Borders filed for Chapter 11.\u00a0 The company isn’t going out of business; it’s reorganizing, similar to what K-Mart did.\u00a0 If it can’t make a profit, then it likely will go out of business, like Circuit City.\u00a0 Anymore than that–such as how this happened–is a simple Google search away.\u00a0 Most everyone has given their interpretation\u00a0 of events leading to this point, and most are similar.\u00a0 With this filing, two hundred stores are closing.<\/p>\n
Borders 165, my local store, is one of these.<\/p>\n
It shouldn’t be.\u00a0 The store is profitable, an anchor store in a busy Westfield mall.\u00a0 They’re a casualty of their own good fortune.<\/p>\n
A stipulation of the loan from GE is that leaseholders all have to renegotiate to keep the stores open.\u00a0 High rents were one of the biggest problems Borders had.\u00a0 Borders 165, though, had little reason for Westfield to want to renegotiate.\u00a0 If the numbers I heard mentioned were correct, 165 had a rent of about $1 per square foot.\u00a0 Why would they renegotiate that?<\/p>\n
Professionally, will this affect me?\u00a0 I’m uncertain.\u00a0 It will be 200 stores fewer for Penny Press to sell magazines, but for puzzles, that might be a small number.\u00a0 I won’t know until the company meeting sometime in March.\u00a0 I’d be surprised if Borders gets no mention.\u00a0 As for affecting me otherwise, I’m not yet anywhere near being published.\u00a0 But I do keep an eye on how this is affecting the publishing industry.\u00a0 Or, at least, I try to.<\/p>\n
Personally, I’m heartsick.<\/p>\n
Closing Borders 165 will leave me with three bookstores in the immediate area.\u00a0 Penny’s Used Books, which is a nice enough store, but it’s a used store.\u00a0 Most of the sci-fi\/fantasy section I’ve either previously read, or I donated.\u00a0 Collected Stories, an independent bookstore that has new, used, and collectible books.\u00a0 The store is closed by the time I get out of the house to go anywhere.\u00a0 The last store in the area is Barnes and Noble.<\/p>\n
I’m not a fan of Barnes and Noble.\u00a0 If I’m looking for anything outside of SF\/F, it’s lumped together in Fiction.\u00a0 Except Romance, Children\/YA, and reference\/nonfiction.\u00a0 I go to B&N only when I want a book right away, and Borders doesn’t have it in stock.\u00a0 I’m not impressed with the cafe, either.\u00a0 The seating area is tiny and cramped.\u00a0 The food is often stale, and the drinks barely adequate.\u00a0 The cafe workers tend to be college\/high school age, from what I can tell, that are more interested in gossiping with themselves.\u00a0 The B&N booksellers come across as snooty and elitist.\u00a0 Maybe they’re not, but they aren’t very personable and welcoming.\u00a0 About the only way I’m likely to go to B&N instead of ordering from borders.com<\/a> is if they hire any of the 165 staff.<\/p>\n The loss of the staff is what makes me and Rob the most heartsick.\u00a0 Yes, we like Borders, but we go to the store because the staff have become friends.\u00a0 In the five years since 165 opened, I’ve come to know most of the staff by name, and recognize the rest.\u00a0 They all know me to be a regular customer as well.\u00a0 Rob and I will stop by the store every Friday and Saturday nights, and we will spend several hours there talking with the staff.\u00a0 We enjoy their company.<\/p>\n Because we spend so long talking with the staff, we usually buy more.\u00a0 I’ll start out with the intention of buying a mocha, or other coffee drink, but before we’ve left the store, I’ve often bought a book or magazine that I’d originally forgotten about, or decided against, then changed my mind.<\/p>\n Since the store’s gone into closing mode, yes, I have taken advantage of the sale.\u00a0 I’ve bought many books, several that I’d intended to buy but hadn’t because my to read pile takes up most of a bookcase.\u00a0 now I have enough to fill a second bookcase.\u00a0 I bought somewhere around $500 worth of books and notebooks.<\/p>\n Would I have done this without the sale?\u00a0 Eventually.\u00a0 I wish I could have.\u00a0 The 165 staff doesn’t begrudge people coming to spend money on books.\u00a0 It’s that so many came only for the sale, and not before when Borders could have used the help.\u00a0 To add insult to injury, many people are asking when the discount will go higher than 20-40%, and when the store will close–probably to try to figure out the best time to get the greatest discount.<\/p>\n These people are being unapologetically mercenary.\u00a0 A common comparison is that of vultures, come to feed on the carcass.\u00a0 To make matters worse, they’re trashing the store.\u00a0 At the end of the first sale day, the closing announcement said, “If you’re not interested in the book you’re holding, find a clean spot on the floor and throw it there.”<\/p>\n Normally, the announcement is to bring books to the Information desk to be reshelved.<\/p>\n Rob and I went to the store around 2:00 on Saturday.\u00a0 We’d intended to go in, buy some books, and come home for the rest of the day.\u00a0 We saw the staff and the mess, and the vultures, and we ended up staying until minutes before close.\u00a0 We wanted to support our 165 staff.<\/p>\n We’ll likely do the same Friday.<\/p>\n We’ve been loyal customers to Borders 165 since it opened about five years ago.\u00a0 We will be loyal customers until the doors close for the final time.\u00a0 After that, our trips to Borders will be fewer because we won\u2019t be able to drive the 15-30 miles to the next closest store.\u00a0 Not as often as we do going the five miles to 165.<\/p>\n Borders has been criticized for not telling the staff of the closing stores.\u00a0 Many found out online, some through Facebook.\u00a0 Some found out when the liquidators showed up at the store.\u00a0 I’ve seen posts online that the company legally could not inform staff of the closings.\u00a0 I’m uncertain of the validity of this claim.\u00a0 True or not, I don’t think it’s the worse Borders did.\u00a0 That was the email sent thanking their loyal customers.<\/p>\n I’m a loyal customer.\u00a0 Don’t thank me.\u00a0 Thank the Borders employees.\u00a0 They made me a loyal customer.<\/p>\n Annie, Sarah, Emily, Marci, Donna, Kathy, Andrea, Dennis, Matt, Christine, Brendan, Susan, Carol, Gina, Jamie, and all the rest–We\u2019re going to miss you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Borders filed for Chapter 11.\u00a0 The company isn’t going out of business; it’s reorganizing, similar to what K-Mart did.\u00a0 If it can’t make a profit, then it likely will go out of business, like Circuit City.\u00a0 Anymore than that–such as … Continue reading