Is this just a badly run business or one more step in the apparently inevitable kill-off of brick and mortar book stores by ebooks and Amazon?
Borders Group Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection Wednesday and said it will close about 30% of its stores nationwide in the coming weeks.
The struggling operator of the Borders and Waldenbooks chains sought protection from its creditors in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan a month after it warned it may have to restructure the company in Chapter 11.
“It has become increasingly clear that in light of the environment of curtailed customer spending… and the company’s lack of liquidity, Borders Group does not have the capital resources it needs to be a viable competitor,” said Borders Group President Mike Edwards in a statement.
The Chapter 11 filing will allow Borders to access new capital and reorganize its operations, Mr. Edwards said.
I’m sure a lot of it had to do with the coffee and sandwich shop that sold overpriced food and the dozens of deadbeat hipsters who sit in the bookstores all day and read rather than buy anything.
#2 chris said, on February 16th, 2011 at 9:19 am
“Books are very heavy, so they are expensive to ship. There ought to be some great deals at the closing locations!
I love when this happens!”
You don’t know how publishing works, do you. They just tear the covers off and ship them back to the publishers for full refunds. The actual books get thrown away.
The model I am looking for is a coffee shop with comfy couches to sit in and read. They can make money on selling snob coffee.
#28
As I live “overseas” I will give my behalf on that one.
I do not know Borders franchise here in Europe. However, unless you prefer reading English then there very few e-books available.
Even if you read English then less than half the electronic books available in the US are available here (with some exceptions for the UK). Also the books available are mostly second tier.
So we are way behind. More examples – we can not watch on-line movies or tv-shows with hulu, netflix or similar. iTunes in most European countries only has apps, music and a small selection of free podcasts.
But give it a few years and we will get there. The writing is on the wall…
# 28
Not true, Borders in Australia (owned separately from the American chain) went into administration today.
Of course it had been bought from Borders USA by a private equity group, so it was probably killed by having to service the crushing debt from its sale, more than the alleged loss of sales because of ebooks and internet shopping.
It and another chain of booksellers owned by the same mob had really gone downhill in the past couple of years. The range at Borders decreased, and the other formerly good chain was reduced to dingy remainder stores. Funnily enough this coincides with the private equity buyout.
Chalk another one up for the financial sector!
Do the people who live in the stores, having mistaken them for their living rooms, actually buy anything other than coffee and muffins?
#20, blame that on states enacting “stock tax” and “warehouse tax”. Used to be that bookstores and departments stores didn’t have to count inventory as assets. It was simply inventory, the place between purchase and sale/profit. It was a zone where product could hang out, bought by the business, but not a taxable asset.
Since the greedy government fingers in the pie, stores can no longer afford to keep huge inventories of products, and even book publishers try and “remainder” books as soon as possible.
It has destroyed retail ….and driven up the costs of manufacturing. It’s why “just in time” was invented.
Greed greed greed and taxes and more taxes are what are killing the small and medium business, huge businesses can use any number of loopholes to manage. It’s why Nevada, a state with no inventory tax, is booming. Big businesses can afford to accept inventory in Nevada, and then ship it to their stores.
Books are still vital to our society, but do we really need bookstores that must look like Apple Stores?
I love discount book shops, no frills, cheap books, get my reading material and get out.
I don’t wear a knit cap, live on $5.00 cup coffee and hang out in bookstores because its cheaper than the movies. I’m a worker, busy paying for you lazy unwashed hipsters.