Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Borders Is Finished

My old employer from 13 years back prepares to liquidate.

I have a history with this company.

4 comments:

Tristan Alexander said...

Very sad, I like a book store I can go into and LOOK at the books before I buy...online is NOT the same or good enough for me!

JCF said...

It's particularly sad for Michigan (and the flagship store in Ann Arbor, where I've spent many pleasurable hours 1999-2010).

Murdoch Matthew said...

People used to go into Oscar Wilde Book Shop or A Different Light, check out the books, and go home to order from Amazon. Nowadays, you can scan the book's ISBN with your telephone and order from Amazon on the spot. I was interested in almost everything these stores carried and regret their loss. Barnes & Noble and Borders must store thousands of books that only a few customers might want -- not economic.

I worked for Bobbs-Merrill in Indianapolis which had an enormous warehouse out back. When a title sold fewer than 700 copies a year, it was dropped as not justifying the storage cost. Bill Hackett, a former BM head, started his own publishing company in a old garage downtown in 1972, picked up the dropped philosophy and cultural titles, added some more, and made a nice living selling them to philosophy departments. Low sales, but low overhead. Bill and his wife Frances, Mom & Pop publishers.

Counterlight said...

I worked for A Different Light here in New York for about 3 years.