Borders

[altariel]

I'm sad to see Borders go. I remember the first one I went into, in York. A gleaming palace of books, bright and warm and friendly. I've spent a lot of time in our local one over the past year, writing in Starbucks, and I'm terribly sad for friends who work there.

I popped in this morning and it's bloody. I went to the info desk to thank the staff, because it's been a great branch and I've enjoyed shopping there. It was the only place in town that stocked Anarchist Studies, and it had the best selection of SF and fantasy after Heffers paperbacks closed.

Comments

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

When does the Cambridge branch actually close? Or has it already?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Still open: officially the administrators are still trying to sell the company, so no closing date as yet, but there are big "Closing Down" signs outside. No idea how long it will last, though.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

I might have to race down there and scoop up armfuls of urban fantasy and paranormal romance while the signs are still there... It'll help ease my grief.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The queues are very long, so don't try to fit it into a lunch hour.

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

In that case, I shall resist the urge to join the queues when I'm in Cambridge later this week.

The Oxford Borders had a 3-day "20% off everything" offer this last weekend, and I only bought one book (but I was on my way to a concert, and pushed for time).

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Resident Geek says the Oxford branch is now in "Everything Must Go" 40-60% off mode, so he's going to try to dash in on the way to work tomorrow...

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be in Leicester for three days, so I expect I will miss the best books in the Oxford branch...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

If you're there early evening, the queues were much shorter by that time. The shelves were much emptier too, mind you.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I heard they would be staying open till Christmas, anyway. Don't know if that's still true, mind!

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

A look at the comments thread on the 'Administrators...' story at www.thebookseller.com suggests that Borders has been stitched up by its majority shareholder, who are also acting as liquidation consultants and paid a fee by the administrator for this service. This doesn't mean to say that the firm was not already in bad shape - it had lost most of its distinctiveness over the last few years.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I don't expect to see it on the high street after Christmas.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I think there is a very slim chance some might survive... I've heard the decision to start closing the Books Etc. branches first described as madness because the smaller shops might be easier to reposition. I could only see a bookseller like Foyles being interested in the Oxford branch if it were half the size - there is a large basement, once a thriving CD/DVD/entertainment/children's section, which for the last couple of years has done very little, since Borders under Luke Johnson's ownership decided to scale down the music operation, leaving it a directionless section of the stores.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

In the slightly longer run, there is very little chance that any given book, CD, DVD or other content store of the brick-and-mortar kind will survive. They sell exactly the same products as online stores, with a small fraction of the selection and much higher overhead costs. They can provide a nicer shopping environment and some related benefits (author signings and things like that), but few customers are willing to pay extra for that. To get enough customers who are to make a store profitable, there has to be a lot of people living within acceptable shopping distance. Which pretty much means major metropolitan areas.

And that's not even considering a shift to electronic publishing.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Publishing is still dependent on a shop window which bookshops provide and which the internet can't. There is something of a renaissance of independent booksellers at the moment both in large cities and small towns, concentrating on the titles which don't get deeply discounted by supermarkets or by online retailers. While electronic publishing has already triumphed in reference, with serious and damaging impacts on revenue streams, it remains to be seen whether it will spread beyond this.

But then, I am an old-fashioned person.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think big bookstores are a dying model too. A town like this will always support a handful of small booksellers, but most of the mass market trade must be shifting to supermarkets and online now.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Despite what I wrote in the previous comment, I agree with you on the big bookshops point. I had an exchange yesterday with someone who pointed out that an entire chapter in retail had begun when he was seventeen with the launch of Waterstones, soon pursued by other chain booksellers, and was now ending when he was forty-one.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It's a real Generation X phenomenon.

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

I thought of you when I heard the news. I hope you find an equally good place in which to write.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I feel really bad for all the Starbucks people.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

I went to the info desk to thank the staff, because it's been a great branch and I've enjoyed shopping there

Well done you for being so thoughtful. I know it's a small thing when things are so grim for them but it will have helped. And you've given them a fair amount of custom over the years.

