Borders without Borders.

[captainsblog]

Well, shit.

I remember when Borders first came to Rochester, right around the time we left. We had no megastores then- Waldenbooks was the Store in the Mawl (B. Dalton the other one, eventually becoming part of Barnes & Noble), and Village Green the local dysfunctional place where we got most of our stuff.  In time, BN moved beyond its college bookstore franchises into assorted strip malls there and here, and Amazon became the drug of choice for those of us not especially in need of brick or mortar.

From the look of the initial list, that longago venue now near Em at RIT, and our sole Buffalo Borders outpost near the Galleria, are still open. (The one in Ithaca is slated to close, which is about as sad as it gets.) Yet, from my own experience with Chapter 11 companies, I'd put their odds of succeeding at around 10 percent. I'd stay away from their gift cards if I were you.

I fondly remember meeting thanatos_kalos and our just-as-longago friend Rachel, for probably the first time at a Star Trek event at the Galleria store sometime in the mid-90s.  During their short and not-so-sweet partnership with Amazon, I went out of my way to that store more than once to pick up a CD or book that we just Hayyyad Ta Hayyyave that very night.  I hope that somehow, the chain, or its employees, or somebody, keeps the faith alive so we will still have one more place that cares about the unique partnership between Word and Page.  Much as I liked my first experience with ebooks, there's something tangible, and tactile, and just plain beautiful about ink on paper.

Comments

[darksumomo.livejournal.com]

This is a sad day, as I lived in Ann Arbor for 10 years and have lived in Michigan for 22 years, so I consider Borders to be my hometown bookstore. I remember when their flagship store was a glorified hole in the wall and was still trendy and cool. I hope the chain survives.

BTW, I haven't yet read theferrett's latest entry. He used to work for Borders and was there when he says the company started to go downhill. I'm sure he'll have something to say, even if it's nothing more than "I told you so."

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

most of the Borders here have closed, too, alas. :( it's a real shame-- the one in Bristol was a favourite hang out when I lived there, thuogh the Cardiff one was a bit of a ways away from me so I never went there. :(

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this makes me really sad, too. I loved Borders back in Oklahoma. Here of course Powells has the market in spades and I haven't been to a Borders since living in Eugene, but I have wonderful fond memories.

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

Borders used to be a book-lover's bookstore.

Then it became just another Big Box Bookseller, at a time when the Biggest Boxiest Bookseller is the Amazon juggernaut.

(Heidi Klum voice.) "One day you are in, the next day you are aoudt. Auf Wiedersehen."

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Village Green used to be like that when I first moved to Rochester 20-odd years ago. I'd never seen a bookstore like it; bunches of buildings cobbled together, EVERYTHING you could ever want (within reason), intelligent staff to find it for you, prices that weren't deep-discounted but were better than the mainer-line chain Scrantoms (you can guess what we nicknamed THEM) or department store or mawl staws.

Like Borders, they got too good for their own good. They went public on the NASDAQ; they expanded to Buffalo (at least); but they lost their way. One year not long before we left Rochester, Eleanor and I did a Gift of the Magi thing and each tried to get the other a copy of the Jim Henson coffee table book (http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Jim_Henson:_The_Works) for Christmas. I got there first, and had what you Chowds refer to as a Wicked Pissah time getting them to open a box of the things that had just come in, which their computer told them had just come in, but which they didn't want to open to sell a copy to a true Muppet Lover. That's the moment when I knew the end was near.

Within months, they were in Chapter 11. Within a few years, they were gone; BN took over their Buffalo location before building an even mondo-er store up the Boulevard. Hollywood Video took their funky Rochester location until they, too, bit the bankruptcy bullet; last I knew, a liquor store had moved in, working the (quite copyright infringing) HOLLYWOOD logo from the previous tenant into the name of their hooch shop.