Borders or Barnes & Noble?

[St. Jarvitude]

Both stores are about the same distance from my house, offer the same products for roughly the same prices, and start with 'B'

Which store should I buy my music from?

[jessicazi]

1. Barnes and Noble

But, I haven't really shopped at Borders. I like B&N's bargain book section, they have a lot of coffee table books for really cheap prices.

[aquart]

2. Borders.

For no good reason except that Borders Books was my favorite restroom stop on the way home from downtown. It had an escalator directly down to the concourse floor of the WTC. And I can't go there anymore.

[qnr]

3. I don't know, politically, but I've had better luck

finding offbeat magazines at Borders than I have at Barnes & Noble. That could have just been coincidental though

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. BandN has more comfy chairs.... Borders is more of a bench/stool

type of thing.

[JI7]

5. i heard B&N leans republican in ways

i can't remember specifically but i do remember hearing of it. so while i would not totally boycott them i think if i had the choice between borders and barnes and noble i would go borders.

i actually like borders more anyways. i find they seem to have more selection.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

6. Borders is KMart... I am not sure about B/N

[NuttyFluffers]

7. borders, don't like B&N because of relation to Software Etc...

Game Stop, and other parts of the conglomerate.

honestly, you should be buying at a used book store or online though. hell, even go to your local university and pay the extra cost from their campus bookstore - at least the money goes back into the university, usually. besides, used bookstores and university bookstores have better selections i've noticed (unless you are looking for hackneyed bestseller crap, but then for that... you should only borrow that from the library)

[Swamp Rat]

8. Neither

I buy from small, mom and pop businesses.

[qnr]

9. Yes, wish that were an option here.

Well, technically, I wish any sort of bookstore was an option here. I can go 20 miles and just to look at the 1/2 rack of books at the K-Mart....

[Kipepeo]

13. But in many cases you can still buy online from the

singer/author directly.

Check and see if there is an online way around the mega-corp before you have to go there.

[St. Jarvitude]

17. Sorry, but in suburban hell I haven't seen one

The nearest mom+pop book store I can think of is about 40 miles away in Chicago.

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. Borders seem to have better selection.

Of music AND periodicals. Although I could be wrong...I quit going to B&N when a Borders opened in the area.

[Kipepeo]

11. Neither

If you can help it.

Find out if there is a good alternative/neighborhood/mom & pop store ANYWHERE near you first.

If not, then decide between the other two.

[BigMcLargehuge]

19. here here!

The only problem we have here where I live is that the little indie bookstore doesn't have diddly, deals mostly in used books, and the two people that own it hate me. Well, they don't hate me as much as they hate being asked if they have the books I want, and if they can get them...

Me- Do you have, The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight, by Jimmy Breslin?
Them - We don't have any gang books here...
Me- No, no it's a novel, a funny one...
Them-Why don't you read something good like this coffee table book about canoes with a torn dust jacket and five pages missing because the binding got wet? It's a first edition. Apparently the Author was crushed under a crate of these unsold ones he stored in his garage... It's a collectors item...
Me- I want to give the Breslin book to my Dad... it's his favorite book...
Them- We don't have it and can't get it...
Me- Your sign says "we can find almost any book, in our out of print"...
Them- "Almost"

So reluctantly I buy at either B-Daltons or Barnes and Noble.

[Skittles]

12. Borders

B & N too f***ing snooty

[jdots]

14. I drive 25 miles to an INDIE

if that isn't an option Borders has a good zine selection and the Ann Coulter books aren't presented in a Barnes & Noble way..
pay with cash at both places if you get the drift.......

[Skittles]

16. ya know

I don't know where the nearest INDIE place is to me but I promise I will do some research.....I live in a Metroplex and the only other bookstore I know of besides those two is Half-Price Books but surely others do exist.....I will look. :)

[Richardo]

18. Hey! Get your Skittle-y ass to the B&N in NW Houston...

...WE'RE not f***ing snooty. In fact, that's our advertising tag line. ;-)

[ogradda]

15. barnes and noble

always.