Gizmo

Borders did sell games for some times. Mostly random $20 crap titles.

Ropes Pierre

I am going to take a book a day into the poo chalet, for a last hurrah farewell dump / read, to remind myself why i don't buy in B&M stores anymore.

(Some filthy savage has probably already done it, and thinks "B&M" stands for bowel movement)

Blu-ray-collect

Case in point:

"I just constantly enjoy sitting down and reading, especially in bookstores because it's quiet and the whole aura of it is just really relaxing," said Katherine Carrasco of Rancho Cucamonga, who prefers paper-and-ink books to the
electronic variety.
That's from "The Sun" (San Bernadino paper). I wonder how much of what she read she actually purchased.

Perhaps B&N (to avoid the same fate as Borders) should put books and magazines in those plastic containers (a la blu-ray cases at Target) to prevent patrons from reading them. Instead, direct them to kiosks to read snippets and excerpts from the book.

Maxflier

Going to miss Borders, I could always get a book there for cheaper than I could at B&N.

al_bundy

my local B&N has a kids section with tables where they encourage people to bring their kids and read in the store

Pizza

Then why go to a book store if you can't touch the books? Certainly there are folks that abuse the sytem and buy a coffee and sit down with a pile of magazines and books but when I'm shopping for a book on a topic, I'd like to leaf through it first. Seeing a couple of sample pages don't cut it.

DirkBelig

Exactly. Those were the only things I bought. Otherwise it was a browsing room to determine whether I wanted to buy it from Amazon or not.For Blu-rays, mostly; but pricey books benefited from the half-off. My g/f was able to buy the Making of the Empire Strikes Back book because it was half-off $85 at Borders ($45.05 w/tax) vs. $53.25 at Amazon.

The one near my g/f closed a few months back* and we used to stop in there to browse magazines after dinner or while waiting for photos to print at the CVS across the street. We miss it, but it wasn't like we were spending much money there.


* I was mayor of it on Foursquare and a couple months later, I get notified that some woman had ousted me. Who the hell is so empty that they repeatedly checked into a closed business until they were mayor. I flagged the place as closed. If I can't be mayor, the hell is she!

asianxcore

I do agree with Pizza, you don't want to make things crazy, just deter camping. Usually having (too many) comfortable places to sit with lots of space around you to pile books around is the problem. Although some people have no shame, you get less people who want to be seen as the man/woman who is sitting in the middle of an aisle (no chair/table) with a stack of books next to them. You'd get a let less camping with those sort of customers having to stand and read their books (or no place to put them)

A Borders I went to in Santa Cruz, had their entire Graphic Novels/Manga section sealed in plastic sleeves. They must have had a lot of browsing in that section, so they went ahead and took care of it.

I'm actually alright with that because I've seen that section and it's very inviting to parents/kids alike. Adults rolling solo should know better

My issue (both when I worked as a Manager and now that I'm no longer in Retail) is with the customers (if you can call them that) who's sole purpose is to throw $2 for a cup of coffee at the store and then treat the store like their home. Plopping down in a chair somewhere (sometimes physically moving them to parts of the store they aren't meant for), grabbing 20+ books and camping out. Not even putting the books back where they belong because it's someone's job to do it anyway.

Comparing terrible Daily Sales Goals/Numbers with the amount of people in a said store, you start to realize you have a lot more camping than you do actual buying.

As I said before, I'm happy to see everyone cheering the downfall of yet another company/B&M. We'll see how competitive E-Tailers are when they are the only ones left.

mekeez

BTW I posted this so those who, like me, had something to return, or borders bucks, etc. could get in there and get squared away. Noticed a new 30% off coupon through Thursday as well.

http://www.bordersmedia.com/coup/201...id=SL_20110719

mekeez

I posted this so those who, like me, had something to return ($60), or borders bucks, etc. could get in there and get squared away. Some Borders stores are less accommodating and I thought it was entirely possible that things would shut down way too quickly so some people would be left high and dry. I did get my cash back, although it was obvious that they didn’t know about the decision yet. :P

Noticed a new 30% off coupon through Thursday as well.

http://www.bordersmedia.com/coup/201...id=SL_20110719

clckworang

I posted this in one of the other Borders threads, but it might be more appropriate to mention it here. I work at a news outlet and the AP just sent out a correction to their story.

conebone69

Those cheering will be the first ones in line to bitch and moan when things don't go their way.

Guaranteed.

It's entirely possible that Borders will allow coupons and/or gift cards to still be used. I was able to use a gift card during a store closing but liquidation might be different.

I just wouldn't throw a fit if they refuse. Though, I'm sure someone will..

mekeez

When I check store inventory for an item online, it turns out that I don't have a store within a 100 miles of me, although we have two here. It's started...

mekeez

Just tried to check local inventory on a few items, both book and dvd. Apparently, I have no Borders within a 100 miles today, while yesterday I had two. I didn't try any coupons and have no gift cards.

sleepyhead55

Yeah, that online thing is screwed up. Anyway, I just used up my borders bucks today in the store. I believe I also saw a woman in line returning a book as well. So if you need to do any of those things do it now as Borders is still allowing GC/Borders Bucks and return of items.

joe_b

Yeah, I have about 6 items on backorder that I doubt I'll ever receive. I'd ordered Tremors: The Series with the 50% off code back in May... now I realize why they haven't gotten any new stock after all this time. Already received cancellation notices for a couple items that had been backordered for weeks, despite still being in print.

Also pre-ordered a blu-ray due in September (Mother's Day) -- guess I'll be shopping for it elsewhere now.

davidh777

Whatever. Makes a really fractured conversation with 24 posts in one forum, 35 in another, then this thread. I'm interested in the topic but don't want to chase all those down.

redtornado

Sad to see them go, but it was pretty inevitable once they started closing stores last year.

mekeez

Right, some of us only read one forum and there is definitely a time sensitive problem here with returns, borders bucks, and now with the borders.com either showing no local stores and/or "technical difficulties" in ordering; plus borders stores can often be pissy with customer service. As soon as I got the alert from the WSJ, I returned a $60 item I had been thinking of doing; luckily a cash purchase. Stores can close awfully fast. Otherwise, one thread would be nice, but where? The logical store forum has had 300+ views, while the 2 others are each over 1000+. If I hadn't known, I would have missed it everywhere but blu-ray. I thought it was more important to alert people than to worry where it went.

rfduncan

Well in THEORY the "liquidation" should mean dropping prices, but knowing Borders, anything that could be considered a genuine "deal" is miles off (September post-Labor Day). When they finally do start to mark stuff down that low, they'll only have crap left.

clckworang

I did a store search for my area. The only Borders that I know in the area didn't show up, but a couple of their other properties did. By that, I'm referring to a couple of Waldenbooks stores down here. I had totally forgotten that Waldenbooks fell under that same Borders umbrella. I guess those stores will be closing, too. That leaves hardly any real book stores in my city.

Lt. Brannigan

The Waldenbooks in the Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck, Idaho will be gone by the end of September. Which would bother me, but the employees were all unfriendly in there and acted as if people buying things annoyed them. At any rate that leaves exactly 0 bookstores in my area if we are not including used bookstores.

truelies

I will miss borders. How can the government watching more than 10000 people get fired in current situation?

DirkUSA

Do you want the government to use money that they don't have to save Borders?

John Galt

^^Apparently the B&M Bookstore lobby isn't powerful enough.