Borders Bookstore Will Eliminate 11,000 Jobs, Close 400 Remaining Stores

11,000 more people to hit the jobless ranks. SS checks on the line and Obama donates 100 Billion to the UN.

But according to the Whitehouse, it's not as bad as it looks right?

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Bankrupt Borders Group Inc said it has canceled its auction and will sell itself to a group of liquidators. Borders announced the decision on Monday, saying it was not able to reach a deal for a going-concern sale to salvage its 400 remaining stores and 11,000 jobs.

A few Months ago, I thought it would turn around soon. I haven't seen any signs of that happening yet. What are 11,000 more unemployed people going to do to the economy?

E-Readers may be at fault? It's most likely that people are opting for free downloads rather than pricier books. I for one, can't ever see myself replacing a good old, tattered, dog eared novel in the hand but with less disposable income in the pocket, who wouldn't think of that free download?

For those that want that real book, there is of course Amazon among others. Offering less cost and even used. I've used them before and paid 30% for a perfectly good book. Who wouldn't? The sad point is truly the 11,000 unemployed that will now be facing even harder times.

Final chapter: Borders to close remaining stores
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Borders was slow to adapt to the changing industry and lost book, music and video sales to the Internet and other competition. Sales began to fall, leading to a revolving door of CEOs. By the time Borders' current CEO, financier Bennett LeBow, came aboard in May 2010 after investing $25 million in the company, bankruptcy was already looking like a strong possibility.

And about 6500 from Cisco Systems today.

reply to post by jude11


Interesting to see that a bookstore can't stay in business. I wonder how long Barnes & Noble will last? I've seen loads of really good used book stores die recently also. The internet already killed the brick & mortar CD/DVD store so this is not surprising.

11,000 people now added to the unemployed. As if it weren't hard enough to get a job.

According to their web site, it appears they are not closing the stores, may be forward looking statements though, what a shame if they do close the stores, i have never been really into books, but i do enjoy getting a 2600 mag and relaxing there, or getting some over prices tech manual.

Borders, you will be missed if the above is true, which in the Obama age of economic decline, and a country plagued with really stupid decisions, it probably is.

Borders stores are open for business. We will continue to provide our customers with a vast assortment of books in a warm and relaxing environment - and we intend to build on this. Our stores will continue to be places where families can gather to enjoy enriching events including author readings and signings, book clubs as well as kids storytime and parties.

through the filing of a petition for reorganizational relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, which we commenced February 16, 2011.

Borders - About Us

I've seen the big retail book stores close around here the last few years. Hastings seems to be doing well, as they cater to a younger demographics, video games, music center, more. Also, with Amazon and Netflix take over, we'll probably see more stores as such go under. Overall more lost jobs and growth appears to be stagnant, with possible no better shift in online jobs hiring, unless you sell products to make a profit, because they are needed less for content management sites of today.

Anyone check on Barnes and Noble lately? Or their cafe profiteers Starbucks. Every latte equals a bullet destined for a Palestinian. They give untold millions to the state of Israel.
I will miss the worst coffeeshop bathrooms ever, overpriced merchandise, but will never set foot in their largest chain competition.

Originally posted by sicksonezer0
According to their web site, it appears they are not closing the stores, may be forward looking statements though, what a shame if they do close the store, i have never been really into books, but i do enjoy getting a 2600 mag and relaxing there, or getting some over prices tech manual.

Borders stores are open for business. We will continue to provide our customers with a vast assortment of books in a warm and relaxing environment - and we intend to build on this. Our stores will continue to be places where families can gather to enjoy enriching events including author readings and signings, book clubs as well as kids storytime and parties.

through the filing of a petition for reorganizational relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, which we commenced February 16, 2011.

Borders - About Us

edit on 18-7-2011 by sicksonezer0 because: link

Looks like that was an old statement when they were looking at buyers.

They are now done according to this:
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Borders, unable to find a buyer willing to get it out of bankruptcy, plans to close its remaining 399 stores and go out of business by the end of September.

It's a shame but then again, I've had to live without Borders here in the UK for almost 2 years since they closed all branches in the country due to the company not being able to afford to remain open as far as UK stores go.

Only good thing is on the last day in business I managed to get Eric Bischoff's book pretty cheap but it sucked that the only other competition they had was Waterstones which is a little too expensive. Plus any in store celebrity appearances were always handled better in Borders than in any other store I've been to.

Not really surprising though because all of our Virgin Megastores closed and went out of business a decade ago.

