mekeez

News Alert
from The Wall Street Journal


Borders Group said it would liquidate after failing to receive any offers to save the bookstore chain.

Borders, which employs about 10,700 people, scrapped a bankruptcy-court auction scheduled for Tuesday amid the dearth of bids. The U.S.'s second-largest bookstore chain said it would ask a judge Thursday to approve a sale to liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group.

Borders's liquidation of its remaining 399 stores could start as soon as Friday and the bookstore chain is expected to go out of business for good by the end of September, the company said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...=djemalertNEWS

JAYARE

probably wont see any good deals until movies hit 50 or 60 off

adrenaline78

Not shocking. Retailers like this who refuse to adapt to consumers shopping habits, such as shopping online, price comparing and whatnot, are going to fail in today's economy. Their "sales" were poor at best, and usually said item you wanted was a better price elsewhere, and not on sale. Personally I hadn't shopped at Borders, or even been in one since i've been married. Almost 8 years.

HockeyMan2000

That 50% online coupon was certainly good for a few orders back in May -- but otherwise I'm neither a patron of their store or their online site. Another retailer that simply couldn't make the transition.

Classic Films

Borders gift cards will be valid throughout the sale. Per an article in USA Today



It is always sad when a major retailer closes especially one where you could spend time to browse. Hopefully there won't be too much store bashing in this thread about how they deserved it because they were too expensive etc. I got a good deal on the blu -ray of Lord of the Rings trilogy using a coupon and the last of my gift cards. Several years ago Discover Card had a deal where instead of getting cash back you could take your rebate in Border's Gift Cards. The face value of the gift card was double your cash rebate. At the time Border's website was a portion the Amazon website with the Borders logo on it. Any book or DVD that Amazon sold you could buy through the Border's website using the gift card at Amazon prices. It was a great deal.

E Unit

My comments were about as bashing as I could do. Again, I hate any business that has to layoff so many workers, but if it's one thing that drove the company out of business, is that they were too expensive.

MooMooMooMoo

On the last liq, I didn't buy anything until 70%, & didn't buy heavily until 90%.

yellowlt4

Sorry, They deserved it. They were too expensive (sometimes above MSRP) and poorly run with some of the worst staff I have ever encountered in retail. Once they get down to 60% they might be competitive.

Classic Films

Amazon can sell for less because they operate without retail locations and with much fewer employees. I am sure if people were more willing to purchase clothing on line without first seeing and trying on the clothing that stores such as Macys would fail because they couldn't compete on price. The items that Borders sold are the same everywhere. You could see something at Borders and then buy the item on line for less. It is the same thing that happened to Tower Records and will probably happen to Barnes and Noble. Basically no retail operation can compete with an internet company on price because of the cost of operations for a retailer are much greater. Also most people don't pay sales tax on internet purchases.

jwstl

I find it pathetic when people believe their experiences with a portion of a company apply to an entire organization and are also the same experiences as everyone's. I had nothing but positive experiences with every Borders I visted in dozens of cities around the country. Yes, their prices were high but there were good deals available online with coupons. I guarantee I got better deals at Borders.com then I could get anywhere else.

yellowlt4

Im glad you find it pathetic but I have dealt with about 30 stores and each store was about the same, rude employees, many refused to take their own coupons and often times they wouldnt even honor their own return policies and required me to contact their corporate offices more than once. Again I say good riddance to a company that shouldn't have survived this long.

MooMooMooMoo

2 comments:

1. On cd's & dvd's shipping is often more than sales tax.

2. Back in the day (late 90's/early 00's) your statement "because they operate without retail locations and with much fewer employees." was accurate. Today the net has become so corporate that there is little if any cost saving over running a B&M. The corps have gotten their sticky little fingers into pretty much every piece of the pie.

Pizza

I don't. You're only as good as your weakest link. If you got one asshole employee then you're going to lose good customers.
I loved Borders. I will miss them but they've been long gone in my mind. I used to go there at least once a week if not more. I loved browsing and buying stuff there. They were pricey on stuff but they had a better selection and made it worth my while. When they started to make some of their departments smaller, most notably the CDs, I stopped going.

bcd

Sad day. For those of you who ever visited Borders in Ann Arbor in the early 80's this is a sad end to an amazing store. The stores today don't have the look or the feel as that one did, but poor management decisions and a failure to adapt to the changing marketplace will do this to you. There is a reason small book stores should stay independent, and this is it.

jwstl

That's a better theory than practice when applied to large companies. There's not a large company, retail or other, in the world that is free of bad employees. Hiring is not an exact science. If we as consumers were to stop purchasing from any company that's treated someone poorly then we'd have nothing and the world economy would collapse. The bottom line here is a lot of good people will be out of jobs in a poor economy and no one should be pleased with that.

Now, bring on the bargains.

Classic Films

1. I have never paid for shipping at Amazon and rarely any place on line. Between coupons, trial offers for prime , and spending over $25 at Amazon per order, I always get free shipping.

2. I am not sure about your second point as I just don't know, but it would surprise me if it were true. What is your source of information?

MooMooMooMoo

1. I can't always afford the $25 minimum

2. I haven't been open about this here, because there has been some small retailer bashing on this board in the past ("Big Lots hoarders", etc), & I am also very much a collector of both film & music; but I am a small online retailer, & have been so since 1998. I have also both owned & managed B&M stores in the past (80's); so my source is personal experience.

conebone69

For every asshole employee, there are 10+ insanely difficult/asshole customers.

Shame to see Borders go under but it was inevitable due to technology. I hate that nearly everything seems to be e-tailor based these days though.

Dr. Calamari

This to the maximum utmost. I worked in retail for almost 20 years, and what finally drove me out was the absolute insistence that customers were worth retaining in spite of the problems they brought in, or became. They are not and have never been.

Alan Smithee

There are those who say the customer is always right, and then there are those who have worked in retail.

yellowlt4

I spent 10+ years working in retail and I do believe that most of the time the customer is right. I ran into very few difficult customers, I think this may be related to clientele and my time in retail was over 10 years ago.

As to Borders, and potentially other like companies in the near future, they are becoming irrelevant. Most consumers are moving to streaming/downloading digital media and of those left buying physical media they simply don't need to touch and see a CD/DVD/Book before they have a desire to purchase it. With the growth of MP3, streaming movies and e-readers, retailers like Borders (who have not attempted to change with the market) serve no purpose.

kndy

Will this be like the closure of Hollywood Video and Blockbuster stores where the sale lasts for two weeks and everyone waits until the final three days...hehe...

Pizza

It's not a theory.

Unfortunately, that's a part of the job. Not saying it's right for people to be jerks.

And...I loved Borders. Great store. Sorry to see it go.

Double_Oh_7

Then it's a good thing you're out of retail if you don't think customers are a vital part of the equation.

illennium

+1 to all points made