The End Of An Era - BORDERS closing remaining stores

[shortylickens]

The nerve of these people. While we're at it to hell with car manufacturers. In the 70's you could get a new car for $6000. The fleecing must end.

Actually I think modern cars are also ridiculously overpriced for you actually get. But they already shipped all those jobs down to Mexico and things still suck, so theres not much left.
Chinese kids?

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Bestbuy.

People walk into a bestbuy check out the TVs and then order them online at a lower price.

The company is already in the process of looking at its business decisions to compete better.

We could end up in a situation where major brands force online provides to sell items at a certain cost similar to what Apple does.

Not gonna happen to Best Buy. However, we are seeing what happened in the big box consumer electronics market happening to big box bookstores. That is, superior prices and customer service from etailers are driving national chains out of business. Where once there was room for Best Buy and Circuit City, there is now only room for Best Buy, because enough sufficiently savvy shoppers realize the best deals are almost always online. There are still enough retards, compulsives, and lazy bums to keep Best Buy afloat, though. The same thing has now happened with bookstores. Where there was once room for B&N and Borders, now there's only B&N. B&N will stay alive because people do enjoy browsing books (much more than electronics), markups aren't always that much more ridiculous (especially for paperbacks and bestsellers), and B&N has the Nook.

It's happened to consumer electronics stores (RadioShack is probably next), bookstores, and I'm honestly surprised it hasn't happened to home stores like Menard's, Home Depot, etc. Must be the high cost of shipping a toilet, haha. Wonder who's next?

 

[Six]

I stopped shopping at Borders a long time ago, because their non-fiction selections are on the level of "blah blah for dummies."

 

[ElFenix]

It's happened to consumer electronics stores (RadioShack is probably next), bookstores, and I'm honestly surprised it hasn't happened to home stores like Menard's, Home Depot, etc. Must be the high cost of shipping a toilet, haha. Wonder who's next?

well, that and you can't bring a screw with you online to see which one matches.




borders always struck me as being a 'hey, b&n is doing it so let's do it too' outfit. they did things without knowing why. and now it has bit them in the ass.

i'm not sure how much longer b&n's giant stores are going to be kept around. b&n has been for sale for much of the last year. back in may there was a buyout offer on the table from bodybuilding.com for a billion dollars. dunno if that'll pan out or no.

 

[Craig234]

yo, I'll take that pork chop if Anubis doesn't claim it.

:whiste:

Last pork chop I had was from here:

 

[Macamus Prime]

Borders is like the Virgin Megastore - it's way overpriced. And look what happened to the Virgin stores.

I can't figure out how they even entered the business.

Online is where it's at. I even buy my clothing online; mostly because the brick and mortar stores don't have the sizes and styles I want (local stores have really shitty urban style clothing,... in pastels).

Books: I'll read them in e-format.
Games: digital distro or Amazon.com. Gamestop/EBgames could go fuck itself with a rusty pole covered in fire ants.
Shoes: B&M stores rarely have my size; 14
Clothing: In NYC, it's all about the latest fashion, so everything is overpriced and looks ugly. Ed Hardy, I am looking at you - with your pastel tattoo tribal art design shirts
Electronics: Best Buy rarely has good deals. Amazon.com or some other .com with better deals.
Food: OK, this, I do B&M.
Women: Online dating services / hook up sites; like shooting fish in a barrel.
Socializing: Nothing beats hanging out with real actual friends and girls in a bar. I don't ever substitute interactions with people on the internet with real life socializing.

So, the majority is going on "teh internetz".

 

[Alienwho]

the other guy may not be right, but you fail just as hard. hundreds of thousands of books? Oh yeah? And you think it makes it easier to get noticed when everyone and their dog can get their book on amazon?

You're still pushing old control limits on new technology. Under the old rules if you wanted to be a famous author you had to convince one person to publish and print your book for you.

With ebooks sure you might have a lot more competition, but at least you can become public and allow people to find you who are looking for a specific genre or using search terms pertinent to your writings. The cream will rise to the top. All it takes is a half a dozen amazon reviewers to mark the crap as one star and the good stuff as 5 stars before you're in decent shape for future growth.

