Borders file for bankruptcy | Hacker News Reader

Borders file for bankruptcy

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22 pointsfuzzythinker26 comments

Besides their premature international expansions, its biggest mistake I believe was closing its own online store and use Amazon for over 8 years. I mean maybe they weren't savvy enough to understand online presence at first, but it took them 8+ years to finally figure that out?

That's certainly one of them. But even in the physical book business, they were falling behind --- their inventory control systems were state of the art in the mid-1990s, but B&N leapfrogged them, while Borders management instead spent money on remodels and improved cafeterias, and trying to bring in other lines of merchandise. (It didn't help that the executives responsible for this came from retail operations like Linens n Things, and didn't know much about selling books.)

More from a literary agent:

[1] http://brilligblogger.blogspot.com/2010/12/borders-post-mort...

[2] http://brilligblogger.blogspot.com/2010/12/cold-equations.ht...

They were investigating selling their own wine at one point (that I know of - maybe other points too). Wine. Not... getting better at selling books or coming up with new ways to engage readers. Wine. I wrote them off at that point, and it's been painful to watch the slow decline. I liked them - I'm from SE Michigan and it was great to have a local 'home grown' company succeed. But between their early fairly major missteps in ecommerce to ceding control to Amazon for a long time, they've been in a slow death spiral. This has less to do with the shifting changes in publishing (ebooks, mobile, kindle, etc) and more to do with ... I dunno. B&N is still around and seemingly able to adapt. Why couldn't Borders?

I moved to place with no B&N close by and as much as I enjoy going to a bookstore I refuse to go to Borders cause it is such a lost cause to find a single book you are interested in there. It is just night and day difference browsing between the two stores.

What sort of books are you looking for?! I've got my share of complaints about Borders, and they certainly didn't always have the particular book I was looking for, but I don't think I've ever gone to one where that had absolutely no books I was interested in. Usually the problem is not spending too much money.

And I've definitely never noticed B&N to be any better on that front. When I had a choice, I'd almost always go to Borders first, unless I was already in the B&N parking lot for something else.

Are you kidding me? B&N carries books on gardening, military history and diet fads. That's about it. B&N is illiterate compared to Borders.

This is depressing. I know nothing beats the convenience of Amazon and Audible but browsing through a bookstore is an experience which just can't be replicated online... oh well.

I'd said before(and still believe today) that the best option for Borders is to be aquired by Amazon. Then you could browse the stores and sample what you wanted before you bought it. They could do in store promotions unique to each store and when you ordered from them, you could ship it to your local store free the same way that Wal-Mart does now. Also, you could pay cash in store or use your Amazon account to check out. It's a perfect fit IMHO.

That would never happen.

The problem is that Amazon has no operations in certain states to avoid charging sales tax. Buying Borders would put them in every state.

Integrating the amazon web store with Borders would put them in every state. Conceivably they could still buy Borders and operate it as a subsidiary without having it affect amazon.com's ability to operate without having to pay sales taxes in every state.

Get used to this. Borders is clearly just the weakest of the pack. Lots of book stores have tried to diversify into markets they don't understand to try to compete. Culturally, they can't handle amazon or apple working in their space.

As tablets and phones drop to the 300 / 150 range respectively, bookstores are going to go the way of music stores in the very near future. B&N has a great chance right now with Nook Color. They should drop the e-reader only aspect and launch a fully supported android device with a kick ass e-reader in it.

Lots of people root their Nooks and turn them into good tablets, B&N could pop out a basic tablet at $250 right now and eat a huge chunk of the market that's going to appear near the end of the year.

Borders was a revelation when it came to the Washington, DC, area. There were decent bookstores here already--at least a couple of which it helped kill--but nobody else had that stock and that range of subjects. Maybe at the Maryland Book Exchange in College Park you could have found _Transaction Processing: Principles and Techniques_ at one end and literature and history at the other, but nowhere else that I can think of.

There are still independent bookstores hanging on here. Reiters has technical and scientific books, squeezed down though from what it was. Bridge Street Books on the edge of Georgetown, Kramerbooks at Dupont Circle, and Politics and Prose out Connecticut Ave. all seem to be doing ok.

What is happening with the books in the stores? That's what I'd like to know.

I'll have to wander over to one that is closing tomorrow and ask.

Bankruptcy != closing down

See: tribune company, gm, chrysler, delta, us airways..

The article linked to http://www.bordersreorganization.com/Reorganization_Closure_... which is a list of stores that they are planning to close. Two on that list are reasonably near me. Presumably something needs to happen with the books in the soon to be closed stores. Frequently in that kind of situation they are sold at a considerable discount, and if that is the case then I would like to take advantage of it.

Brick & mortar bookstores usually have contracts that stipulate if the books don't sell, they can return the books for more or less a complete refund. The books you see with considerable discount are often those taken back by the publisher and then sent back out as 80-90% off. Softcovers aren't even returned--- the bookseller just rips off the covers and sends those back to minimize shipping costs. In high school, I worked in a B. Daltons (a now defunct Barnes and Nobles subsidiary) and it made me sad when I was tasked with tearing up a cart or two of books every few months.

I imagine the inventory will either be returned, destroyed or else shifted to their still remaining stores rather than a circuit-city-style liquidation sale.

A couple of Borders locations have closed in Washington, DC, and the rest are scheduled to go. As I recall, the routine was that close-out sale started at 33% off and then went to 50% off.

Great. I'm in Vegas and there's 7 stores in this town. The one they're closing? The store right next to my house. FML

The world changes, there isn't enough market in high street bookstores wedged between small local bookshops that also sell used and Amazon or supermarkets on the other.

If bookshops can't make enough $/sq ft then another type of store will move in.

What makes you think other stores are going to be better of?

First it was the record shops. Next it was the video rental stores. It seems odd when you think about it that it wasn't the book stores first?

Not really. Physical books are fundamentally different from their digital counterpart in a way that records are not.

Wow, you'd think this was the end of all physical bookstores. People should calm down.

First, other retail bookstores still exist. Barnes and Noble is doing just fine, for example.

Second, used bookstores are doing pretty well actually. And with the ability to sell their inventory online through amazon, alibris, half.com etc. a lot of used bookstores are seeing a renaissance.

If you want to keep your favorite local bookstore in business I suggest paying them a visit and buying a book.

Borders was a pretty big piece of the B&M book market, and a lot of us have fond memories of the place. It doesn't surprise me that people are freaking out.

When Waldenbooks went downhill, I was pretty sad about that. I spent a lot of time in that store. After that, I didn't bother getting attached to any of the others.

And to be honest, since Amazon, I haven't spent much time in a B&M book store. It's just so much cheaper and easier to order online, and quite a few of their books let you peak inside them as well. (Not that I had much luck picking good books from bad by peaking in them in the store anyhow.)

I'm going to have to explain to my children what a bookstore was. Sad, because I'm not sure anything can replicate that feeling of being surrounded by knowledge and stories or browsing aisles of obscure magazines. Neither I suppose could anything replicate riding a horse down Market Street or jumping on a ship departing from from Pacific Street.

Errr... libraries? (at least for being surrounded by knowledge and stories)

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