When the news came that Borders Books Store had [finally] gone into bankruptcy and would be closing about 200 of it's stores, I found myself conflicted. Of course, I feel bad for the poor folks who'll be out of a job, just as I would if any other company went bust, who wouldn't? That said, I just can't empathize with many of the blog posts, Tweets and articles which came soon after, lamenting the passing of a giant in the industry and fretting about the state of today's publishing world.
First, as I understand it, Borders owes a lot of money to small publishers, most of which will probably never get paid now the company's in bankruptcy. Some of the big companies, like Wiley (who've written off $9m in debt), have already accepted they won't get what they're owed and moved on. That's very noble of them (no bookstore pun intended). It must be great to have the finances to take that kind of a hit, I hope I'm wrong on this, but I can't help wondering how many small press publishers will find themselves in financial difficulties because Borders decided paying them wasn't important enough? Sure they may get part (or even all) of their money, but not soon enough for some.
Second, although I have a big Borders store closeby, I can't remember the last time I bought a book in there. Don't get me wrong, I buy a lot of books, many of them in person from the author at book fairs/cons and other events, but I order most of my books online these days. Why go all the way to a bookstore only to be told to come back next week because they have to order what you want, when you could have stayed home and ordered it online yourself.
Whatever the nostalgic vision of the Borders that once was, for a long time now it's been a store that sells mostly books rather than a book store. The last time I went in to my local Borders was December 2009. I bought a CD. I could just as easily have bought a board game or a greetings card. I love the smell and feel of a book, but if I want to browse the shelves, I go to a my local library. They need my support more than Borders or Barnes & Noble.
How about you?
What's your take on the Borders bookstore bankruptcy thing?
First, as I understand it, Borders owes a lot of money to small publishers, most of which will probably never get paid now the company's in bankruptcy. Some of the big companies, like Wiley (who've written off $9m in debt), have already accepted they won't get what they're owed and moved on. That's very noble of them (no bookstore pun intended). It must be great to have the finances to take that kind of a hit, I hope I'm wrong on this, but I can't help wondering how many small press publishers will find themselves in financial difficulties because Borders decided paying them wasn't important enough? Sure they may get part (or even all) of their money, but not soon enough for some.
Second, although I have a big Borders store closeby, I can't remember the last time I bought a book in there. Don't get me wrong, I buy a lot of books, many of them in person from the author at book fairs/cons and other events, but I order most of my books online these days. Why go all the way to a bookstore only to be told to come back next week because they have to order what you want, when you could have stayed home and ordered it online yourself.
Whatever the nostalgic vision of the Borders that once was, for a long time now it's been a store that sells mostly books rather than a book store. The last time I went in to my local Borders was December 2009. I bought a CD. I could just as easily have bought a board game or a greetings card. I love the smell and feel of a book, but if I want to browse the shelves, I go to a my local library. They need my support more than Borders or Barnes & Noble.
How about you?
What's your take on the Borders bookstore bankruptcy thing?
What's your take on the Borders bookstore bankruptcy thing?
I feel bad for the folks losing their jobs, but I rarely (if ever) shop there, so it doesn't affect me.
14(28.6%)
Big bookstores are extinct, they just don't know it yet.
5(10.2%)
I buy most of my books from Borders. I'll miss them.
4(8.2%)
I used to buy from the big bookstores, but not for a while now.
3(6.1%)
I have as much sympathy for Borders as they had for the small bookstores they put out of business.
11(22.4%)
Borders has gone bankrupt?
2(4.1%)
Something else, which I'll mention in the comments.
10(20.4%)
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curious
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Comments
I have this to say about bookstores in general--the big bookstores killed the little ones, and now the big ones are being killed by the internet. I DO believe that there CAN be a resurgence in the small, local bookstore--if they do something MORE than sell books.
Case and point--my local bookstore. They do nothing. No events. No signings. The books there when she bought the place are still there. There's a very small "new books" section. If you want something she doesn't have, anywhere from one to three days to get it in. I believe there's a children's story hour one a week/month.