 

[Jeffg010]

"400 remaining stores and 11,000 jobs"
27.5 employees per store that is fail right there.

 

[slayer202]

"400 remaining stores and 11,000 jobs"
27.5 employees per store that is fail right there.

.........

 

[Macamus Prime]

"400 remaining stores and 11,000 jobs"
27.5 employees per store that is fail right there.

When you ran a local franchise bookstore, how many employees did you have at your location?

 

[Krynj]

"400 remaining stores and 11,000 jobs"
27.5 employees per store that is fail right there.

28 employees isn't that many, really. 2 shifts, maybe a few over nighters. 5 or 6 part timers.

Their problem wasn't that they had too many employees making minimum wage. They stagnated and got left behind.

 

[shortylickens]

28 employees isn't that many, really. 2 shifts, maybe a few over nighters. 5 or 6 part timers.

Their problem wasn't that they had too many employees making minimum wage. They stagnated and got left behind.

Yeah thats what I was thinking too. More often than not when I walk in I cant get help (which is why I never bought anything). Most of them are part time college and high school kids so 28 people really isnt a lot when you've only got 2 on shift at any given instant and one of them is chained behind the cappuccino machine.

 

[slayer202]

please tell me you guys are trolling...

 

[shortylickens]

please tell me you guys are trolling...

Oh hai you must be knew hear!

 

[coloumb]

No surprise. Saw a recent commercial which compared someone lugging around ~10 books in a backpack versus carrying around a small kindle in your back pocket.

 

[SandEagle]

gift cards will be honored for a few more days
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43811443/ns/business-consumer_news/

 

[IronWing]

Borders was pretty good when they carried books and music. Then they carried books, music, kids' shit, party hats, calendars, stationary, journaling supplies, those made for discounting giant picture books, greeting cards, more kids' shit, video box sets. coasters, decorative-festive-party-hats with greeting card themes, aromatherapy dolls, and all sorts of other crap and corruption that utterly failed to be books and music, displacing books and music so then they kind of sucked.

 

[slayer202]

Oh hai you must be knew hear!

didn't think so

 

[Triumph]

I always liked Borders and am sad to see them go. I just never liked the atmosphere of B&N as much. Oh well.

 

[Krynj]

Just got back from our local Borders. Liquidation prices weren't great at all. Any books I was interested in were only 10-15% off, and still in the $40-$55 range. Hard to drop that kind of cash on instructional/text books for 3D programs when there are tons of free, high-res, and current videos all over the web.

Most magazines were 40% off though. Picked up a copy of 3D Artist and 3D world for $18 instead of $30.

I don't know who determines the liquidation prices, but it has me scratching my head. There's an independent book store right across the street whose regular every day prices on the same titles are still cheaper than Borders' liquidation prices. Not really hard to see why they went bankrupt.

 

[xanis]

Just got back from our local Borders. Liquidation prices weren't great at all. Any books I was interested in were only 10-15% off, and still in the $40-$55 range. Hard to drop that kind of cash on instructional/text books for 3D programs when there are tons of free, high-res, and current videos all over the web.

Most magazines were 40% off though. Picked up a copy of 3D Artist and 3D world for $18 instead of $30.

I don't know who determines the liquidation prices, but it has me scratching my head. There's an independent book store right across the street whose regular every day prices on the same titles are still cheaper than Borders' liquidation prices. Not really hard to see why they went bankrupt.

That kind of sucks. I was hoping to pick up some books on Cocoa/Objective-C for cheap.

 

[Krynj]

If I recall correctly, programming books weren't down much either.

 

[slayer202]

I believe everything is now 40% off? probably off list price, which still isn't that great. I'll stop by in a few days maybe

 

[Gibson486]

LOL...came back from the one in cambridge. They shut off the air conditioner. I know your closing, but dam, no need to make us suffer.

 

[waffleironhead]

I believe everything is now 40% off? probably off list price, which still isn't that great. I'll stop by in a few days maybe

"As much as 40% off".

I went into one of the ones that closed earlier and all of the prices were still higher than amazon, despite the 10-20% markdowns.