Good-Bye, Borders: Book Seller Prepares To Liquidate 399 Stores

After filing for bankruptcy in February and hoping for a savior in spite of its debt, Borders has decided to liquidate. President Mike Edwards said, "Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development. We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the head winds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, [electronic reader] revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now."

The Wall Street Journal reports, "The liquidation of the company's remaining 399 stores could start as soon as Friday, and the chain is expected to go out of business for good by the end of September, the company said." Grove/Atlantic publisher Morgan Entrekin told the NY Times, "It saddens me tremendously because it was a wonderful chain of bookstores that sold our books very well It’s part of the whole change that we’re dealing with, which is very confusing."

The company, which is the country's second largest book retailer, employs over 10,000 people, and one Twitter user, author Maureen Johnson, started a hashtag, #saveborderspeople to help soon-to-be-unemployed Borders workers with getting jobs. There are five locations in NYC—Columbus Circle, Penn Station, Staten Island, and at JFK and Laguardia Airports. The Wall Street Journal has an interactive map of stores.

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By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on July 18, 2011 6:00 PM

Comments [rss]

trst

It is sad that this mega bookstore which helped kill independent bookstores is dying.

SonnyBobiche

Best sign at a closing Borders store:

"Bathrooms not available, Check Amazon.com to see if they let you use theirs."

antimisogynycrusader

Yeh, those palatable rest room options in the city are certainly dwindling....

Peanut_Butter

"palatable rest room"
Unusual pairing of words.

Peanut_Butter

Clearly, "palatable" refers to "options", but I'm gonna stick to my story cause otherwise, I might look like an idiot.

Guest

Might as well call Station 451 and have them "get rid" of the place. That's the direction America seems to be going in.

Unkle_Bob

No, books and reading in general isn't going anywhere. This simply has to do with physical books and bricks & mortar places to buy them. Electronic books are thriving.

TeddyNYC

So now the question is will Barnes & Noble be around in 5 or 10 years?

robingee

bummer

Peter Rosa

There actually are about 10,000 employees, not 100,000.

Jen Chung

Thanks, Peter.

JarekAF

Borders was a solid company. Good customer service. Strong customer goodwill. A solid brandname. A "destination" for coffee and killing time in the 'burbs before Starbucks came along.

And then corporate management went all out expansion. Locations in Australia, Europe etc . . . . Borders was investing in their "Bricks & Mortar" presence while Barnes & Nobles was investing in their online presence.

This didn't have to happen. Because of crappy management a solid book seller is gone. May you R.I.P. Borders. You didn't deserve this. You should be celebrated. Not sold off in some one last clearance sale. :-(

Nos Feratu

Yup. The Garden State Plaza Paramus store was quite nice before it was moved to make way for the hideous 16 screen movie theater. I actually bought quite a few books there back in the day, as well as foreign newspapers before the net came along.

Jabberwiki

I used to go to that one all the time when I visited my dad in NJ! We'd shop a little then arrange to meet there for coffee after I did some solo shopping. They even had real cups back then. My dad would read magazines while waiting for me and I'd always buy books that either weren't available or too expensive in Europe. That was when traveling with overstuffed suitcases was easy and didn't cost big bucks in airline fees.
A sixteen screen movie theater? Yikes.

Nos Feratu

Yup, 16 screens, I'm not kidding. See here: http://www.amctheatres.com/Gar... The movie theater forced Borders out of their original space, which was a really nice two floor arrangement. They moved into a smaller store all on one floor. It was never the same after that.