Nature of the world economy for the last 4-5 years.

Reply to post by the owlbear

Starbucks money goes to Israel?


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Not only is reading less popular than ever but people don't have the disposable income to purchase books anymore. I used to spend several hundred dollars a month on books but over the last 10 years my disposable income has increasingly shrank. I'm sure I'm not atypical in this at all.
Free downloads and E-readers are putting a heavy dent in the market as well.
On the other hand even if some stores close somebody still has to fill the order at Amazon.com and ship it to you. So look to openings in shipping and receiving services as the possible growth sector.
I will miss Borders - they had a great selection of Art and nature books, as well as conspiracy titles

It's really sad that the traditional way of passing knowledge down thru the generations is being thrown to the wayside for cheaper media types. The more we rely on computers and e-readers to get our information the bigger risk we put on losing it all together.

I always wondered if there were ancient advanced civilizations how could all that knowledge just be, lost? The only things we find are carved/painted on rocks. Now its starting to make sense, we should be careful about this.

This is the natural order of things.

electronic books on your iPad2 or iPhone
illegally scanned books
the poor economy where people need small apartments (no room for print copies), food and gas more than books
are making bookstores obsolete

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Not only is reading less popular than ever but people don't have the disposable income to purchase books anymore

Or perhaps big chain book stores ripped the consumer off with inflated prices. Case in point, purchasing books/magazines in canada seems to have an added 20% (sometimes higher) mark up yet their dollar has pushed through parity, and for some time now. It's obvious large corporations are pinching the customer nothing new there of course. I think many people told them basically to shove it by cutting back on book purchases. I have no sympathy Borders, good riddance. I feel for their workers though but the writings been on the wall for years.

brill

I hate to see iconic institutions go under. Even more, I feel really bad for the people that are going to be hitting the unemployment lines because of this.

However, the nature of the beast since the turn of the millenium has been to refocus market strategies and business models. The businesses that are suffering of late are doing so because they stubbornly refused early on to make the leap to the new technology. Borders is a great name and they offer excellent service, but as long as they cling to 20th century business models that are heavily based in brick'n mortar, face2face service, the doom is of their own making.

Hate to say it but I stopped going to Borders a long time ago."Welcome to our store, look up the book you want on our computers then go and order it online because we hardly carry anything in stock except best-sellers." If I wanted to order it online, I would have gone to Amazon and saved myself the trip to your store.

Borders is just another casualty to the free market. They aren't competitive.

Originally posted by TheLoony
reply to post by jude11

 

Interesting to see that a bookstore can't stay in business. I wonder how long Barnes & Noble will last? I've seen loads of really good used book stores die recently also. The internet already killed the brick & mortar CD/DVD store so this is not surprising.

11,000 people now added to the unemployed. As if it weren't hard enough to get a job.

I have gone into Barnes and Noble twice in the past month with high intentions to spend money. I Love books and bookstores. On both occassions with my handy-dandy list of titles at the ready I was told "No they don't carry that in stock but they can order if for me" Wha? Twice in a month? Not a single title on a list of mulitples, nothing else by that author? I left without purchase. How very disappointing and I wonder myself how much longer can they go on - and what exactly are they selling? It is a bland experience to shop there anymore and it used to be a place to while away hours.

Although I feel for the 11,000 people, I can't help but feel even sadder at the passing of an era. The written word has been our form of communication, sharing, knowledge, entertainment and so much more.

Look to the future when books are museum pieces and households have nothing but an e-reader.

And then the power goes out, the batteries die and all that remains is a dark screen where words once were.

Truly horrible to be living in the era that saw the extinction of books or at least the lack of interest in seeing them remain alive. Books at one time were worth their weight in gold.

I will always favor the printed word over an electronic one. I just recently moved and my books alone took up dozens of boxes. Knowing that they could all be condensed down into a Kindle makes me kind of sad actually. I love coming into my office and seeing all those books on the shelves...examining all the different covers, flipping through the pages. Once I was reading in the tub and dropped the book in the water. There was some swelling after it dried but it was still salvageable. Im not so sure what an e-reader's fate would be if the same thing were to happen. I will miss Borders. they were good to me in the years before I became reliant on amazon.

harry potter and tesco's destroyed the local bookshop, nothing to do with e-books.

Originally posted by neonitus
harry potter and tesco's destroyed the local bookshop, nothing to do with e-books.

Interesting,

How do you explain your statement?

Thanks