Well, hell. Borders plans to liquidate.
It’s a blow, but not an unsurprising one. Aside from the employees losing their jobs the worst of it is that to me it’s a neighborhood store, about 3/4 of a mile down my hill. There’s not another new book store within ten miles of me.
More knowledgeable people than I have tried to explain why Borders failed and why Barnes & Noble has so far remained afloat. One of the things I had noticed was how long they stuck with too much space devoted to CDs at a time when digital downloads were taking off. As a customer I was glad of it, but from a retailer’s point of view they should have downsized their spaces and leases where possible to eliminate some of those aisles.
Rats.
The explanations are spot-on. My wife works for B&N, and we knew this was coming years ago. Sounds good for B&N, but losing competition really never turns out well in the long run. Plus, I lost my neighborhood Borders, too, and I will miss it.
The biggest shame in all of this is that the fight between book store giants (not even counting Amazon) has killed off the independent book stores. So, there’s nothing left as an alternative.