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Borders Books May File For Bankruptcy: Update: Total Closing

I've bought a fair number of books over the years from Amazon, but they are the bane of brick and mortar book stores, so I try to avoid them when possible.

I shudder at the thought of most book stores being driven out of business by Amazon, even the big boys like Border's and Barnes & Noble. They are still good places to go to look for occasional sales, relatively cheap classics or for the latest bestsellers.

With that being said, I buy 90% of my books from used book stores, where I get them at 1/2 to 1/10th the price.
 
Physical stores have that instant gratification factor. That is so awesome. The smell of new books is awesome. The coffee shops and wifi definitely added to the atmosphere. Left would be really different if Borders closes. But since thread says "may file for bankruptcy," I cross my fingers that it just means the company is trying to balance out debt, etc.
 
I wouldn't get too nostalgic about Borders...they are, after all, just a big chain with overpriced coffee and books and (last time I visited one anyways) they charged for internet useage. If they do go under, others will take their place.

The best book shops are the used bookstores with reasonably priced coffee and free internet. The big chains have their place though.
 
It's telling when you get nostalgic for big chain stores. Book stores are on the way out, that seems to be certain.
 
No surprise here. They've been in deep financial straits for a while now. Sadly, book stores are a relic of the past. Take a look at how much non-book inventory they now carry. Coffee bars, games, CDs, DVDs and a bunch of other crap.

Look around. Lots of people killing time until their next appointment, using it as a library or drinking coffee and using free Wifi. No one is buying.

Aside of Amazon, Walmart and Target are hurting book sellers too.
 
Rt&Dzine said:
It's telling when you get nostalgic for big chain stores. Book stores are on the way out, that seems to be certain.
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rdowns said:
No surprise here. They've been in deep financial straits for a while now. Sadly, book stores are a relic of the past. Take a look at how much non-book inventory they now carry. Coffee bars, games, CDs, DVDs and a bunch of other crap.
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This is partially true - the internet is killing the big booksellers' brick and mortar stores, and the big department store behemoths (and grovcery stores) have picked up the magazine/trash dime novel/newspaper business.

But there will always be a strong market for used books. That's where the real bibliophiles go anyway, and more of these stores are doing the coffee thing as well. I don't think the internet will ever kill those. Especially because such stores often do a brisk trade in reselling classic literature and textbooks/technical books dumped off by ex-students. Some also sell unsold lots of books from the big chains at a huge discount.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
But there will always be a strong market for used books. That's where the real bibliophiles go anyway, and more of these stores are doing the coffee thing as well. I don't think the internet will ever kill those. Especially because such stores often do a brisk trade in reselling classic literature and textbooks/technical books dumped off by ex-students. Some also sell unsold lots of books from the big chains at a huge discount.
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The used book stores around me aren't doing well. Most have gone out of business. There's one I can think of that's still going but they do most of their business online and almost seem annoyed when customers walk in their store.
 
Rt&Dzine said:
The used book stores around me aren't doing well. Most have gone out of business. There's one I can think of that's still going but they do most of their business online and almost seem annoyed when customers walk in their store.
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The bookstores/coffehouses I encountered while living in NY/OH/AK in the last several years are all doing quite well, and are usually busy. Lots of people go there and sell books, and while prices are low the volume is pretty high. They aren't huge operations, but they seem healthy.
 
Not surprised, last Christmas (like 14 months ago) they owed 94% of their equity in debt. Since then they've only slashed prices while sales decreased overall due to e-book/online stores.

Honestly, I'm surprised they remained afloat for so long.
 
balamw said:
Me too. Went to one for the first time in a while around Christmas and it had the stink of death already.
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There are 500 locations though, and if they do go into bankruptcy they'll probably come out with several hundred stores left. I don't think they'll disappear altogether.
 
Tailpike1153 said:
Physical stores have that instant gratification factor.
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Instant gratification is downloading a book to my Kindle in a minute. Not to mention many Kindle books are cheaper than the physical books. My wife bought me (physical books) Decision Points and Broke for Christmas. I returned them both and bought them both for my Kindle for less than what she paid for one of the physical books.
 
ucfgrad93 said:
Instant gratification is downloading a book to my Kindle in a minute. Not to mention many Kindle books are cheaper than the physical books. My wife bought me (physical books) Decision Points and Broke for Christmas. I returned them both and bought them both for my Kindle for less than what she paid for one of the physical books.
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Call me a luddite, but I prefer the physical article. Still, I think readers like the Kindle are pretty cool. I'm not sure how much of an impact they will have on book sales though.
 
I know the only physical books I still by are comic books and textbooks since Ebooks just do not work as well on those.

Biggest reason is not the cost but because books take up a lot of space. I have boxes full of books that I have bought and have no room to store. That my night stand has books just stack up on it and that is just from my re-reading. Right now a kindle is on the top of that stack and it is holding plenty of other books in it.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
There are 500 locations though, and if they do go into bankruptcy they'll probably come out with several hundred stores left. I don't think they'll disappear altogether.
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Neither do I, but the location near me is too close to the largest Barnes and Noble location outside of New York. While the Borders seems to be dying, the BN seems to be thriving.

Before iTunes, and after I left the Boston area, Borders was where I discovered many of my favorite CDs just browsing through the stacks. They really pioneered the books, music and more approach.

B
 
balamw said:
Neither do I, but the location near me is too close to the largest Barnes and Noble location outside of New York. While the Borders seems to be dying, the BN seems to be thriving.
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It's like Kmart and Wal-Mart. In my town, Barnes & Noble built a store within a mile of every Borders location, essentially letting Borders do the R&D for store locations. I imagine that after Borders abandon 100-200 locations, they will start making money again.
 
There are books and there are electronic books and I predict those who specialize in exclusive brick and mortar book stores will be severely disadvantaged over cloud stores not unsimiliar to the way Blockbuster has been run over by Netflix. One distribution warehouse is much less expensive than a hundred retail locations (referencing one metro area).
 
Huntn said:
There are books and there are electronic books and I predict those who specialize in exclusive brick and mortar book stores will be severely disadvantaged over cloud stores not unsimiliar to the way Blockbuster has been run over by Netflix. One distribution warehouse is much less expensive than a hundred retail locations (referencing one metro area).
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FWIW Our BN highlights the Nook right at the entrance to the store, but even the Borders/Kobo partnership was too. Bring your Nook to a B&M BN and you can read any book in their inventory for an hour per day. (While sipping your coffee from the in-store Starbucks).

B
 
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