LAST 10 DAYS! read the sign outside one of BORDERS stores that are closing in our area. I didn’t have much time now that I’m back to work but I thought I’d pop in and do a quick search. There may be other treasures to be found in BORDERS, but I was happy finding some nice volumes to fill out my George Pelecanos library. All fiction was 50% to 70% off and I received an additional 15% off. These books cost me a total of $25.06. That’s a savings of $50! I’ll try to get back to BORDERS one more time before they sadly close their doors forever.
Hopefully I will get there over the weekend. So sad still so see our long shuttered neighborhood Borders.
We will never see anything like BORDERS again, Patti. The overhead for a Big Box bookstore in today’s economy is prohibitive. Barnes & Noble’s stores will be the next to face bankruptcy.
I think the Borders in the Milwaukee area are long gone but a friend got a great deal on some bookshelves.
Diane would not be happy if came home with some BORDERS bookshelves, Beth. I’m tempted, but I’d rather not face the Wrath of Diane. They’re selling all “fixtures” at the two BORDERS stores that are closing here.
Today is the first day of 60-80%…but watch out, some of the items ring up at oddly off-kilter discounts (my “fiction” purchases yesterday were ringing up at 68% off rather than 70%, and I was genuinely overcharged early on for some DVDs).
With luck, B&N, which is in some trouble, and Books-A-Million, which has promised to take over some of the current Borders spaces, will be able to hold on for a while…but, yes, everything is auguring against them.
To think that twenty years ago there were relatively few Borders, B&Ns, Blockbusters, and Tower Records had only been an international chain for less than a decade (and Tower Books was yet to be spun off)…and now they are all leaving or have left big holes. In Greater Philadelphia, TLA Video slowly collapses as a brick and mortar, as well…not quite as traumatic as the closure of Gene’s Books, but close.
The Big Box business model just broke down for Tower Records, BORDERS, B&N, and Blockbuster, Todd. The Internet and ebooks put a stake in their hearts.
(Yesterday, I took the last fiction magazines out, early novels I hadn’t picked up by Martin Amis and Jonathan Lethem, and a Steve Reich box set from Nonesuch.)
There are still treasures to be had at the BORDERS close-out, Todd. I plan to go on Saturday when I have some time to root around.
People don’t want to browse, or at least not in the same hands-on way we used to. I don’t like Pelacano at all, so I wouldn’t pay 1% for his books. You’re certainly welcome to them, George.
I’m headed back to BORDERS on Saturday, Rick. I’m sure there will be a crowd fighting over the scraps.
Today, for me, it was mostly some science and music magazines at 20% cover price, and a Will Henry novel. Most of the fiction Not in the “fiction” section is still holding at 60% off…
Rick, I think a lot of people still want to browse…then sit down with their laptops and order the books more cheaply from Amazon (or possibly Apple), either on paper or for their e-Reader…
Our BORDERS music section and science section have been completely picked to the bone, Todd. However, there’s still plenty of fiction to go through for treasure hunters with patience.
I got Dogs of the South by Portis and a couple more. MY Borders haul now tops 100 books. I have read two. Oh, well.
You got 100 bargains, Patti! Think of it that way. I’m heading to BORDERS tomorrow to see what I can find amid the chaos. I have a copy of DOGS OF THE SOUTH, but I haven’t read it yet.
Our Borders are long since closed. We did get to one over the weekend in the Phoenix area but all the books that tempted me are either ones I already own or have read or things I can pick up free from PaperBack Exchange.
Our two BORDERS stores are closing on Saturday, Jeff. I might make one more trip to see if I can find any bargains. But, the books are getting more and more disorganized. I don’t have the patience to look through a few thousand random books anymore.