So Long, Borders...

[Phlip]

Looks like the bookseller is dead now.
Just got an email containing this.

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/8210/072103l.jpg
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http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/9062/072106.jpg

The Borders in my city closed a couple months ago, I got a Family Guy DVD set for 8 bucks in the closeout.
Looks like it is Barnes & Noble only now

[Flicktitty]

Bummer, great place to browse mags and pick up stuff for Christmas.

[zeitgeist]

The passion for reading and thought is disappearing

[Matej]

There are many Borders around town in places where it is obvious they would not see profits. Not sure who decided their locations. However, the one closest to me is actually one of the few in the country that has been doing great all along, and is always busy. It will be quite sad seeing it close, as I visited it often.

[jesse_s13]

Bummer, great place to browse mags and pick up stuff for Christmas.

Yeah I use to go there while I waited for my movie to start. Theaters next to it...

[iHateMySilvia]

borders was a great place to catch up on skateboarding mags when i was a youngin, sucks
rip

[turbobrick]

That sucks. One of the borders already closed by my house, I ended up buying a bunch of stuff on clearance. Sad to see them go.

[ronmcdon]

This is very sad, but I think this just represents a shift in the industry due to changes in technology and lifestyle.
I doubt that people are buying any less books, but I would imagine that the profit margin wasn't ever that high.
It certainly doesn't help that you could ship books from Amazon, download them into eReaders (like said article mentioned), or browse classics for free on websites, etc.
Speaking for myself, I would buy books on Amazon only if I can't get it on Kindle (free app on my iphone)

It's just a matter of time before the decline of other commercial bookstores, if not most media in paper format.

[misterdumby]

I haven't been to the one here in a long time. sucks to hear they're closing

[EjMalernee]

Sucks to hear they are closing, I'm going to go and get some books and dvds when they have there close out sale thats for sure.

[pincheturbo]

and so it begins. technology begins to kill jobs..

[upsdude]

sad to see them close, but it was inevitable. my dad ran the presses for almost 30 years for different newspapers-but got laid off because most people get their news from the internet now. eventually our kids are going to have a tablet or an ipad type device that will hold all their textbooks, notes, and probably their yearbook; but that's probably also a concept that's gonna vanish too with social networks.

and so it begins. technology begins to kill jobs..

that's been happening since the industrial revolution

[lawrenceyang]

i think im gonna hit up the nearest borders tomorrow...any suggestions on books or anything else i might find there ?

[5pecialist]

E-reading sucks. Hopefully there will be a shift back to bookstores eventually.

[ayuaddict]

Huge bummer.

[BustedS13]

so what, now i have to buy High Times at the gas station? gross

[enkei2k]

now i gotta find somewhere else to go to read my magazines, comics, and books during my lunch break. FML because there's nothing else nearby that has them. K-Mart?

[bluuuurr]

Well that sucks.. I could never read an entire book on a nook, it just doesn't really feel natural to me. Plus, I like keeping a book collection. You can't show off your nook's save files off to fake the ladies into thinking you're smart. :/

[DeanGrind]

Fuck this, I can't go to a decent bookstore anymore, 3 places have recently closed in my little city and now where do I go to get a magazine or book? fucking walmart or target or some shit?

Hell I won't pretend I read a ton, but fuck e-reading! I wanna be able to feel them pages!

Could be just me but something about having the hard copy of something makes it a little more cool in my opinion, more supportive of the artist or publisher, same goes with Movies and music, if I like a band enough I'm gonna buy their CD and throw that on my iTunes rather than download the MP3's

[Gizmo_S13]

Damn, this sucks. I used to go there when I was bored (which is a lot) and read comics and magazines. DAMN YOUZ TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEz!!!!!

[atom]

On the plus side, people are saying that the closing of borders and B&N focusing more and more on their digital business provides a better opportunity for independent bookstores. There used to be a rad bookstore in my town that dealt specifically with science fiction and horror novels. Hopefully places like that'll come back.

And totally OT but when are publishers gonna get with the times and quit making people buy hardcover and e-books separately. Charge like $4 more for both. But paying full price for each? That's goddamn ridiculous.

[Daniel.]

And totally OT but when are publishers gonna get with the times and quit making people buy hardcover and e-books separately. Charge like $4 more for both. But paying full price for each? That's goddamn ridiculous.

This. A thousand times this.

[jumboflan]

kind of sad. I used to read PHP, cSS books there. I bought a PHP book in 2006 though. I built my own website with shopping cart using knowledge I gained from reading books there. But people just read books and don't buy that's the problem.And, of course the management sucks balls. Not all people want to order from amazon and get it delivered at home. If we dont' find balance in our digital lives, other aspects will be affected. Ie, social manners and stuff. yada yada

[ronmcdon]

don't forget torrents either.

not saying everyone will opt for it, but there's a lot comics and books that out there avail for free file sharing.
many ppl aren't going to want to spend what they can get for free, esp in this economy

right or wrong, bookstores are pretty much a dead end business.
there's just too many factors working against them.

and so it begins. technology begins to kill jobs..

yeah but it might create jobs too.
dont think there were much IT jobs in the medieval times.

people and industries have to adapt to change or they become obsolete.
this is no different.

