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rfmcdonaldNotwithstanding my love of books, I feel glad for any number of reasons not to have participated in the final looting of Borders book stores in my country's southern neighbour last weekend and in the days before. As described in the widely-syndicated article "Last Borders shoppers wistful, looking for deals", the scene was just sad.
The thing is, it's also inevitable. The pure bookstore--the bookstore that sells only or mostly books, and makes books its main reason for being--is gone. Future successful bookstores are going to have to be community centres as much as anything else--for geographic and interest communities both--and to sell non-book items. Margins must be wde, tis all.
Started in 1971, Borders grew to become a giant in the industry, operating Borders and Waldenbooks bookstores. But the company failed to adapt quickly to the changing industry and lost sales to the Internet, discounters and other competition. It filed for bankruptcy protection in February and has since shuttered stores and laid off thousands of employees. Borders began liquidating its remaining 399 stores in July when a $215 million "white knight" bid by a private-equity firm dissolved under objections from creditors and lenders who argued the chain would be worth more if it were liquidated immediately.
A few vestiges of Borders will remain. Books-A-Million is taking over 14 stores. And bidders including Barnes & Noble and Malaysian company Berjaya Books (which operated some Borders in Malaysia) will take over $15.8 million in Borders' intellectual property. That includes trademarks; the Borders, Waldenbooks and Brentano's trade names; Internet domain names; and the Borders.com e-commerce website. That's little solace to some shoppers who were taking advantage of the deals at the remaining Borders stores this weekend. Many wondered where they would shop once the chain disappears — even though many of them already are migrating to online booksellers and discount chains.
Steve Mannix on Friday carried out 10 books and two magazines for $11.79 total at the Waldenbooks store in Cincinnati's Western Hills neighborhood. Most of the books were graphic novels about vampires, super-heroes and Japanese characters. He said he had been interested in the artwork and stories in graphic novels, but didn't want to pay $20 for one book.
"It's sad," he said, loading the books into the trunk of his car. "I used to come to this store all the time."
Still, Mannix said he reads online and buys most of his books at a Half Price Books discount bookstore, which he says saves him a lot of money. "They really priced themselves out of business," he said of the Waldenbooks store.
[. . .]
At the Borders in CambridgeSide Galleria mall in Cambridge, Mass., Mary Jane Diodati, a lawyer on disability, also pondered the end of an era.
"I really like the camaraderie and the peace of just being in a book store — it is different from a library, in my opinion," she said.
The thing is, it's also inevitable. The pure bookstore--the bookstore that sells only or mostly books, and makes books its main reason for being--is gone. Future successful bookstores are going to have to be community centres as much as anything else--for geographic and interest communities both--and to sell non-book items. Margins must be wde, tis all.
