily.

so Borders Bucks expire 7/31. I got $5 for August for going over the threshold this month. Dilemma, right? Asked them if they could issue them for me now so I could use them, get told "nope, system has been disabled, we can't do that".

Thanks a bunch guys!

^^ happened to me too. A dispiriting weekend. I got better bargains two weeks ago when I regularly got 30 and 40 percent off coupons through email.

yea, their coupons were great for when I wanted to buy graphic novels but didn't wanna shell out $30.

http://www.grist.org/urbanism/2011-07-25-the-importance-of-sustainable-third-places-in-the-city

People who wait 2.5 hours in line at borders for a puny discount that can probably be achieved elsewhere are weird.

^^yeah, it's one thing to take part in the 60/70% clusterfuck I bitched about upthread, but geez, these are not deals.

Are people just so convinced that they'll get a deal that they are willing to ignore all of the IN THEIR FACE factual evidence to the contrary and also the soul-deep pain of standing in line for 2.5 hours in an unairconditioned store? Because that might be the final thing that makes me lose faith in humanity right there.

why is the queue 2.5 hours? are you obliged to pay with pennies?

Because so many dummies are lined up for UNBEATABLE 10% BARGAINS!

They are all buying 10% off copies of Liquidation Sale Shopping for Dummies and will soon know the error of their ways.

I seldom buy books; I don't need more things. Libraries!

With ya there, Morbz. Of course, I'm biased.

A non-hail and farewell. Pagers?

I'm reading more than ever, but certainly buy fewer books; one of the reasons I love my job is access to a university library and its interlibrary loan privileges.

Yes, and yes again. But given most are not so lucky...

County libraries too.

Between libraries and ebooks, I haven't purchased a paper book in forever (tbf I didn't buy a lot of books before ebooks bc of libraries). I am sad to lose my best local source for improbably tiny umbrellas. Maybe I should stock up.

http://pophangover.com/images/ph-picdump-115.jpg

They pretty much all have handmade signs like that now. I'd be a little more sympathetic to the snark if there hadn't been so many stories coming out about how badly Borders was run over the last decade. Sure, they can blame Amazon, but Barnes & Noble seems to be going strong.

10 years ago that sign woulda been on a local bookstore and 'amazon' would be 'borders'

I'm surprised that such an appealing business model has tanked! I much prefer hanging out at Borders with my new purchases and a cup of coffee than Starbucks.

barnes & noble is the real motherfuckin deal y'all

markers what are your 5 favorite suburban big box stores

lmfao

i like target and barnes & noble -- there's 2 4 u!

Home Depot
Sports Authority
Wal-Mart
Target
Toys R Us

Oh shit, well, Fry's if I could go to California.

Recently hhgregg's have started to pop up in old circuit city locations near me, but I've never been in one. Anyone know much about them?

home depot is nice

Went by one this afternoon. Discounts for the most part suck, still plenty of product on the shelves. They had the A/C on a high temperature and had the stones to play a thematic "summer music" album (think "Summer In The City" "Hot Hot Hot" etc.) over the pa. Noticed that the "let's not unlock or spine-tag the box set cabinet" attitude wasn't localised to my old location. Methinks there'll be some nice pickin's in that modular in a few weeks if you're into tv stuff or general movie boxes (No Kovacs set btw).

I got some magazines, a couple cheapie cds, and the new Cars album, which they had two copies left of and I'd been holding out on. The best part of the trip, however, was spotting an absolutely stunning early 20-something brunette in her summer best idly looking at the new release music rack for about 30 seconds before disappearing completely. I fear I may have hallucinated her.

I'm gonna miss perving at Borders.

People who wait 2.5 hours in line at borders for a puny discount that can probably be achieved elsewhere are weird.

― Jeff, Monday, July 25, 2011 7:14 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^this

I looked at their 20% "discounts" for their wildly overpriced CDs and peaced the fuck out. Though not after moving two copies of my book to an endcap, lol.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2011/07/5_things_not_to_miss_about_goi.php

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/books-without-borders/Content?oid=9322294

this is pretty otm

I looked at their 20% "discounts" for their wildly overpriced CDs and peaced the fuck out. Though not after moving two copies of my book to an endcap, lol.

