A reader writes:
What keeps getting lost in the Borders story is that it wasn't originally a big box store. It was a much beloved local bookstore, two snug stories with a huge and well selected stock. As a kid I would comb the children's books and young adult sections for hours (which was encouraged by plenty of places to sit). Borders as I knew it then has been gone since 1992, when it was sold to KMart and became the big box store most people know it as. It makes me sad that the independent bookstore half of Borders' history is getting lost in the shuffle. To me it was like some superficial aspects of the charm were kept, but the heart was gone. Surprising it kept on even this long.
(Attached is a picture of what's left of my collection of old Borders bookmarks. To the left is old Borders, to the right is post-sellout Borders. The parrot lady held on for a while, but eventually got phased out.)
Another also reflects:
I grew up in Ann Arbor and was in the original Borders store before it became a chain or moved to its current A2 location. I have seen much and am sad to see them go. But the signs have been obvious for a while. I’m sure taxes and rents and Amazon all played a part. But they have just not been "right" for some time.
For instance, until only the last year or so, you could not go to the web site and check on whether a book was in a local store or not. We have (had) 3 in town. I was looking to purchase a book that day – just wanted to know if it was in the store before I drove out there. Could do it with most major web sites – but not Borders until just recently. Ok, now they have it. And I find the book I want and the price is right – say $24.95 – about the same as Amazon. And the web site finally tells me “likely in store”. I head out, find the book, and go to the cash register – $49!!!! You tell the guy it was 24.95 on the web site. (At Best Buy that is all you have to say). Here, he tells you the in store price is higher to pay for the store. Well, did the web site warn me about that when it said it was “likely in store”? Is nearly double the price reasonable? I could have had them ship it for much less.
In fact, the guy behind the counter says, “You might want to order it online and have them ship it”.
One more:
Funny that all the commentary focuses on Borders versus Amazon when its real rival was Barnes & Noble. B&N isn’t exactly thriving, but it does seem to be keeping its brick-and-mortar operations viable while making some small headway against Amazon in cyberspace and with its own proprietary book reader. Books don’t make sense as a mass product – on either the publishing or the retail end (not to mention that publishing’s business model hasn’t changed since the 1930s). If there’s a moral to this, it’s that it’s easier to build a big box empire by selling appliances or hardware or groceries or cosmetics and drugs – something that everybody wants and that has a higher profit margin.
The slow demise of the independent book store is a sad and dreadful thing. Borders’ fall is something else entirely.
The Dish 