Well, whaddya think?

[Stir Young]

Borders Books is closing up....having a big clearance sale and closing their stores for good.  A few of the stores may be transfered to a competitor, but Borders is gone, finito, kaput.  It doesn't seem that long ago that they opened a store in the big town near me, and it was really something....we'd not seen anything like it before in these parts.

I gotta say, and speaking as an old retail guy, I never could quite understand why they had those coffee bars, and encouraged people to hang around there, seemingly not spending enough to justify the room they were occupying.

I learned as a young guy that retail stores should get 'em in the door, sell 'em something...and get 'em back out the door.  Books stores were the exception to that rule....they had to allow some browsing time, but I always thought readers seemed to just camp out at Borders.....they were encouraged to do so.

Yeah, I know that e-books, dotcom sales options, tweeting, FaceBook, TBD, and a host of other things now vie for our attention.  Maybe reading as we came to know it is dying....do we even need hand held, bound books anymore?

So, how will having no Borders stores around affect you?  I have to say that I've patronized Borders less and less over the recent years.  If I got a good coupon from them I'd go and use it, but I rarely bought anything at full price.  I have a large inventory of books I bought that I have yet to read, and I don't foresee myself stopping at Borders during the final clearance sale.

BTW, Borders is another Michigan based company hanging it up.  We've come to expect that kind of thing around here.

[Stir Young]

My dad priced items at our local Lions Club flea market for years.  He always priced things low....the stuff came in the door for free, and he wanted it to go back out the door quickly....with money, no matter how little, left in the cash box.  He didn't care what stuff was worth, he wanted it gone.  He welcomed price haggling too.  His theory worked well, at the end of the summer they always had done well.  When the next generation of seniors took over, they always agonized over pricing....they didn't want to get screwed on the value.  (BTW, they were mostly financially set conservatives, not to take this to a political place, or anything).  A couple of years ago, the Lions discontinued the Flea Market.  They had too much stuff to pack up until the following summer, their sales were down, it was too much work, etc, etc, etc.  Yep, they were out of business, but By God no migrant worker had screwed them out of 50 cents on a water glass.  They could feel good about that, I guess.  Oh, and my dad....well, he was a conservative too....but he also was a salesman, and a small business owner.  I'm a lot like him.

[Stir Young]

Borders shot themselves in the foot.....repeatedly.

[Stir Young]

Jeez, up in my neck of the woods Borders was competing against a mid sized independent and several boutique bookstores.  Unfortunately for Borders, we also knew about Amazon.com.

[Quinn]

They gave away their online business to Amazon! What were they thinking?

[Merry]

There was a brief time when buying cds was just as bad as walking around with an eight track player ductaped to your head. Until the college kids figured out that you could get 10 songs for 2 bucks. I love the look and feel of books. Haven't tried a Kindle yet. And I'm thinking that when Borders closes , it will open a niche for someone else. Maybe libraries should consider serving coffee and pastry. They're probably the next victim of the tea party and it would help them with thier budget.

[Jaylee53]

Idon't see well enough to read anymore.  *sigh*

There's a bookstore down the street.  Creaky old floors and a mish mash of books and piles of "Life & Post" magazines. And it smells like vellum and glue.  I love that place.  No Borders here but a B&N that smells funny and  the lay out is way too dazzling.

There is a local chain, "Schulers"...smallish, good layout and a great cafe.

I will always want a 'real' book to hold in my hands and mark with a piece of paper where I left off.

Plus my local library is wonderful!  My tax dollars very well spent!

[Merry]

One of my favorite places in the whole world is the library. I've donated at least one book that wound up in the permanent collection.