I hate that none of the big chains around here carry those books, assuming your talking about your 33 1/3. I would love to have picked up some of those with any kind of discount.

I've seen Whiney's book in the local indie store (the 33 1/3 about Public Enemy), but nowhere else around here....

thought about writin "hen fap" on the inside cover but decided not to

i would assume he means hipster puppies

Recently hhgregg's have started to pop up in old circuit city locations near me, but I've never been in one. Anyone know much about them?

We're getting one here in our old Circuit City as well. Their website reveals them to sound like your typical Best Buy type place with electronics, appliances, and DVDs. Completely missing from their website? Any sort of music at all. So, basically, these sound like Best Buy without the music section (i.e. what all Best Buys will be in two years).

One of my neighboring Circuit Citys became a Best Buy.

went to borders over the weekend and found the big scores to be in the bargain section, got thompson's the getaway, frazen's the corrections, and the tin drum in hardcover for $10 total

also 50% off blu ray but that section was pretty picked over

which big box stores are likely to exist in 20 years? other than walmart

can we turn the big boxes into something cool

We can flatten them out and break dance on them.

iirc, Laurel wants corporatized public spaces in them

fill them with ponies

mass housing for workers building last-ditch windmill farms

^ I don't even consider this a joke

yeah that just sounds prescient

sadly neither do i

big box stores are basically our easter island statues

slightly less cool

apocalyptic truthbomb

neutron truth bomb

prefer "neutron truth dance'

Damn that article was depressing.

http://www.bigboxreuse.com/

that's a cool site tho like half of them are churches

which, I guess we shoulda seen coming

So it's moving into the last phases -- local store is at 60% to 80% now so I figured time to see what could be gleaned. Still a surprising amount of stuff left -- I picked up three CDs that I know would go over well with my dad for his birthday later in the year, while in the music book section what's left is often kinda great; I might go back again next week. Picked up Alex Ogg's Independence Days: The Story of UK Independent Record Labels, Larry Harris's And Party Every Day: The Inside Story of Casablanca Records and Simon Reynolds' Totally Wired interview collection.

I hope some of those books are still at my local Borders -- coulda bought totally wired at 40% off but did not

My local, downtown Chicago, is pretty well picked over at this point. I did pick up Husker Du: The Story of the Noise Pop Pioneers.. last week for pretty cheap though.

The one nearest me was seriously picked over--probably only a 100 or so standard def dvds still on the racks, maybe 200 cds, just a handful of any format box sets. Plenty of books though. I got the new Strokes and Okkervil River albums, plus the 4 disc/1 dvd Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out box this evening.

I picked up three CDs that I know would go over well with my dad for his birthday later in the year

okay. am i the only one wondering what cds Ned bought for his dad?

(probably.. yes)

Final Week...

I blew it. Most of the music-related books were gone from my Bailey's X-Roads, VA Borders when I went there on Tuesday. Totally Wired was nowhere to be found. I did buy an Iggy Pop bio and Raul Malo and LCD S. (London Sessions) cds.

There were hundreds of Susan Boyle cds still...

Massive haul last Saturday: I spent $24 dollars on six books, one of which was a Library of America volume.

I snagged the Library of America: John Ashbery Collected Poems 56-87, Vollman's "Europe Central", "Carter Beats the Devil" Best Amer. Short Stories 2010, Rick Perlstein's "Before the Storm" and "Perdido St. Station" for a ridiculously low price.

There were a couple of Dalkey Archive books left that I might go back for.

Ha, makes sense that those would be there at the bitter end.

I just started in a new position at the library last week and found out that 5 of the people I work now with are former Borders employees.

No poetry left – might be the first time anyone besides yours truly has bought poetry at my Borders store.

My Borders in Oak Park has, like 20 cookbooks left and five shelves of "religion." It doesn't help that they've consolidated and changed all the sections around, and the staff is resentful of having to hustle customers around the store to find where the one book they're not even going to buy for 80% off has gone to.

Haven't thought to check out the music books.

Small blessing, perhaps, that Borders stopped giving a shit about poetry 5 or 6 years ago, (they used to have a pretty good selection of recent stuff) as all of those small presses would be fighting with Harper Collins et al. for the cents on the dollar on these liquidation sales. Though I suppose the lack of shelf space probably hurt them just as much.

