Sad news - all 399 Borders Book stores to close - 11,000 jobs gone

[banned from Kos]

http://www.ajc.com/business/final-chapter-written-for-1024512.html

"All 399 stores will close soon, some as early as Friday, Borders said in a statement. Liquidation should be complete by September. The company, which employs about 11,000, had not turned a profit since 2006."

[Gman]

1. Another sign of the digital revolution

and the times.

[BlueDemKev]

2. Of course it's Obama's fault....

After all, this whole online-shopping craze never would have happened had it not been for health insurance reform, the stimulus, appointing Geithner as Treasury Secretary and his traveling around the world making amends with our allies after the Bush/Cheney years. :eyes:

[bigwillq]

4. So happy you made this about Obama

instead of the 11,000 folks losing their jobs.

[demmiblue]

6. Word. n/t

[tekisui]

11. For some only Obama and his image matter.

[DainBramaged]

13. It was sourchasim bud.....

:hi:

[bluestate10]

15. The post appears to be a sarcastic take on what republicans will

be mouthing about the news. Republicans blame everything on Obama, even the heat waves and global warming inspired weather their party created.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bigwillq]

3. So sad.

:(

[girl gone mad]

5. More green shoots.

[klook]

7. It's a bummer

Although I prefer to patronize locally owned book stores most of the time, it's a shame to see any outlet for books (and CDs, and magazines, and DVDs, and games, and DVDs, etc.) go by the wayside.

And those are 11,000 jobs lost really is a tragedy. I've always found the staffers at Borders to be nice, helpful and knowledgeable. Rough times ahead for many of them. :cry:

[Pithlet]

14. Yep. It's a shame.

I was hoping for a last minute bidder to save them. It's a shame all the way around. I really liked our store. We went out of the way to go there as opposed to the B&N. I was always relieved every time ours made the cut.

[Sherman A1]

16. Indeed

sorry to see this come to pass.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Sad to see that

[Pithlet]

9. We barely held on to our big indie bookstore here in Memphis recently.

I'm glad we did :( We'd really be hurting for places to go.

[Initech]

10. Damn it the vulture capitalists win again.

[Yavin4]

20. It's Technology. Not Vulture Capitalists

Tablets and E-Readers are the wave of the future. No more lugging around and storing books.

[Initech]

24. The 12 people who "liquidated" Borders all made six and seven figure bonuses.

[Spike89]

25. You're right and wrong at the same time...

It is technology, but it is people buying paper books over the internet that killed Borders (that and investors fearing your future). I also believe that the majority of books will someday be e-books, but that is the future and Borders didn't make it into the future. Paper has a while still as the dominant medium for books and even longer as a viable alternative. Think radio to television...even once television became available to consumers, it took decades before it passed radio as an entertainment and mass-media delivery platform and then, it still was a viable technology for 50 years.

[Imagevision]

12. -11,000 jobs for July...

[DainBramaged]

17. The superstore pioneer, which put countless of mom-and-pop bookshops out of business

Ask me how I feel about that? Or Blockbuster after destroying the mom and pop video rental business....I was one of the FIRST in the country in the very early Eighties with my beloved ex..

[SoCalDem]

29. They set in motion their own demise when they started up

They were the "new thing" that eliminated/crushed/vanquished any bookstore that dared to compete (even though the stores they put out of business had been there for a long time).

They knew that in an economy like we have now, people are attracted to the "big shiny", and they provided it, and then along came e-books, and online book sellers who did them in..

I loathed the big-box bookstores. I did not go to bookstores to drink coffee or buy tee shirts or toys or to listen to odd music.

I feel badly for the employees who are now out of a job, but unfortunately, this is the way it all unwinds:(

[cbdo2007]

19. Sad for people losing their jobs....but I never did like Border's much.

They didn't seem to have a very good selection and their prices were higher than other stores or something. I haven't been in a Border's for years, preferred Barnes and Noble.

Oh well, nothing lasts forever.

[ensho]

21. wasn't it believed that Borders was neocon-ish?

nt

[seaglass]

22. It makes me very sad. I had moved from B&N to Borders and then

back to B&N once I got my Nook.

I tried buying e-books through Borders because they were readable on the Nook but they definitely had not invested in their online presence and they made it difficult to both locate and purchase ebooks.

Even before ebooks really took off they were having Amazon fulfill the orders received online. Not very forward thinking.

[Avalux]

23. Eventually, there will be no more books, everything will be electronic.

And then, the powers that be can turn us off and we'll be lost.

[Billy Burnett]

26. We're turnin' the corner.

:puke:

[Taverner]

27. Didn't Borders offer benefit packages to retail workers?

That sucks...

[NeedleCast]

28. Sucks - But They Picked the WRONG business model

In an era when things were starting to lean towards digital media Borders chose instead to expand it's physical inventory of music and DVDs and spend a shitstorm of money renovating its stores. In an age when you need to be thinking ten years ahead, they were looking five minutes into the future. They outsourced most of their online sales to Amazon, which was basically like giving what would become their prime competitor the keys to their headquarters.

[Spike89]

30. Job loss numbers not that clear cut really

It is really tough to quantify the job losses in situations like this. It isn't the same as a Ford plant in the U.S. shutting down and the factory reopening in Mexico...and even that hypothetical example has some complications. With failed businesses, especially chains, it's hard to know how the closure will affect competitors (will B&N now need to hire 5,000 extra clerks?) Will 2 smaller, local bookstores open in the wake of each Borders death?

Restaurants are a great example of this principle...in any city of moderate or larger size, restaurants almost continually go out of business. New ones open at generally a slightly faster rate. So, when the steak house on the corner closes and the 20 people that worked there lose their jobs, a chicken place and a pizza joint open next door hiring 21 people. Although it may be churn and upheaval--the city economy doesn't really blink, unemployment is unaffected, and it ultimately doesn't mean much.

Is it rough on the folks working at Borders? Of course. Is it going to affect the economy or even the unemployment rate significantly? Probably not.