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!!!

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