I'm not surprised to see bookshops struggling in this era of Amazon etc - much of Borders' distinctiveness in the UK came from their other media and the availability of non-UK material, both of which are amply replicated online these days. I'm constantly surprised that the centre of Oxford can/could support Blackwells, Waterstones and Borders all within a couple of hundred yards - clearly, in fact, it can't. Nor Cambridge neither. :-(

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't surprise me to see Waterstones here shift into the premises left by Borders - their current premises are awful. I don't know how expensive that would be, though, and I don't know how badly their trade is going to be hit by a firesale going on just down the road.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Waterstones have been running selective heavy discount offers at certain branches in the last year or so, specifically targeted at localities where they trade very close to Borders, as in Oxford. They will be hurt by firesales at Borders branches, but they have seen them coming and will probably have some preparations in hand.

[white_hart]

I have seen Borders staff promoting offers outside Waterstones in Oxford, too. Less vice versa, because of Borders's location, but it's very obvious that they've been competing directly.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Interesting - I knew that Waterstone's had a targeted discount strategy which only operated in areas where they were almost adjacent to a Borders branch, but I didn't know that Borders had gone on the offensive as well!

[hafren.livejournal.com]

Friend of mine had a £50 Borders voucher; she went in this morning to spend it and was told it could only count for half a purchase so she'd have to buy £100 worth of books to use it.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Eek. Thanks for the tip, though: I think I have about £8 left on a gift card, myself.

[omniguy.livejournal.com]

Soon we're going to be left with WH Smith (hmmmm) and The Works (Shudder).

Thank the Gods for online stores I guess.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

We're spoiled in this town with several independent booksellers, and a strong trade in second-hand books.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

Buying online vs libraries vs buying from secondhand bookshop:

Authors do get fourpence-halfpenny if you buy online. Even more microscopic peanuts from the PLR if you borrow it from a library. But from secondhand sales - zilch.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I use all of these options.

[omniguy.livejournal.com]

This is the curse of living in Lewisham...

Still, a lot of indie bookshops in Greenwich wish isn't far away.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I'm sad, too. The local branch has been my first place to look for a standard new book; they've had some good people; and it's just been a nice and welcoming place to browse and shop.

I'll pop in again this week, but I think it's going to be a sad trip.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

I've spent many happy hours in my local branch (Stockport). I must admit, though, I've been inclined to purchase little in-store, but come home and buy what I wanted from Amazon, so I can't complain too loudly about this development, I suppose. But I'll really miss their enormous periodical selection.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd noticed just how much my buying patterns had changed. I loved browsing in there and our periodicals section was terrific too.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

The Borders near us was a fabulous place, that I really loved, but that branch disappeared about 3 years ago.

Sadly, that left us with nothing locally but Barnes & Noble, who won't stock books that they find morally offensive, and therefore I find B&N morally offensive and don't go there. Well done, B&N, it's a good way to make sure that amazon always wins!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that about Barnes and Noble. Huh.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

That's sad news, especially when you'd found it to be such a good place to work. And it had a good stock - last time I was in there with you, I came away with lots of books that I hadn't been able to find elsewhere.

Good for you for thanking the staff.

Our local Borders is on an out-of-town shopping centre which you really need a car to get to so we haven't been there for several years.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm really going to miss it: we really were in there almost every day. I can't think of another space in town that will compare in terms of location, comfiness, and of course the folks at the Starbucks.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I remember you taking me there when I was in Cambridge - it was a great place.

I hate online shopping - actually, I've only done so once. Partly because I'm an idiot and don't know how to do it, but mostly because I prefer to hold the wares in my hands first, look into the books, decide whether I like them or not, instead of buying away and then fretting about how to send them back, in case I don't like it, after all...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It was a lovely bookshop, all the sections were well and thoughtfully stocked. It's going to leave a big hole in the city centre, although it's a prime location, and I wonder if Waterstones (the other bookseller) will take it (might be too expensive to move).

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Our local Borders stores are struggling as well, and I'm sure it won't be long before they are gone. And I'm going to hate it, because I love Borders. fortunately we do have at least one really good independent bookstore in town, The Bookworm, which seems to be thriving, so I won't be relegated to doing all my book-buying via Amazon.com. buying online's fine when you know exactly what you want, but it's a seriously inferior way to browse.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Our branch had been getting steadily shabbier. I assumed the US division must be in trouble when it cut the UK stores loose. It looks like there's only room for one chain bookstore these days, and it seems Borders is going to lose out on both sides of the Pond. I'm really going to miss our branch: we spent a lot of time working there.