Borders to Shut Down- Completely.

[Okami]

Thirteen miles is not a long drive though. XD For me, I have to drive at least a little bit to get to Best Buy, B&N, etc. so I really do not see the problem.

Xeno pointed out many of my issues - I am not licensed, nor do I have a car, etc. For the most part I am only able to get out when at home if I'm with friends [SIZE="1"](this is rare - and is usually a spontaneous realization of "We have Borders coupons, lets go to the mall!"...Thanks to Kitsune's sister, typically. )[/SIZE] or I'm going shopping elsewhere in the area where the Barnes and Noble is. So for me, yes, absolutely thirteen miles is a lot - especially considering in my college town everything I need is within 2.5 miles from the school, including the local Barnes and Noble.

Also consider that I've spent half my life travelling between the west and east sides of Michigan; I know what it's like to drive/travel three hours at any given time. I know long car rides to get from point A to point B. Yes, thirteen miles isn't anything compared to these trips, but those are necessary travels, not for my own pleasure. However, I'll leave it at that so as not to go too off topic.

[ashfire]

For me to drive to a BAM or B&N store I will have to arrange to make a trip maybe twice a month. I would travel to Borders in Waldorf, MD every week along with the trip to the comicbook store where I have a weekly box of comics and manga I request through them.
I wanted to browse the manga and other books at Borders if I was interested in buying.

[Juliannesan]

I am soo soo sad! I have always loved Borders sooo much more than Barnes and Noble! But ah well.

[TheMewster]

Xeno (since the quote function isn't working) :Ladies and gentlemen, to help ease your reading woes, I present to you two solutions:
Amazon Kindle
B&N Nook

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But aren't those things why Borders lost soooo much business and went bankrupt? Anyway God bless those poor people losing their jobs-------their livelihoods over this. May the Lord bring them peace and hope and a new job. In Jesus name, Amen.

[Xeno]

I think it's a pretty big leap to say that two items are the cause of a companies failure. I'd venture to say it was probably more upper management didn't know how to run a book store in the digital age that caused it. Books A Million still exists, they struck a deal with B&N to distribute eBooks to the Nook.

It's a shame people are losing their jobs, but that happens when a company goes out of business. Technological evolution isn't to blame, it's the failure/disregard to keep up with it that is.

[mysngoeshere56]

Didn't Borders also have a close connection with Tokyopop, too? I'm not sure if that's true, but it's what I heard... If it is true, then it's possible that whatever caused Tokyopop to go out of business didn't really help Borders, either.

[Okami]

I was at Borders yesterday and the whole atmosphere there just made me extremely sad. Where I live, the Borders has always had a very lively, peppy, upbeat feel to it - not busy, but spirited. Now, the entire store is littered with bold red, black, and yellow signs declaring the store's closing and how everything is 20%-40% off, that everything must go, and there will be no refunds or returns - all sales are final.

It gives it an oppressive feel, along with the closed cafe, all search computers and listening headphones gone, and all seating being taken out. The shelves around the store were dishevelled and it was extremely difficult to find order to anything; it was just mad chaos within the store. I was going through some music and a lady held up a Foo Fighters cd and told me of how she had found it in the Spanish Reference section of the store. I have never seen the store so disorganized and unclean. The atmosphere is certainly one of store closure...and it's sad to see it this way.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Didn't Borders also have a close connection with Tokyopop, too? I'm not sure if that's true, but it's what I heard... If it is true, then it's possible that whatever caused Tokyopop to go out of business didn't really help Borders, either.

"On March 1, Tokyopop continued layoffs, removing many high-profile employees such as long-time manga editors Lilian Diaz-Przyhyl and Troy Lewter. Tokyopop's management also eliminated the position of Director of Sales Operations. In an interview with ICv2, Stuart Levy revealed that the layoffs were due to Borders Group, Tokyopop's largest customer, filing bankruptcy in March 2011, no longer carrying Tokyopop stock, and not paying debts that the company owed to Tokyopop. [26]"

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyopop

Xeno (since the quote function isn't working) :Ladies and gentlemen, to help ease your reading woes, I present to you two solutions:
Amazon Kindle
B&N Nook

Let me know when they make e-ink screens in color. I know about the Nook Color, but all that really is is a low powered tablet.

[Asuka Neko]

SAAAAAAAAAAD. But it gave me an excuse to go to Borders and buy a ton of manga.

...well, not a literal ton, that would be kind of heavy.

[Atria35]

I ended up going and getting a ton of books and manga.

As great as it was, it was also very sad.

[ashfire]

I was reading the business section in the paper and it looks like Books A Million is reversing its idea to take over a number of Borders Books stores around 9-20-11. So I guess there will be a one in a area in a month.

[KhakiBlueSocks]

[font="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="4"][color="RoyalBlue"]You know, I went in Boarders a few days ago, and I was walking around and like Okami, I really felt bad about seeing everything in such disarray and all the clearance signs...

Then I just so happened to look up in the graphic novel/manga section and see THESE:[/color][/SIZE][/font]



[font="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="4"][color="RoyalBlue"]...and yeah, my sympathy for Boarders decreased quite a bit. I mean...really...SEVEN HUNDRED BUCKS?! I mean, Ichigo is cool and all but good-freaking-grief. Even in Liquidation, Boarders still gotta make a buck. [/color][/SIZE][/font]

[Dante]

They're selling everything by me - grabbed three books on math for about $20. Not half bad. They're also selling EVERYTHING, you can literally buy the bookshelves or the cashier table. The whole store is for sale.

Frankly, given how many books I have, if I owned my own home, I'd have a private library room, so I'd be buying those bookshelves up. They're made of solid wood (made to last) and they have some bookshelf designs that are just simply harder to get elsewhere (like bookshelves that don't just hug the walls but extend into the room... but low enough so that it doesn't result in creepiness when you enter that room of your home.

Alternatively, it would have been interesting to buy the front theft deterrence devices just for silliness (yes they were for sale). Sadly they were going for about $1300.

[Sparx00]

When I first saw this thread, I thought, "They're closing down the U.S. border lines?"

Then I realized we were talking about the bookstore. It is pretty sad that they're closing.

[Atria35]

I'm so tempted to go to Borders and buy more manga, but I so don't have the money >.>"

[Juliannesan]

It's good thing that the nearest Borders is about 20 mins away from me, or I so would be there buying more manga. Haha.

[Cadence]

I never thought that anything about Borders closing would make me happy, but I picked up a bunch of favorite my manga (Usagi Drop, Yotsuba&!, and Saturn Apartments, among others) for $1.20 a volume today.

Feels good.

[ashfire]

The latest is that 14 Border Book Stores will be taken over by Books A Million as to which ones will be 9-20-11 to find out.

[Atria35]

Raided a Borders- the manga dept. was virtually empty, and my funds were low, so I only bought series that I was missing volumes in or hadn't bought the newest volumes of.

My brother is going today after work to pick up a cookbook for my cousin's wedding, and I gave him a list of series I want for XMas that included Cross Game, Monster, and Pluto, none of which had been touched at the Borders I went to but couldn't really afford because they were more expensive.

[Atria35]

Ugh- double post. My mouse is dying a slow and painful death that includes little misfires like this.

[Exlon]

I got the strategy guide for Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for $8 (+0.40 tax) instead of $20. I was happy. I don't have much use for it though, 'cause I finished the game almost a year ago. But I guess it's good for when I forget where treasure chests are (which I've been doing surprisingly a lot this year).

I looked around the manga section, and they had several series still lying around. But I don't really know what's good, "morally-passable" enough manga, so I didn't pick anything up. Besides, I don't think they had Volume 1's of anything around. XD