Haven't thought to check out the music books.

A bunch of copies of "33 Revolutions Per Minute: a History of Protest Songs" left. Anyone know if it's any good?

Hahah well you could ask the author himself... (Look for user DL on here.)

dog latin wrote that book?

oh wait

Well if it's an ilxor then it must be good (seriously)

got reviewed in the times even

haven't returned to the NY ones, I thought for sure they'd be done by now.

Picked up "Totally Wired" and a ton of other books (iirc, The Humbling by Philip Roth, Point Omega by Don Delillo, The Aleph by Borges, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by Mitchell, The Tin Drum by Grass ($2!), and Portnoy's Complaint by Roth). Was happy with the stock the four times I went there. Love how all that is left is religion books, picturebooks of cars, and Republican literature. Surprised by how soundly poetry was picked clean, would have loved a copy of the Maximus Poems.

haven't returned to the NY ones, I thought for sure they'd be done by now.
Me neither.

DL's book is great and if it's 80% off it's a no-brainer to get. In fact I thought about starting a thread about it, but thought it would be considered a bit jejeune.

We should, though. Went back one last time to the old one; they're closing Tuesday and while there might be something in a last scrounge then, I kinda doubt it, but at 80% off most everything now it was all worth it. A couple of music books I hoped would be there were out but there were plenty of copies of DL's book as well as Dan Charnas' The Big Payback so I snagged those and a couple more books for family gifts for Xmas.

was bittersweet to get these 5 for $20

calvino's invisible cities
jeter's moorlock night, infernal devices
bolano's the skating rink, the return

I've got 'The Big Payback' on my amazon wishlist, so would be interested to hear your take on it, Ned.

Everything I've heard about it/seen from it so far gets raves.

time running out for barnes & noble

Man, the thought of losing Barnes & Noble going away too just really disappoints me. They weren't a great book store and they were even worse at selling music, BUT (and this is a mighty big qualifier for me here) without these chain stores in second, third and fourth tier cities, there really isn't much else out there. Getting a Barnes & Noble in Bloomington, IL when I was in high school was a fucking godsend at a rough time in my life, it offered me one of the few escapes I had. Sure, there was the public library, but most of the ones around there actively discouraged teenagers hanging out for hours. There was a college bookstore or two at ISU, but those centered pretty much around textbooks and little else. I really liked having it as an option. Sure, now that I live a block away from Chicago, I've got plenty of options and B&N is pretty much a last option most times. But, damn, for all those kids out there that won't have a single bookstore AT ALL in their town when this chain goes under, I feel for 'em. Better a shoddily-run corporate option than no option at all.

(forgive my mangled first sentence, my kid started crying halfway through it)

No one can know what will happen down the road, but the stores have always been profitable if you take away the major losses from the nook division.

I guess we do know what will happen. The corporate raiders will loot every last penny and then run out on their obligations.

Publishing as a division of the major media multinationals will cease to exist, and books will become independent. Anything from print on demand pamphlets to artisan hand-bound art projects. Sold on street corners and through websites. Individuals will create successful subscription services selling curated writings to select connoisseurs of literature and esoteric how to manuals. Sensing profits, major media multinationals will create faux indie imprints and buy out the most successful start-ups. China will be back to importing forests and exporting books.

The Nook Media thing sounded like a mistake from the start. No idea why the company i work for invested in it, other than wanting a slice of any digital market segment going.

Hey, I might work for a company that invested in that thing too. I think that after B&N's CEO pulled a financial maneuver that pissed off some investment group types, there was an attempt at a hostile takeover, and the way out of that was to let in another investment group from a media company, and cede control. Maybe somebody was dreaming big and thought he could be the next Steve Jobs or Steve Bezos or some kind of steve, and since he was playing with somebody else's chips, he went full in.

To be fair, i think we were coming at it from the perspective of a book-seller being gouged by Amazon and wanting a stake in a product that could open up some competition in the market, but it looked doomed from the start.

For the benefit on anyone reading this insider baseball talk, nooks have always been the best bang for your book in the second level tablet market, and now that the HD's have google play and are marked down to impulse buy prices, it could be a fun gadget for your porn streaming or something. The e-ink readers are intact and here to stay and useful even if you're a real book paper person.

