I have ignored reports of the imminent demise of Borders Books for a long time now, mostly for personal reasons. As a suburban teen staying out of trouble I spent a lot of time at my local Borders because they were open late and didn't require you to buy anything. In sociological terms, it was a "third place," and they tend to pop up when you need them.
Then this weekend two things happened: First, I got a slightly too useful coupon from them offering a free book (list price $8 or lower) with purchase of a new hardcover. I didn't indulge, but I've never seen them offer a free book, and that could be gamed in magnificent fashion with a little strategy. And second, I saw on Reading Matters that Borders UK closed five of its stores, allowing for a spectacular clean-up but not boding well for the chain in general. Included in the closing was its Oxford Street flagship, and that seems like a bellwether.
Even if I hadn't already striped it in the colors of nostalgia, there is a case to be made that big-box bookstores have done some good for America. They're bad for independent booksellers, but what about those towns that didn't have a locally owned bookstore when they got their mall Borders or Barnes & Noble? Like the dinosaurs, they might not be able to adapt to the current climate, but eventually we'll miss them.
5 days ago
5 comments:
Ooo, my parents will be crushed if this turns out to be true. They love those 30% off coupons.
Jess, I'm glad someone is using them! But I'm not an economist and as we've all learned in the past year, "bankrupt" can mean a lot of different things, just like the distinction between "mostly dead" and "all dead" in "The Princess Bride."
Borders is probably my favorite national chain. I don't buy many things there (I don't buy many new books, and when I do they tend to be with my Amazon rewards points) but it is my favorite place to browse, to come up with gift ideas, that sort of thing. The one in Buffalo closed some time ago, but, for a while, it was one of the two or three places you could find McSweeney's, one of the two or three places you could find a Godard film, one of the two or three places you could find The Hot Fives and Sevens. It wasn't all things to all people, but it was all things to me, when I was a wee little bookworm hipster douchebag in training.
When I moved to Madison, I became a regular at their store on University Avenue, and I used to stop at the Borders in Ann Arbor - the halfway point of my drive home - to pick up Christmas and Mother's Day presents, depending on the semester. Its just a great store. I hope that Little, Big is not the last thing I purchase there.
I used to love Borders extremely. Now I don't find much interest in shopping at chain bookstores anymore. But if you support the things that independent bookstores promote, the faltering of one of the two major chains is not a good thing...on the contrary, it gives the tastes of the buyers at B&N even more importance than they've heretofore had.
In my opinion, Borders was always the most literary of the big chains. Their literature section was pretty close to comprehensive, and they had far more serious history books than Barnes & Noble.
Having said that, Barnes & Noble is a much better store than, say, any of the national music chains.
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