The Closing of Borders

[NextGen123]

While I wasn't happy that Borders was closing, I won't miss the terrible coustomer service. If you didn't have your internet coupon, you couldn't save on your book. Long before this policy started, all you needed was your Borders card to get your percentage off a book.

I can only tell you about the Borders in my area:
The employees were never properly trained and ordering was such a hassle that if I really wanted a book I couldn't get I went on Amazon.com. The Kindle also didn't help this store either.

Did anyone else have this poor experience with the late store? If was a great place to relax and see what new books were available. The books were never competitively priced.

 

[sojourner]

Is this what they call beating a dead horse?

 

[think]

was at borders tuesday. they had the big going off sale that was just not a sale everything was like expensive ,, and very little reduced below the normal reducing; go figure right? I did not know, (bird the word) i did not know they were going off so I had my little sketch pad and pens and a want to buy coffee tuesday no go just non-sense when i got there a mad rush for things at the usual price AAAHHHH I walked about the store with my pad but did not buy a thing and left in a huff

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

When there were still other bookstores around, Borders were always more expensive with an lesser selection.

Now with a hundred online options, I can't believe they lasted near as long as they did.

Same with Blockbuster.

 

[Forbin]

I was hoping this thread was gonna be about Mexico.

 

[John Clark]

I only got around to going into our local one once. It was a decent enough store and I managed to pick up a few books I fancied there.

It's just out of the way for me to get to under normal circumstances. Our local Waterstones had just as good a selection and was easier to get to.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Borders is an anchor on "Ellsworth Beach," the downtown street-front shopping and dining area in my little community. I'll certainly miss it, and have my fingers crossed that the rather huge space will be filled pretty quickly. Barnes and Noble would be ideal, the traffic would probably support them (the Ellsworth store was never in danger of closing during the attempted restructuring) but I don't suppose it's likely.

Our Borders had lots of books. I would go in there to buy books. That made me happy.

 

[RandyS]

I never had a problem with customer service at either of the Borders here. In one of them, the workers went out of their way to help me find what I was after (must have been the wheelchair), and in the other, I was more or less left alone, but in both, they were always polite and never rude, which to me, is all that really matters.

 

[Forbin]

Far as I know there's only one in the whole county, and it's pretty out of my way - whereas there's a B&N right next door to work, so...

 

[Mistral]

Each store operated based on the culture the management developed. I was lucky-despite a harridan for a GM, the other managers and myself guided our "kids" to be as helpful and polite as possible. We had a lot of return business-because people liked the way they were treated. The one true fly in the ointment was product inventory/availability. With lean staffing guidelines, not everything could be unboxed when it arrived. Sadly, Borders never learned the wonders of RRIIF (I think its called) so finding anything in a box was a crap shoot. The lost business (sometimes up to 30% "can't find it" around XMAS) HAD to have eaten big chunks of potential profits. You can't turn 3 of 10 people away empty handed and expect to survive. Combine that with the inefficient marketing procedures (they sent every piece of material each month that was used in any/all the stores regardless of store model "plan" ) meant they were throwing thousands of dollars away every month in printing costs and shipping costs. One month, it took me longer to take the extra to the trash than to set up what I needed for my own store lay out. Sad.

 

[Mysterion]

At one time, Borders was a destination for me. The staff was knowledgeable, the stock on-shelf went well beyond recently published titles, and it they didn't have a title on the shelf it was fairly easy to get it ordered-in.

However, the last couple of years or so, things started to change. The staff seemed to turn over by the month, new titles showed up later and later, older titles on the shelf became pretty-much non-existent. Ordering a title in became near impossible. More and more, I could go across to to B&N and find everything that I couldn't at Borders.

Borders died because they had become indifferent, IMO.

 

[NextGen123]

Is this what they call beating a dead horse?

Where did you get that graphic with the dead horse? I can use it on future posts....

 

[NextGen123]

At one time, Borders was a destination for me. The staff was knowledgeable, the stock on-shelf went well beyond recently published titles, and it they didn't have a title on the shelf it was fairly easy to get it ordered-in.