I agree with jon up there that it would be a shame if some kid doesn't have a bookstore by his Midwestern suburban mall in the future, but that will be a slow death of gradual store closures of unprofitable locations as leases expire.

I went through some of the Borders thing too. Sometimes it's changing technology and changing demographics, and sometimes it corporate failure. B&N isn't there yet, and isn't necessarily going to end up there.

i worked at borders in anchorage, minneapolis and dc; my last day at the latter was 25 years ago today

it wasn't ideal but it seems like we can and have done worse since

the uptown (calhoun square) mpls store had been an independent store bought by borders, which was unusual, and retained its staff, who were incredible (not least for having multiple booksellers named Dann, plus Ernie Batson of the Mighty Mofos)

just a fantastic group of people i shall never forget

it wasn't ideal but it seems like we can and have done worse since

One of the first Borders locations in Houston is now a Tesla dealership.

I spent more time in Borders as a HS/college student than anywhere else. The one by the house I grew up in was huge and had coffee and an actually great music section. I loved that place sm. Regularly stayed until closing which I'm sure the employees all loved.

meanwhile B&N persists!

I loved Borders, too, though I probably took it for granted at the time, given that there were much better book / record stores nearby. First time I ever had chai was at their coffee shop, and I remember buying Isotope 217, Swell Maps, and Albert Ayler CDs there. The magazine section had The Wire and Punk Planet. You get the idea. We really didn't know how good we had it.

I worked at the Borders corporate office for two years, early 00s. I was just daydreaming yesterday about this time they had an employees only sale of extra music box sets for 80% off. I bought so much, and spent so much time shopping my boss came down to tell me to get back to work

They also had a section of the cafeteria with extra promo stuff people could take, I picked up a lot of esoteric books and movies. And musicians would come perform just for staff, awkward short shows at like 10 am in a conference room. I didn't get into those usually, but I remember seeing Kasey Chambers once. And maybe Rhett Miller? He seemed to do those shows a lot

Mookie I remember the Calhoun Square Borders in the early 90s being something else but I cant’t remember what it was called.

When Barnes and Noble moved into western Connecticut in like ‘93 it was a big deal, but then came Borders a couple years later and their CD selection was amazing. They had the Barclay Fela Kuti reissue two-fers! Pretty sure those were French imports?

xp It was Odegard Books. I worked there (and at the architectural books location at International Market Square) before it closed. Really a great store, but Dan put all the money in building out a new store in Edina (huge atrium, fireplace in the event space) at the same time that Barnes and Noble was going after the independents. (his ex-wife’s Odegard’s Books in St. Paul, was also a great shop)

I remember Odegard’s in Edina! In Centennial Lakes right? My grandparents lived in the area.

Yes, Centennial Lakes. It was an impressive, but can only have been open a matter of months (can’t recall). Dan was a great boss (sweet guy, and we were salaried and had health benefits), was sad to be there as it all went down.

I went to Odegards all through my teens, through the Vintage Contemporaries and Penguin Contemporary era (Tama Janowitz signed my Slaves of New York there), and then lived in Uptown in the 90s and went to the Calhoun Square one all the time. I remember being in the Centennial Lakes one as well, and vividly remember their closing sale and how sparse the shelves were (remembering the hardcover of John Ashbery’s Flow Chart on a mostly empty shelf in the last days).

I remember seeing Kasey Chambers once. And maybe Rhett Miller? He seemed to do those shows a lot

Saw Ron Sexsmith play for three people at the Borders cafe in Evanston. So good! Also saw Robbie Fulks do a set at the Magnificent Mile location. He would take a book off the shelf behind him between songs and talk about it. He was playing in front of the Music section, so he picked interesting ones.

Andy Partridge did a meet and greet at the Chicago Mag Mile Michigan Ave location when the first Wasp Star release came out, and I kid you not, there was a line snaking through the store to all the way outside on the sidewalk. I waited for a hour and a half for a handshake, autograph and brief chat. When I asked him what he was listening to lately, he said a lot ragtime piano, because of course.

