Saturday, February 26, 2011

You Wonder Why Borders is Going Under?

SCI-FI sends in a picture from the local Borders, currently undergoing restructuring:


Yeah. I can't imagine why they're filing for Chapter 11...

That is all.

9 comments:

Maura said...

Perhaps it is just too early and I've yet to replace my blood volume with an equal amount of caffeine...but what am I missing? Though the handwriting is odd ( those Gs are bizarre ) it is spelled correctly. The "u" in language is a little odd too - but legible. I must be missing something.

Joe said...

What gets me is that our local Borders is closing, the books are marked 20% off and the shelves are about bare. However, before the closing, they use to email me 33% off coupons on a regular basis and couldn't make a go of it.

I know not everybody was aware of the coupons but geesh...

Jay G said...

Maura,

Look at the books - specifically the language predominant on the books - and the section they're in...

Joe,

Welcome to human nature. To get the coupon, you most likely purchased once or twice from them before; maybe even online.

The folks running in to take advantage of the 20% off saw the "Going out of business" signs and stampeded...

Dave H said...

It's common for stores going under to start advertising discounts from list price rather than from their "everyday low prices." They make more money that way, but the shoppers who only see the "going out of business" sign don't notice.

About the only snark-worthy thing I see is the discount and the fact that there are two English titles under the sign.

bluesun said...

I don't know about that Borders, but the one in my town stopped seeming to carry anything of interest several years ago. You walk in and walk around and go, "You know, for a store this big, they don't have very much stuff." And what they do have is focused on shiny Vampires.

Frankly, I'm neither surprised nor saddened by this development. I will continue to frequent stores that actually have a business model, and aren't appealing to yuppie teenage girls.

Maura said...

*snort* I got it. See? I've got two more cups of coffee under my belt. I get jokes. :-D Thanks Jay.

Joe - the shelves are bare because in prep for the sale, Borders returned 75% of the books that were eligible to be returned to the publisher. Something most people do not know: unlike most businesses where inventory is pre-purchased and then belongs to the store that is selling it, bookstore chains only pay for the books that they actually sell; most inventory in a bookstore actually belongs to the publisher that physically produced the book. When you walk into a B&N and look around, most of the books you see do not belong to B&N - they belong to Penguin, Random House, etc. Payment is made on the back end. So...Borders did everything in their power to return as much as possible to get as much "credit" with the publishers as possible. They have a huge debt load right now.

wolfwalker said...

Dave H: one of the problems that Borders had was that they sold everything at list price. No standard markdowns. Admittedly there isn't much room for discounting paperbacks, but hardcovers and multimedia are another story. When Borders charges sixty bucks for something and Amazon charges forty, how many people are going to buy from Borders?

Joe said...

Maura-I wondered if they were able to return some of the inventory. The store was busy but I didn't think they were able to move that much.

Jay-I agree with you about human nature. All you have to do is make people think they're getting a deal.

Rev. Paul said...

My wife & daughters visited the Borders here (it's closing soon) and found the same ahem "sale". 20 percent off of list price isn't much of one ... and the full shelves w/ no customers proved it.