I went to our local Borders today, suckered in by the large-font “40% off”, and was amazed to see a line of 20+ at the register waiting to pay, as you said, more than Amazon price. All I could figure out was that they were trying to burn up gift cards.
Okay, well that’s good to know.
We liked Borders in concept, but my kids could never find the books they wanted there…so in practice it was lacking.
Don’t forget the Booksmith in Brookline, just a short C-line ride away. Of course, you have to ride the C line to get there.
There are other bookstores around in many places. We have Books-a-Million around here, and they seem pretty good.
The thing about Books-a-Million is that they are geographically restricted. They’re in fewer than half the states, mostly in the south. Even that makes them seem more far-flung than they are because the bulk of their stores are in only ten states. Most book buyers in the country have probably never set foot in one.
That could change. They made a bid for 30 Borders stores, almost all of them in areas they’ve never had a presence in. That’s seven new states right there.
Many thanks for the response.
Update:
It is going down.
?
That’s dated July 18. Today is July 27. The close-out sales started a week ago - as we discussed in this very thread.
Wait. Are you on the Julian or Gregorian calendar?
Sorry about that, I’m currently outside the US and connections to the internet are spotty, In any case I thought it was odd that this thread got no bump last week.
It did get bumped last week.
:smack:
Ok, this time I did not pay attention, I completely missed the bump and the news until it was reported over here.
Oh well, at least it is not as bad as thinking that Guinness beer was British. 
Well, the company is headquartered in London, so there is some degree of Britishness to it.
There was a Guinness brewery in England until a few years ago. Now, I believe, all the brewing is done in Dublin.
So true! I went to my Border’s liquidation sale this weekend and even at 20% off and some spare birthday cash I couldn’t bring myself to buy anything.
I got a good deal on a board game, 20 percent off. With my remaining Borders Bucks and an additional 10 percent discount, it was almost half price.
I forgot about my Borders Bucks. What was the additional 10%?
Presumably a Borders Plus membership, which gives you an additional ten percent discount on most products.
Looking back at this thread, it appears my local Borders (which shut down in the first round of closings) started its liquidation sale on Feb. 19 and finally closed its doors on April 17. I wonder if the liquidation is going to go faster for these last stores instead of dragging on for two months.
I dug two receipts from April out of my George Costanza wallet and saw that the lowest price that fiction books reached in the sale was 80% off. In fact, the price actually increased at one point–with four days to go before closing, any book in the store was $2.99, plus a buy 4 get 1 free promotion. The very next day, with three days till closing, it was back to 80% off. Weird.
Any way, my receipt reads, “31 items - Total: $76.13 - You saved: $490.65”
Beat that, Amazon!
Exactly. I paid $25 for membership back in December to get ten percent off most items. With my breakeven point at $250, I must be pretty close. I’ll have to stop in again before the doors finally shut.
Has anyone heard when they are finally closing? I’m trying to find that beautiful point between when there is still a good selection and when the deals are the best, but I don’t want to wait too long!
Just speaking from what happened in February, the selection goes before the prices come down below Amazon levels. I still found plenty of books I wanted to buy at 70% off, but I certainly couldn’t look for a specific book at that point. I’d say it depends on how catholic your tastes are.