I was at a Borders yesterday. Their DVD collection is already getting thin (Blurays were one of the first things they discounted at 40%) and they apparently are no longer getting new magazine issues. Their general inventory was still pretty well stocked but the discount is still only 20%.
And surprisingly they had signs up that they’re hiring people. Apparently they need extra help to work the closings. I guess it’s not too surprising - they’ve been packed with customers shopping for “bargains”. If they could have gotten all these customers a year ago, they probably wouldn’t be closing.
I asked how long they would be open. I was told until they sell off their inventory so there’s no firm date. But the final closing is expected to be sometime in September.
One big thing. They’re discontinuing the Borders Plus discount. I was, in fact, told by one employee that today was the last day I’d get the discount. But another employee told me they extended it to Wednesday. So don’t count on getting the extra ten percent discount.
I also stopped by a Borders today. Fiction was 30% off, scifi and fantasy were 25% off. I picked three books at random, looked them up on my Amazon app, and all were still cheaper at Amazon.
It is a good deal if you’re getting mass market paperbacks, as Amazon doesn’t discount those at all. I looked for some Terry Pratchett mass markets, but they didn’t have any. The CDs are 30% off, but a lot start off at $15, so it’s still not a super bargain.
The lines were pretty long.
I guess I’ll wait two weeks and see if the discounts get closer to 70%.
I got a bunch of paperbacks. Like you said, Amazon doesn’t discount mass market paperbacks. At Borders (at least today) I got the 25% general discount and the 10% Plus discount, which added up to 32.5% off.
Not all are $15, though; I was there yesterday and bought five CDs plus three kids’ books for $42, including a CD originally priced at $5.99. That said, I’ll be back there again next weekend to see if the discount keeps dropping.
Live bookstores have some things Amazon can’t match, however: the ability to browse. I know of no pleasure more sublime than to walk into a bookstore and then walk out with something completely unexpected. I refuse to buy books on Amazon. If they close all the bookstores, I’ll just stop buying.
I got two emails from Borders Friday. One telling me that they can’t complete an online order I placed over a month ago. The other telling me the general discount in their stores is now 30% off (which is less than the discount I was getting last week with my now defunct Plus membership).
The last puchase I made at Borders was The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Oxford Edition. Given the vast number of hours I spent in Borders stores throughout the country, I felt this was an appropriate purchase.
If the mods feel that this thread is a zombie to be locked, I’m OK with that. I just felt it needed to be said.
The Borders nearby my house has been converted into a 2nd and Charles, a division of Books-a-Million that handles book, music and game buyback and resale.
I bought a couple of decent paperbacks for about $5 total. Not bad at all, and I will likely be stopping back.
Dunno if its like this everywhere, but the Books-a-Million near my house is like the anti-Borders. Borders had a really wide selection of science and math texts, a large history section, etc. Our Books-a-Million has barely two shelves of Science+Math and almost half the store is self-help, religious “chicken soup for the soul” type books and political screeds.
I’m going to miss Borders (though I did do well in their closing sale).
How much of Borders do you think was devoted to self-help, religion and political screeds? Not to mention an amazing array of overpriced nicknacks and coffee?
The two Books-a-Million stores I’ve visited (Goldsboro and Raleigh) were very, very heavy on Christian books and t-shirts.
I was in a Barnes and Noble yesterday, and someone was trying to use a Borders gift card. I don’t remember hearing anything about other stores honoring the gift cards.