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Oh great. The two Borders stores where I bought my copies of the last three Harry Potter novels during their midnight releases could be gone by the end of August 2011. Anime cry

I'll have to patronize the three Barnes & Noble stores in my area a lot more often just to buy new books, magazines, etc. Fortunately, the B&N closest to me has a really good manga selection. Smile

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I'll have to patronize the three Barnes & Noble stores in my area a lot more often just to buy new books, magazines, etc. Fortunately, the B&N closest to me has a really good manga selection.

Barnes and Noble is not in much better shape than Borders is, especially with e-text and e-reading rapidly becoming more popular. The only reason why Barnes and Noble is really surviving is because many US universities hold contracts with them to sell textbooks.

Borders simply had a poor business model, poor selection/inventory management, poor debt management, and poor customer service (or at least from experiences)

Deadwing wrote:

Aw, man. I hope Borders doesn't go away. I've been a loyal customer of theirs for years. I used to buy pretty much all my manga at the Waldenbooks in the mall (same company as Borders), and when they closed 5-½ years ago (after having been open since the 80s), I started going to Borders. Waldenbooks actually had the best selection of manga in the area during the first half of the 00s, but by time Waldenbooks had closed, Borders had greatly expanded their manga section, and now they have the best selection. If Borders closes, that leaves me with Barnes & Noble as the only bookstore in Augusta, and their manga section is half the size of Borders'. In fact, our B&N has always had a relatively bad selection compared to anyone else.

Same here. There are still Waldenbooks where I live - at least the same state, anyway - but I'd be heartbroken if all Borders stores closed. Anime cry

Keep fighting, Borders!! PLEASE come out of this and stick around.

MaxGoof wrote:

I don't get it!!

Why would Borders remove a bid from a bidder that wanted to keep the company and stores intact, putting the liquidators in the lead? Don't they WANT to stay open? Shocked

From what i've heard and read, Nafaji wasn't gonna get the pre-bankruptcy perks that the Publishers had with Borders. Basically buying stuff on credit. The Publishers wanted Borders-Nafaji to pay up front.

Kit-Tsukasa wrote:

Borders simply had a poor business model, poor selection/inventory management, poor debt management, and poor customer service (or at least from experiences)

The biggest reason why Borders is in this mess is poor management. The allegations by employees was that some of the CEO's had NO bookselling experience and they figured that "retail experience is retail experience" irregardless of whats sold (allegedly, the CEO's came from Supermarket backgrounds). Unfortunately, this meant alot of stupid ideas and possibly the most asine sales tactics ever.

It's easy to blame a company's downfall on not innovating, but there has to be a reason why they didn't innovate and change with the times, and most of the time, the blame lies at the feet of the CEO's. Who will walk away with a golden parachute while the rank and file will go on unemployment and fight for the available jobs out there.

Kit-Tsukasa wrote:

Barnes and Noble is not in much better shape than Borders is, especially with e-text and e-reading rapidly becoming more popular. The only reason why Barnes and Noble is really surviving is because many US universities hold contracts with them to sell textbooks.

But at least Barnes & Noble have their mail-order/online sales division and their successful Nook series of e-book readers to fall back upon in addition to the university textbook sales. I've played with newest Nook e-ink reader and it's a very nice unit for reading e-books. Smile

Sunday Silence wrote:

Lightning Leo wrote:

Huh boy, I hope this doesn't mean anything for the Borders in my part of town.

Hilco is a liquidator; that means that come December (should the liquidators win), Borders as a whole will not exist in it's current state. There might be a few bits here and there floating around in cyberspace and as tangible assets, but B&M Borders stores would be kaput.

This is not barring the possibility that someone steps in and offers a bid to keep some stores open. But as it stands right now, it went from "Half of the stores might stay open, the rest are ****ed," to "Borders is completely ****ed."

Thanks for the clarification, geez it looks like their situation has just gone from bad to worse to worst. I used to get really good deals on manga from them, and gave them a lot of business over the years. From what I'm hearing it seems pretty pointless to get any hopes up, but it'd be cool if things turned around somehow.

But then again, who knows, this just might be the opening for another enterprising company to step in, and perhaps do just as good a job, if not better. Only time will tell, it seems.

12 years of the rotating Borders higher ups.

http://iworkatborders.livejournal.com/823169.html

Okay, WSJ is posting completely conflicting information.

First, they said no new bidders filed a bid come the 5PM deadline today; Then, Books-a-Million is a possible bidder?!:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303795304576452452560587970.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Now, if the BAM scenario is in play, I can only surmise this possibility: BAM has no western state stores. Taking over former Borders stores out west would provide BAM a way to expand into new markets.

A rumor I heard a few minutes ago is that the reason why Nafaji pulled out was that one (or possibly more) publishers objected to the sale. I'm trying to scour the bankruptcy documents again, but why am I having a hunch that TOKYOPOP is involved in this somehow.....?

Unconfirmed: Borders is going into outright liquidation.

http://iworkatborders.livejournal.com/824513.html

Sunday Silence wrote:

A rumor I heard a few minutes ago is that the reason why Nafaji pulled out was that one (or possibly more) publishers objected to the sale. I'm trying to scour the bankruptcy documents again, but why am I having a hunch that TOKYOPOP is involved in this somehow.....?

Unconfirmed: Borders is going into outright liquidation.

http://iworkatborders.livejournal.com/824513.html

Someone's posting in the comments over there that the publisher was Penguin, but I don't know really. (Besides the fact there's some trolls causing confusion over there.)

marcos torres toledo wrote:

You people don't know what a readers desert Puerto Rico is it's even hard if not inpossible to find orinary comic books here especially let alone books with economy as it is now not even a decent library system the only bookstores here except some local books in old San Juan are religious booksstores what a disaster. Crying or Very sad

I'm from Puerto Rico as well so I can relate to that. In terms of Comics books you can go to Metro Comics at San Patricio. Not the same as borders but it solves.