Borders Begins Liquidation
Borders, one of the largest bookstore chains in the United States, has began the process of closing its doors.
Going-out-of-Business sales started today at all Borders, Borders Express, and Waldenbooks locations, with up to 40% off most items. The store has announced that gift cards will be honored during the liquidation, Borders Rewards Plus discounts are good through August 5th, and Borders Bucks will be accepted until July 31.
CEO Mike Edwards sent this e-mail to all Borders Rewards members yesterday, saying in part:
We had worked very hard toward a different outcome. The fact is that Borders has been facing headwinds for quite some time, including a rapidly changing book industry, the eReader revolution, and a turbulent economy. We put up a great fight, but regrettably, in the end, we weren’t able to overcome these external forces.
Going out of business sales begin in stores Friday, July 22. I encourage you to take advantage of this one-time opportunity to find exceptional discounts on your favorite books…
When I moved to my current home in St. Charles, IL in 1997, it was a town filled with many bookstores. The arrival of Borders and then Barnes & Noble gradually killed virtually every one of them.
But I consoled myself with the fact that Borders was, in fact, a superb book store. Clean, well organized, and marvelously well stocked, it was a terrific place to browse and find books. And now it is gone, leaving my town with one small bookstore: Town House Books, the sole survivor of the coming of Borders over a decade ago. One town over, there’s also a B&N superstore — another marvelous place for book lovers. Until it too goes bankrupt, as many investors are now predicting.
It is the end of the bookstore? I hope not, but time will tell. And until then, I’ll be shopping at Town House books.
WTF… Without B&N what in the heck will people do? This is sad all around.
I hit the Borders near work, and near home, for the sale.
Then I went to B&N to get one of their cards which I think will pay for itself since I will be buying there more often now.
sniff
Only a few months ago, I lived next to a Borders. If I wanted to browse, I just crossed the street.
I agree with Scott . . . this is not good.
This so sad. I love the borders 20min from my house. Borders offers better deals than b&n hands down. When i signed up for a free membership they sent me all kinds of 30% and $40% coupons and kept sending them. B&N didn’t do anything like that when i signed up for their paid membership.
Looks like i’ll be visiting my local half priced books more..
This is too bad. It’s nice to look at books all lined up instead of scrolling through an on-line kiosk. But who knows? Maybe other stores will fill the void.
I was employed by Borders for 22 years. Some of the smartest people I ever met worked there with a deep and enduring passion, a dedicated intensity that only hardcore bookpeople would understand, and they did it for year after year after year.
And now it comes to this.
Rest assured, John, that you and the co-workers were responsible for many happy hours.
Scott — I hear you. I really enjoyed browsing at Borders. I’ll miss it.
> I hit the Borders near work, and near home, for the sale.
Mary,
I took my kids today, to use up the last of the Borders gift cards we’d accumulated.
I was a little underwhelmed with the sale, to be honest. 10% off fiction. That’s still less than Amazon’s regular discount, and we had to wait in a huge line just to get to the register.
> Only a few months ago, I lived next to a Borders. If I wanted to browse, I just crossed the street.
Looks like you didn’t cross the street enough to keep them in business, Ryan. 🙂
> When i signed up for a free membership they sent me all kinds of 30% and $40% coupons and kept sending them.
Glenn,
I found the constant coupons to be a little annoying, to be honest. I get enough e-mail as it is; I didn’t need an extra 3-5 from Borders every week.
> This is too bad. It’s nice to look at books all lined up instead of scrolling through an on-line kiosk.
Mister_Alex,
I agree completely. I love to browse online, and Amazon has made it a real pleasure… but it’s still wonderful to hold books in your hands before buying them.
> Some of the smartest people I ever met worked there with a deep and enduring
> passion, a dedicated intensity that only hardcore bookpeople would understand
Hi John,
Sounds like this is hitting you even harder than it is the rest of us. Let it all out, brother!
Want to write a blog post about it?
> Rest assured, John, that you and the co-workers were responsible for many happy hours.
Ditto what Mary said, John. 🙂
[…] everyone’s crying about the demise of Borders, though it wasn’t that long ago we were all crying about how it and evil twin Barnes and […]
[…] killed all the small bookstores that were plentiful when I moved here in 1997. Borders began liquidation in 2011, leaving my town with virtually no […]