The small stores need to be innovative. They need to do something to draw people in, to make it OK when they don't have a book and you have to come back, to make it worth paying a few extra bucks for a book you can have delivered to your door. That lack of innovation, as much as the Borders and its ilk, is why many small bookstores couldn't survive.
I'm getting down off my soapbox now...
I agree, and not in a 'Let's have some authors come and sign books' kind of way either (though books signings can be good. If I owned a bookstore, I'd be looking to get writing groups/book reading clubs involved, letting them hold meetings there, inviting guests to come and talk about writing.
A f'r'instance: I recently came (shamefully late for someone who loves the western genre) to McMurty's 'Lonesome Dove' and wanted to read the rest of the series. Even the huge Books Etc on Picadilly only had Lonesome Dove itself, and none of the others. They could order the books I wanted but it could three weeks or more to get them (they couldn't say and wouldn't commit to a definite time - might be two weeks, might be four, might be never....). I ordered them on Amazon that night and had them in 3 days. No contest, really.
Someone on twitter (I don't remember who) said that if Borders doesn't pay publishers, publishers won't pay authors that money that is owed to them. I don't know if that's true or not, but I'd love to find out.
I'm trying not to worry about it, because it's out of my hands, and doesn't do me any good. But... I do find it very sad.
Edited at 2011-02-23 07:38 pm (UTC)
I have fond memories of browsing the Big Bookstores, whether it be Borders or B&N. That was something I looked forward to doing.
Me too, Dave, but it's one of those things you suddenly realize you stopped doing a while ago, like when I noticed I no longer listened to the music stations on the radio :(
Like you, I enjoy looking around in bookstores, but recently, I've seen a lot of junk at bookstores. Entire isles dedicated to Edward Cullen and Bella, where my beloved geek books had been. Then the usual percent off I would get for being a Borders Rewards member turned into a way to spam me. No more ten to twenty percent off for me. But here's an ad for FTD florists!
We went to the local Borders which is closing. EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! Everything in the store was...20% off. WTF? That's less savings than I used to get with my rewards card? So, my wife and I walked around for twenty minutes talking about how we could get everything cheaper at Amazon.com.
I can see why they went under, and I'm not sad anymore.
That's a good point. Just because you can email your customers five times a week, doesn't mean you should.
I do think the management of the chain missed the boat, and have earned this.
But to be honest, although I go to Borders several times a year, I go to Amazon nearly every day.
The days have gone forever when, as a kid in New Orleans, I would get off the bus downtown, check out the Doubleday book store near the Burger King on Canal St., then walk down and cross the street and shop in this lovely, and large bookstore I can't remember, then walk down Royal St. and hit several wonderful used (sometimes used and new) bookstores, then go to the Mall and hit 3 different bookstores, all in the search for the novels I was chasing down in one of Michael Morecocks SF/Fantasy series (and often buying other things along the way). Now I just hop over to Amazon and order them, sometimes paper, sometimes ebook.
Times have changed.
As a consumer I went for the cheapest price. As a creator of the product I'm wishing the consumers would pay way more than they do. lol
Edited at 2011-02-23 08:01 pm (UTC)
I don't drink coffee, I take tea, my dear... :)
I was much more worried about the mall Borders in my hometown in California. There's not another bookstore within 30 minutes of the city, so that loss would have been quite a blow. All of the old used books stores have closed, too. I am very glad that Borders will stay open, for now.
At the same time, Borders did themselves in by making a series of boneheaded mistakes. They took on more debt just to perform a stock buyback; they alienated book buyers by having up to half of the stores taken up with music/video/games; they decided to eliminate a lot of the books on the genre shelves and focus on a few big names. By comparison, B&N has no debt.
What hurts to me is that our local big independent, Joseph-Beth, went into bankruptcy and closed stores in Cleveland and other places just to survive. I love going to that place, because you not only have good selection, but you have knowledgeable staff who pretty much live for books.
My town had 3 major bookstores: 2 Borders locations, and 1 Barnes and Noble. 1 of the Borders stores, along with BN, have closed in the past couple of months, and it really does make me sad. If the 2nd Borders location closes, I don't quite know what I'll do.
I know what you mean, but I can't see them staying open if they don't make some dramatic changes.