About Borders

I own the fact that I am a book vulture.  Library book sales, clearance section at Half Price Books..I even stop at estate sales sometimes, just in case there are books.  So I went to my local Borders today.  Two of my three stores are closing.

It was a bit sad in that I spent a lot of time in that store when I was in college.  My friends are all readers, so we were there at least once a week, after dinner.  We'd all go wandering around shopping and then meet up in the cafe for coffee or whatever.  It is also sad in that when even the big box booksellers are having this much trouble, we might all have a problem and it is our own fault.

Borders lost me to B&N for several practical reasons even before I became a used book junkie.  First, I did a lot of online ordering.  B&N is perennially playing catch up with Amazon, but at least they were in the game.  Borders was too little, too late.  Because of the online ordering, the B&N membership was worth the $25 fee to me.  And when you have paid money for a discount card, you don't do your idle book shopping with the competition.  Borders didn't offer anything comparable until very recently.

Starbucks helped, too.

So I went over this morning and discovered another reason that I like B&N better.  Borders doesn't open until 10am.  And not even 10am on Sundays.  10am everyday.

I may have mentioned that my day is half over by 10am.

The clearance was only 20% off this weekend, which isn't enough to impress me on the average day.  But I picked up a few things that I wouldn't have otherwise.  I hope this reorganization helps Borders, but they aren't likely to win me back.