Borders crumbling by dreamtrove

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Borders crumbling

POSTED BY: DREAMTROVE
UPDATED: Tuesday, December 21, 2021 08:09
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Monday, July 18, 2011 5:59 PM

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7658970.html
Borders chain plans to shut all of its 399 stores

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7658970.html#ixzz1SWJ46lU
c

From a bookstore perspective, I have to say that it appears to be impossible to lose money in this business, and I've made some real screw ups. I don't think I've ever made a money losing deal. There's something not right with this picture. Someone buying mortgage bonds or something, I don't know.

Waldenbooks was a great store. It became Borders and nothing changes. Except now, it's folding.

Just thought we needed a new thread on a real world event.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110719/BUSINESS06/107190400/Borders-shu
t-down-good-after-deal-collapses

Interesting comments

http://www.freep.com/comments/article/20110719/BUSINESS06/107190400/Bo
rders-shut-down-good-after-deal-collapses

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Monday, July 18, 2011 7:08 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Mary used to work for Borders years ago until the store she was at closed, I guess the others are now following suit. On the upside DT maybe more folk will come to you for children's books now.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, July 18, 2011 9:15 PM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!

The Amazon jews kicked their a$$. Why fight traffic when UPS delivers to your door?

I say good riddance. Borders ignored all other books and only promotes Harry Potter's Satanic witchcraft. Literally, the only book allowed in its window display.

One book I bought at borders was Rudy! An Unauthorized Biography, about how Gholuiani was a dick sucking faggot who married his cousin, and his daddy was a Mafia enforcer living in Sing Sing prison for armed robbery. The Borders book had all pages printed backwards and upside down...

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 1:55 AM

DREAMTROVE

Quote:
Originally posted by piratenews:

Borders ignored all other books and only promotes Harry Potter's Satanic witchcraft.

Actually, it's Christian.

And here I thought you wanted to defend our Borders

Riona a chara

It's sad though. I mean, it's true, it's not a competitive business model to rely on new printings of new titles, and the company had to adapt, but I think it was trying. I suspect stories like this have a darker side. I recall reading during the bailouts that GM testified that they'd lost money on selling SUVs, a policy the govt. encouraged; but then when you looked at the numbers, they'd lost $2 billion on vehicle sales, and $100 billion gambling on mortgage derivatives.

Perhaps smaller bookstores will return.
That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 2:08 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

It disturbs and worries me because it's one less outlet for the printed word. I mean, the ACTUAL *printed* word.

The thing that bothers me about e-readers and the like, which hasn't been adequately addressed if it's ever been addressed at all, is this: How do you share a book on your e-reader?

If I buy a book, and love it, I'm sharing it around amongst all my friends and family. If I buy an e-book and love it... what do I do? Recommend that others buy it as well?

The current setup seems to be analogous to buying a DVD and then finding out that it will ONLY play on your DVD player, and you can never loan it out or resell it.

With bookstores in trouble, used book stores won't be far behind.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 3:42 AM

DREAMTROVE

Mike, check out the comments page I just added.

http://www.freep.com/comments/article/20110719/BUSINESS06/107190400/Bo
rders-shut-down-good-after-deal-collapses

There are some interesting thoughts. I think that bookstores will continue to exist as long as there are books, and since some of our books are from the 19th c. I don't think they're going anywhere soon.

I suspect also we're seeing at the very least a shift of business model, and the product will be changed as a result. New ebooks will be written to the format of free-sample, followed by $1 download, and will not be held to hand held size. More likely they'll be shorter, but some might be 20,000 pages ;)

Esp. when there's no one around to edit.

I noticed my shopping habits changed away from borders with the internet because of a lot of what they carried. I used to buy the programming books with the animals on the cover, but some are 500 pages, and there are hundreds of them. it's a ton to move around, and a lot of shelf space, so now I put them on the iPad.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 4:50 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Goodness, that happened ages ago! We've been mourning it ever since, especially as our Borders was visible from the highway so we are reminded every time we drive by and see the "For Lease" sign on it. I was exclusively a Borders customer and adored that store; it felt like "home". I don't own, nor do I expect to, any other form of book. First because I can't afford it, but second because I, too, love books and will hate to see fewer of them around...and now also because of what you wrote, Mike, about sharing.

It's akin to the cursive thing for me: an indication that we are getting further and further away from traditional written communication. Yes, Kindle and others provide the written word, but in "computer form", it's more like a game or something to me and not nearly as attractive. I realize that's prejudice on my part, especially given Jim got me an Ipod and I adore it, and it's the equivalent of moving away from traditional forms of music (which we've been doing ever since tapes came out).