Jimmy Scott singing in-store at a Borders was a cool and surreal experience. There were only 15 people there so they set him up in one of the sections of books

mst3k: the book came out when i worked at the calhoun square borders -- they did a signing which was honestly the only time i've been embarrassingly starstruck

when i later worked at the DC borders, we had all kinds of much bigger names simply shopping, and occasionally signing. as you might imagine, both larry king and george will were dicks. dave brubeck sent my colleague out to get him a six-pack of heineken -- tbf he was playing, for NPR, and that would probably have been on his rider for a normal gig. bill clinton came in to shop on xmas eve, which was an enormous pain in the ass; i think he bought some corny jazz cds. eric lindros came in once to shop; he was fucking enormous even out of skates.

also while i was at calhoun square, louise erdrich came in to browse the divorce section, and we were all like 'oh no!' little did we know

larry king once came up to the info desk and with no introduction spat out 'i need a copy of my latest book' and decades later i wish i'd had the wherewithal to ask him 'who are you?'

lol

larry king once came up to the info desk and with no introduction spat out 'i need a copy of my latest book' and decades later i wish i'd had the wherewithal to ask him 'who are you?'

― mookieproof, Thursday, April 10, 2025 8:08 PM (thirty-nine minutes ago)

Ha! I'm wracking my brain trying to think of the funniest possible book you could have brought him...maybe a William Shatner novel?

i worked at borders in providence, los angeles, seattle, and boston, several stints on and off from 1999 to 2011. i did in-store events for paul feig, sold dave matthews cds to dave matthews, joked about pac man with george romero, read poetry with gwendolyn brooks, and told louis menand he was an asshole.

by the time i left i’d been bumped from manager down to security guard. long story, but i was an inept guard. one of the regular shoplifters was a guy called skinnylegs, who’d steal handfuls of criterion dvds and bolt, and another was a Muckleshoot medicine woman who used the bookstore like a library for star wars novels. i wouldve let her keep stealing/borrowing, but they came back with burn marks and smelling of urine. i also used to spend a lot of time dislodging a really friendly listerine drunk from the revolving doors where he’d wedge himself to sleep every night. again, i wouldn’t have cared, but he was often pantsless in the only entrance.

oh, and i met my wife while we merched tables together

oh, and i met my wife while we merched tables together

yeah

https://images.app.goo.gl/ppsKQxGYQMgJqMsz7

When I was discovering new music, Borders was my go to place, mainly because there were no record stores where I was growing up. I remember buying Elvis Costello's first three albums there (the Rykodisc editions) only to find out Rhino was reissuing them so I turned around and returned them - the clerk (like 18 to 23 years old) was immediately like "no, you're not returning these...not THESE albums" as a joke and I explained to him I wasn't rejecting the music, I was just holding out for better editions.

Another time I got the expanded edition of the Byrds' "Greatest Hits" then decided a compilation wasn't going to be sufficient, but the clerk (older guy with long grey hair and reading glasses) was so demoralized and said "oh man, the Byrds were like THE greatest when I was a kid!" and again I had to explain I was getting the albums, hoping he'd believe me just so he wouldn't feel like history had turned on them.

It's great shopping at a place where people care that much.

Should say, trawling through rock history and discovering music new to me.

when i worked at the DC borders there was a music store clerk who

a) knew literally everything about classical releases
b) was an incorrigible drunk
c) did an utterly unimpeachable james mason impression

he's probably dead now, but people like him are vital

in my little town borders was the record store, and also the bookstore, and also where the nerdy high schoolers hung out (inside), and also where the delinquent high schoolers hung out (outside). civilization! i spent money almost nowhere else. later it was a walgreens during that period when everything was a walgreens. now it's vacant.

When I was discovering new music, Borders was my go to place, mainly because there were no record stores where I was growing up. I remember buying Elvis Costello's first three albums there (the Rykodisc editions) only to find out Rhino was reissuing them so I turned around and returned them - the clerk (like 18 to 23 years old) was immediately like "no, you're not returning these...not THESE albums" as a joke and I explained to him I wasn't rejecting the music, I was just holding out for better editions.

Another time I got the expanded edition of the Byrds' "Greatest Hits" then decided a compilation wasn't going to be sufficient, but the clerk (older guy with long grey hair and reading glasses) was so demoralized and said "oh man, the Byrds were like THE greatest when I was a kid!" and again I had to explain I was getting the albums, hoping he'd believe me just so he wouldn't feel like history had turned on them.