[tricky_ab]

Where else is a person going to buy $40 DVD's?!? Seriously it sucks that people are going to lose their jobs (In this economy, this comes at the worst time) but it's not like you couldn't see it coming...

[S14DB]

Where else is a person going to buy $40 DVD's?!? Seriously it sucks that people are going to lose their jobs (In this economy, this comes at the worst time) but it's not like you couldn't see it coming...
:stupid:

I used to go to Borders as a kid. When they went basically Mall only then bought all the mall brands they sealed their fate. There prices in the store were as bad or worse than the news stands at the airport. Their selection became mediocre at best. No way am I going to navigate the soccer mom oasis for that crap.

I have only been going to Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million for the last 10 years. Their selections are varied enough from one another to warrant a visit to both. Prices are reasonable for a book I need that day. Sometimes equal to Amazon.

I have been buying from Amazon for books I know I will need/want. But, I still like being to browse and compare and contrast books in store. I have some e-books as reference material as I find it easier to navigate. I still can't read a "novel" on a e-reader.

Why Borders Failed While Barnes & Noble Survived : NPR (http://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/138514209/why-borders-failed-while-barnes-and-noble-survived)

[nevertheless]

Shit, I would've stocked on some books if I knew this was going down. Such a bummer. Some good times spent in Borders.

[lawrenceyang]

i just got back from the borders in south coast plaza with nothing. books in the literature sections were only 10% off, dvds were only ~20% so nothing was really worth buying since you can get them off amazon for that price already but i guess this is one of the reasons theyre going out of business in the first place -____-

[Banana_Cute]

SALES starts today till September i believe. Some liquidation stuff. Plenty of books there about motor swaps and such. Mostly Honda's though.

[S14DB]

Yeah, the sales will be slow and ramp up in as time goes on like the Blockbuster clearance. It's another company doing it so, they want to make as much money as possible.

[Gnnr]

lol @ some of the responses.

oh no the place I went to read books for free is closing

thats the problem, everyone treated it like a library

Print is not dead for books. Go look at how much Amazon ships in books.

The Brick & Mortar business model is whats dieing.

[upsdude]

yeah everytime i go to barnes and noble i see a bunch of ppl at the magazine section sitting and reading lol. why bother paying if all you have to do is plant your ass for a few minutes to read it there?

[udon!]

Kawped some $.50 manga @ mine

[BustedS13]

Kawped some $.50 manga @ mine

aw snap. i've been meaning to own the Akira books. oh and scott pilgrim TEE HEE

[Gizmo_S13]

I went yesterday, I bought the Stephen Colbert book and Marvel Zombies

[jumboflan]

i wonder if they will sell their fixtures...like display tv's? I need an extra tv in the room.

[S14DB]

i wonder if they will sell their fixtures...like display tv's? I need an extra tv in the room.

The closeout company will sell everything. They may not price them out till near the end(sept 1st).

[Phlip]

i wonder if they will sell their fixtures...like display tv's? I need an extra tv in the room.

When the one here closed, they sold LITERALLY everything, up to and including taking reasonable offers on shelving and fixtures.

[atom]

I remember when CompUSA closed, my co-worker and I went down there and literally bought every single file cabinet they had.

[willysk8]

Technology is starting to take over we don't need books any more we have kindles and stuff. Red box and net flix is causing all the video stores to close down to

[ronmcdon]

I don't think it's so much the products that are becoming obsolete.
There probably will be a huge market for books for a while.

It's more like the way they're sold is changing.
Business have in the recent past, and will become increasingly more reliant on e-stores.
It's simply A LOT lower on the businesses' overhead costs.
Retail stores are probably one of the highest costs, and if you can eliminate that, then it's a lot more forgiving to run a business.

Not to overstate the obvious, but in the end 'profit' is just a matter of 'revenue' deducted by 'costs'.
You could build a website, proceed to sell shit from your garage, and have a low risk profitable business.
Larger e-businesses essentially just replace that 'garage' with larger warehouses as needed.

[word sux]

whats this reading you speak of?

[BongateerZ32]

over pay for a book, or borrow it for free? libraries will always be there (gov run), and dont act like you were gonna underline meaningful passages, so you wanna own it...

only downside is that pretentious hipsters will have to find a new place to congregate. youre gonna see alot of fixed gear bikes in front of peets coffee now (starbucks is too pedestrian these days).