The End Of An Era - BORDERS closing remaining stores

[BudAshes]

I got the last wheel of time book for 10 bucks hard cover. Thanks borders.

 

[IronWing]

My local store through all genres of music together for this sale making all but impossible to find anything. SciFi is still only 10% off making Amazon cheaper.

 

[KaOTiK]

The key to grabbing stuff from the liquidations is to wait. Every week (I think it is a week) they will up the percentage by 10%. That is what they did last time with the first wave of closures. I got a lot of books for 40% off and went back a week later and cleaned up anything else I wanted but didn't care if I got or not at 50%.

They were the best place to get new books for me (I read a lot of Warhammer 40k). With their coupons they email to you (just had to sign up for a free rewards account not the pay for one that gave you an additional discount), I received coupons like twice a week ranging usually from 30-40% off with the occasional 50% off one. So I'd get a new WH40K book for cheap (Amazon sells them for MSRP, not including the omnibus and a few others, and they aren't always on the 4 for 3 deal). So I found them to great for getting books, the B&N nearby is same price (MSRP) and no deals, same with the BAM near me as well.

 

[ProfJohn]

Guys it is typical of them to advertise 40% off on just a few items.

I bet there were tons of people in the stores buying crap THINKING that they were getting a good deal.

It is all about psychology. Create the illusion that people are saving money and people will act irrationally.

 

[Jeff7181]

Well, the last brick and mortar store closed today. Borders.com looks like it's still up, but Barnes & Noble bought their intellectual property at auction so I'm sure it'll be down soon enough.

Hard to believe such a large company has gone under. Just 4 years ago I was working there doing IT support for over 1000 stores around the world.

 

[Jeff7]

Ok what the hell...am I getting old now? This thread feels like it was just posted not long ago at all, and someone at work just had her 1 year anniversary, yet it feels like it was just a month ago that she started there.

"Did everything just jump around, or did my brain just stroke off there for a second?"


Back to your thread in progress.

 

[Triumph]

Bye bye Borders. I loved hanging out in your store in your comfy chairs and reading for free. The B&N near me just isn't as cozy.

 

[shortylickens]

Bye bye Borders. I loved hanging out in your store in your comfy chairs and reading for free.

Did you ever think maybe thats why they went out of business?

Not criticizing you, it just seems to me that its a rotten way to make a profit.

 

[PrayForDeath]

Bye bye Borders. I loved hanging out in your store in your comfy chairs and reading for free. The B&N near me just isn't as cozy.

Same

 

[Triumph]

Did you ever think maybe thats why they went out of business?

Not criticizing you, it just seems to me that its a rotten way to make a profit.

The store near me always seemed to be busy, there were always plenty of people there and always people in line at the cashier. That may have been a fluke, though, compared to other locations. But I sure as hell am not going to go into any bookstore that tells me to buy something or get out. I don't think their "read at your leisure" practice was what did them under, if anything it encouraged people to come into the store - once in the store they are more likely to buy something. The big problem with Borders was their lack of an online presence - either to buy online or download books online.

 

[Jeff7181]

As a former Borders employee, I can say that mismanagement was one of the biggest problems. I can't count the number of times I was informed of a change, a new process, a new piece of technology or a new marketing strategy and wondered what world the person who came up with the idea was living in. Didn't help that one of the last CEO's spent his time making HD videos to distribute to the stores to teach them how to provide "GREAT" customer service. (GREAT was an acronym for something, I just can't remember what)

Pricing was another problem. With my employee discount of 33% on books I could still buy most books cheaper on Amazon.com.