It's great shopping at a place where people care that much.

those clerks would be considered "gatekeepers" now

both larry king and george will were dicks.

where there's a will...

larry king once came up to the info desk and with no introduction spat out 'i need a copy of my latest book'

lol

now I want George Will stories

i want louis menand asshole stories too

Yeah! I've liked Menand's work.

relentless careerist, performatively intelligish. interesting as a writer, but doing frasier crane drag.

Inspired a hilariously bizarre SNL sketch (though tbf I imagine it's less bizarre if you know the book he wrote on baseball, which I've never read).

sorry that was about George Will

That sketch also inspired by this vintage staple of late night syndication

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-ZRJ8lEYxw

I loved Borders, it was a great suburban amenity.

The most Borders thing I ever did was when I was getting divorced in my late 20s. It was a weeknight and I didn’t want to go home to the empty house so I drove out to Borders. I bought a Raymond Carver book (probably “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” because I read the title story in college and loved it), got a coffee from the Borders cafe and sat in the window of the cafe reading Raymond Carver and looking into the dark plaza parking lot. Peak ‘90s experience lol.

can't speak to louis menand, but having later worked at a different DC bookstore that ultimately went bankrupt, leon wieseltier was looong known as a creep

also james ellroy is incredibly off-putting and john banville is lovely

norman podhoretz used to come in and move his books to the endcaps (i.e. put them on display)

this was a complete asshole move but also he was kind of funny when i caught him at it, and tbf who on earth was gonna buy a norman podhoretz book in the '90s

I don’t really have any Borders stories (though I burned countless hours and dollars in the magazine sections of the Towson and Lutherville stores in Maryland), but am loving these reminiscences

I bought books and CDs there too of course, but… as other have noted above and I’ll repeat below in all caps

WE DIDN’T KNOW HOW GOOD WE HAD IT

Because there were so many places to buy everything then

To buy everything in person, with cash often, with a little conversation with staff

The 20th century sure as hell wasn’t perfect but I miss some aspects of it

Such a different time then. I remember reading about old recordings and not being able to know how they sounded because no person or library I knew had them. Even if I found them on a CD, I didn’t have the money to just go out and buy it. My family did not have fast internet so even if I was lucky enough to find it on Napster, it could take like hours just to download the first minute. Real Audio clips on vendor sites became a big help but they always sounded like shit. When my local Borders installed comprehensive listening stations, it was kind of life changing.

Anyway, kind of crazy how a song used to mutate in imagination over the course of time as I speculated what it sounded like based on a critic’s description.

Off-topic, I remember trying to download Springsteen bootlegs via Napster - individual songs not albums - and there’d be like a minute fragment I’d listen to over and over again because that’s all I was able to grab before I gave up. Kind of made bootleg collecting feel even more mysterious, like you were literally trying to pull something out of the ether.

Off topic but I never figured out torrenting which is definitely for the best

1998-1999 I used to routinely eat at the cafe inside the Borders in Thousand Oaks, CA. Most of the city then was nothing but fast food and big chain restaurants for corporate types leaving Borders as the only place with good food that wasn't going to empty my wallet. I don't know how much leeway the cafe staff had in determining the menu, but it was run by a group of riot grrrls who made awesome veggie soups and sandwiches.

Sounds like the kind of place you might run into Emitt Rhodes.

...only if someone else was buying!

today, I got the Radio Video ep record by Royal Trux, and discovered that this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WWLnyMq-WQ
(Victory Chimp: Episode 3)

was recorded live on a Borders (I never saw or visited one before) - can you imagine going to a bookstore and seeing the Trux live?

Along those lines, Pere Ubu did a set at a Cleveland-area Borders on BLACK FRIDAY in 2006.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Iuqk5KSEM

The whole thing used to be on YouTube but now this clip is all I can find.

When I left high school in 96 and did a coast to coast tour of the US with a friend, Borders always ended up being our base of operations. The Chicago one especially. Where else to buy a Tipsy CD and a discounted Mark Leyner paperback?

Also have a Chai latte and pretend to be a sophisticate