However, the last couple of years or so, things started to change. The staff seemed to turn over by the month, new titles showed up later and later, older titles on the shelf became pretty-much non-existent. Ordering a title in became near impossible. More and more, I could go across to to B&N and find everything that I couldn't at Borders.

Borders died because they had become indifferent, IMO.

I agree. The process of ordering books became next to impossible because the staff in my area didn't know how to order a book. I went straight to Amazon after that and never went back.

 

[Kirby]

I've never cared for the physical layout of Borders. The flow of the store just never made sense to me and it seemed like I had to criss-cross the store too much when browsing between sections.
Barnes and Noble is much better in that respect, but now that they have toys and games, not to mention the Nook Nazi that accosts you the second you step through the door, I'm having a hard time with them too.

I have a Kindle, which is where I get about 60% of my book purchases, and I like to support the used book store by my son's school, and then Barnes and Noble for browsing and the occasional purchase.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm mostly hoping that in a few weeks they have a massive clearance sale on everything they have left in the store. Borders has always been insanely expensive compared to its competitors.

 

[NextGen123]

I've never cared for the physical layout of Borders. The flow of the store just never made sense to me and it seemed like I had to criss-cross the store too much when browsing between sections.
Barnes and Noble is much better in that respect, but now that they have toys and games, not to mention the Nook Nazi that accosts you the second you step through the door, I'm having a hard time with them too.

I have a Kindle, which is where I get about 60% of my book purchases, and I like to support the used book store by my son's school, and then Barnes and Noble for browsing and the occasional purchase.

I couldn't get over how the the science fiction section was located toward the back of the store. Yet if you wanted to go to the graphic novel (or as I call them comic book paperbacks) section, you had to go across the other side of the store and pass the video and music section on the opposite side.

The incident that stopped me from going to the store occured five years ago. I wanted to purchase a coffee approximately 12 PM in the afternoon. There were no clerks in sight in the coffee bar.

I went to the door beside the counter to knock on the door. Just to see if anyone could wait on me. The clerk (upon noticing that I was asking to be waited on) stormed out the door screaming at me, saying I have to go to the front of the store and have someone paged to the coffee bar.

This did not sit well with me and I told the manager right away. I don't know what the problem was with this employee but I never saw someone so red faced, eyes poping out with rage. All I wanted was a cup of coffee.

 

[RoJoHen]

In my Borders, the SciFi, Fantasy, and graphic novels are all right next to each other.

 

[NextGen123]

I'm mostly hoping that in a few weeks they have a massive clearance sale on everything they have left in the store. Borders has always been insanely expensive compared to its competitors.

What I didn't like was the whole online coupon idea. If you have a Borders card for each purchase, you should be discounted accordingly. In the past it was 10 per cent. Downloading that coupon, that only lasted a couple days, for the same discount was just more work.

Prior to the whole concept of purchasing books online, all you needed was a Borders card to get shopping days or a discount.

Half the time the clerks in my area were not trained in how to enter a coupon.Sometimes the bar code would not scan and no one had a copy of the current cupon. After waiting for the clerk to enter it manually on a keyboard, it would seem like forever.

I remember seeing four registers in the store in my location. Until the day of the "Going Out of Business Sale" I never saw four clerks at the counter at once.

On the weekends espeically, the lines would go to the back of the store. This was one of the library super stores. Last time I counted there were 35 people in line with one cashier on a Saturday afternoon.

I know retail is a hard business;but where were the managers and employees to help with those crowds?

 

[NextGen123]

When there were still other bookstores around, Borders were always more expensive with an lesser selection.

Now with a hundred online options, I can't believe they lasted near as long as they did.

Same with Blockbuster.

If I could predict which store is going to go chapter 11 next, I'd have to say Best Buy. They don't have their DVD's at low prices like Wal-Mart.

 

[DonIago]

Considering that I once emailed Borders to tell them a DVD I'd ordered had never arrived, and they promptly shipped out another copy no questions asked, I couldn't possibly legitimately complain about their customer service.

As far as their prices...(shrug) Sometimes, with coupons, they could beat Amazon. Usually not, but sometimes.