Books Trouble in “Paradise”
posted by on March 20 at 10:42 AM
In addition to facing more books out, it looks like Borders is in pretty serious financial trouble. I can’t tell if this is good news or not—if I’m in a place with no actual, independent bookstores, I’ve always preferred Borders for browsing over Barnes and Noble, and Borders has a better shelving system, too. Does this mean that more independent booksellers will sprout up? Doubtful. If Borders was to go under, or close a number of stores, I think their former customers will either go to B&N or online for their books, which means that this could be a lose-lose proposition.
i worked at borders for 6 years, and probably for the last 2 (i left in 2006), those who worked in the company knew things weren't looking good. it is a shame, but i'm not sure how they are going to get out of this without laying people off (they laid off 10% of corporate workers in 2006) or massively reworking their operating procedure.
They've been in financial trouble for years.
Borders can be hit or miss on inventory. Some stores have stuffed shelves and piles of books at the end of aisles, others seem to have a lot of "fluff" like stationery sets, wide spaces between sections, etc.
The few times I've been in there, I was the only customer. Kind of sad.
I know from personal experience that bookstore chains can hang on for seemingly forever after they've tanked financially. How long have they been going sour? I don't get to them very often anymore; I don't much go downtown (which is a pretty good store), and the only other one I've been in in Seattle is Alderwood Mall (a terrible, terrible one).
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