Basically, I was just very, very sad to see our Borders disappear. And I'm suspicious, too, DT, given it was ALWAYS full of people. I checked out Barnes and Noble; probably equally prejudiced that I didn't like it, tho' didn't help that Borders' frequent-buyer thing was free and B&N's isn't.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 7:40 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Well here, they tried to do that cafe thing, and then chose to harrass and chase out folk who actually sat at the tables and read with this "buy something and get out!" kind of attitude - which makes no goddamn sense, but that's Ann Arbor for you, they want your money, but they don't want YOU.
(Which is why there's kind of a halfsie ongoing boycott, while they scream a fit about it)

Then there's the fact that their in-store search widget would try to sell you shit while actually HIDING search results - making it worse than useless, pushy, aggressive and obvnoxious staff...

And the crowning moment of stupid for me - okay, trade paperbacks are essentially collectors items, extended comic books, which folk are seriously damn rabid about the condition of, yes ?

When I bought Transmetropolitan Issue#3 there, and brought it home - you know how I have *ISSUES* with them anti-theft stickies and traps which are soooo damn hard to remove without destroying the packaging ?
Which, with an anime box set valued at $279.00USD in mint/near-mint, raises some serious goddamn issues - especially when you bought it ONLINE and there's no friggin need for em whatever...

Well, since I bought them to read, not collect, I went and read it, and right there, in the middle of the book, STUCK TO THE FUCKING PAGE DIRECTLY, is one of them anti-theft widgets, and despite all efforts and lots of experience at removal, removing in did in fact do significant damage to the page.
As you can imagine, I was pretty pissed about that on general principle.

So given their conduct and operations here in Ann Arbor - which falls in part on someone I have known before she *was* their operations manager here and gets no end of shit from me about it...
I have damn little sympathy for them.

On the other hand, it rooks me that there's one less source of actual BOOKS, which cannot be altered or deleted remotely, that being damned ironic since that's a minor plot point in Blade of Tyshalle which I went real far out of my way to obtain in actual tree-ware.
The only books in electronic form I'll have anything to do with are via Baen, but since they've gone completely wacko since Jim died and become the Fox News of the literary world....

Well, I guess you could call me neutral.

-Frem
PS. Yes, I consider Baen to have wrecked all the cred with me it used to have, especially due to their relationship with nutters like Ringo and Kratman.
(bring an airsick bag)
http://www.sfreviews.net/watchontherhine.html
*wince*
http://hradzka.livejournal.com/194753.html
Now ponder these people really think the world works like this!
And you wonder why I think they're dangerous.

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 12:27 PM

DREAMTROVE

Frem

I think you just nailed the number one mistake that businesses make. Customers are traffic, they generate customers. Who cares if they generate sales? If 1% of my customers buy something, and I have 100 million customers, I have a lot of people buying things. If I make 100% of my customers buy things, and have like 10 customers...

ETA: Provide a service that the people want, and the rest will take care of itself. The nature of business hasn't changed. The new management at Borders fucked up. The only flaw I see is that Waldenbooks and Borders and anything else it ate can't be spun off to other parties through bankruptcy without the individual stores having to pay up on the quarter billion that the company heads blew.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 12:32 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

when I heard the news that borders were finally being closed, I was about ready to dance for joy!

Then I realized it was the book stores, and not the US southern border, w/ Mexico...

" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 4:33 PM

DREAMTROVE

I'm opposed to closing of the southern border. It's an old standby for americans fleeing ;)

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 4:59 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

I don't think that in my city printed books are going anywhere, at least not for now, cross fingers. We have this big used bookstore that is super popular, so hopefully it will stave off the ebook craze for a while.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 6:56 PM

KWICKO

Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
I'm opposed to closing of the southern border. It's an old standby for americans fleeing ;)

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

Besides, things get much worse here, the Mexicans will build their own damn wall to keep US out of THEIR country!

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 10:37 PM

DREAMTROVE

Yet the one thing people really cross that border to do is shop

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

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Wednesday, July 20, 2011 1:44 AM

KWICKO

Yup, both directions. People on the border DO NOT want the border closed, because doing so would put them out of work.

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Tuesday, December 21, 2021 8:09 AM

JAYNEZTOWN

Big-Name Chains That Closed Stores and Restaurants in 2021
https://www.aol.com/finance/big-name-chains-closed-stores-140021362.ht
ml

Muslim terrorists arriving at the US Border?
https://barenakedislam.com/2021/12/20/potential-muslim-terrorist-from-
saudi-arabia-nabbed-at-us-mexico-border/

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