The Borders Conundrum
The demise of Borders has been roiling around in my mind and, like many, I have very mixed feelings about it.
The big publishers and wholesalers are being very quiet about it but we know they have huge outstanding bills with Borders so they’re probably thinking they have little chance of being paid, this when large amounts of money are not exactly flowing in their direction from anywhere. At the same time, this was a very important source of sales for them in the past and finding significant replacement for that income will be impossible considering the downward-spiraling sales of print books. Do I feel sorry for them? No. They saw such advantage in the sheer size of chain store operations that the independent bookstores that had historically supported them became nearly forgotten, trampled in the stampede to foster “partnerships” with the big boys. Oh, there has been nothing overt about it after they were caught giving unfair financial terms to the chains but the dismissive attitude has always been there to a certain extent. It shows in the difficulty all except the largest and/or most visible indies have arranging events with the big-name authors and in the inconsistent treatment of billing. If I was a bit late paying a month’s bill of, say, $400, you can be sure the publisher/wholesaler would forcefully remind me and some made it clear that no orders would be filled until payment was made in full. Now, I certainly didn’t make a habit of being late but, come on—$400?? Borders owes its six largest creditors, all publishers, $182,000,000!* That didn’t happen overnight and they just kept right on delivering orders until late December. Just goes to show, bigger is not always better.
Many of the smaller presses and their authors, as well as self-published authors, have to be feeling rather divided by the Borders fiasco. On the one hand, they must be thinking, “Ha! Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it?”, because most of them 
were denied shelf space by the corporate high-muckety-mucks who deemed them unimportant, insignificant, unworthy. On the other hand, surely there is a huge sigh of relief that they escaped this financial morass. Smaller actually worked to their advantage this time. Author Sunny Frazier expressed it much better than me here just a few days ago
http://www.cncbooks.com/blog/2011/02/22/a-letter-to-borders/
Other authors, many of them midlisters without the promotional support given to the James Pattersons** of the book world, were fortunate enough to be welcomed by Borders. They are saddened by the loss of what had been supportive venues and many speak fondly of specific customer relations or events managers who made signing events a real pleasure. Unfortunately, even if their favorite stores are remaining open, those friendly contacts are mostly gone and events are few and far between for the foreseeable future.
Customers, as might be expected, run the gamut. Regulars are very sorrowful and not just because they might be losing a favorite bookstore. Many are genuinely sorry that the people they consider “soulmates” of a sort (a common feeling among dedicated readers and booksellers who care) are either losing their jobs or facing a great deal of uncertainty if their stores are staying open. Nonreaders just don’t get the bonds that develop or the sheer joy that comes from a customer and a bookseller talking books and a lot of Borders fans are taking this loss very personally.
Then there are the people who are showing the worst side of customers. How many times did you see the same guy sitting in the cafe for hours sipping on a latte (the only one he would buy all day), pecking feverishly at his laptop or texting heaven knows who? This is the guy who never bought a book and was PROUD of it, loudly proclaiming all over the internet that he always buys online. This is the same guy who now says he knew Borders would fail because, after all, there is no value in a local store when he can simply order whatever he wants from Amazon***. Another breed of lousy customer (very possibly the same guy) is little better than a scavenger and I say this from the personal experience of closing a bookstore. This customer is intent only on getting a deep-discounted bargain now that stores are closing. I don’t have a problem with bargain-hunters—I can be one myself—but must they be so incredibly rude and insensitive about it? Stories are rife about these people trying to hide books till the discounts get bigger, carrying loads of books all over the store and then discarding them wherever, complaining that they can’t find what they want or that the discount isn’t big enough, treating the employees boorishly and generally behaving like vultures picking the carcass clean. The worst for me was the people who had never set foot in the store before our closing sale and seemed to feel compelled to tell us that they they did all their bookbuying online**** but were so surprised we couldn’t survive. Um, hello, are you an idiot? All of that happened when we were closing and it’s happening to Borders now.
As an almost-former independent bookstore owner, I’m really torn. The first time I ever saw a Borders, years before I got into the business, I was absolutely stunned by the size and the sheer beauty of the store. In those early years, I think Borders was the “classy lady” of the chain bookstore world in its look and ambiance and, most importantly, in the love and knowledge of books shown by its employees. In recent years, the incompetent leadership ruined that by steadily reducing the space allotted to books and by demanding its employees put all their attention on pushing nationally-chosen books and THE CARD.
Still, our local Borders was always a friendly competitor and it was not uncommon for them to send us customers who were looking for something we had and they didn’t (and we returned the favor). There were times when we would call each other to exchange information about authors, titles and publishers and I think both sides saw value in each other’s place in the overall scheme of things. We knew we couldn’t carry the very wide array of titles they could and they knew they couldn’t match the depth of our title selections in our chosen genres and, in this case, the twain did meet.
Once upon a time, I worked for a company, not a bookstore, that was run, in its last years, by a couple of people who raped and pillaged the company while imposing their incompetence on those underlings who really did understand what needed to be done, much like the top folks at Borders. My company eventually died and Borders may very well, also. Shame on those people—may they get everything they deserve.
Bottomline, though, I have regrets—regrets for the people who are losing their jobs shortly or who will be waiting for the axe to fall and regrets for the loss of so many brick & mortar bookstores. That’s another very large nail in the coffin for those of us who love to browse, to talk books, to flip a few pages before choosing just the right book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* http://ereads.com/2011/02/borders-succumbs-taking-230-mil-of-publisher-money-with-it.html
** Don’t get me wrong—I like much of Patterson’s work and greatly admire how he has turned himself into a phenomenon
*** Don’t get me started on Amazon
**** No, you really don’t want me to go there, at least not today
February 25, 2011
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller
Loading ...
11 Responses
The whole thing makes me sad. I hate seeing bookstores close, especially independents, I was heartbroken when you closed Creatures ‘n Crooks. I remember when Old Town Alexandria had three independents, Gilpin House, Olssens, and Ampersand. They’ve all closed, leaving Books a Million. But I’m also sad about Borders, there were some supportive stores, including a crazy little Borders express at Springfield Mall(now gone), and it had a staff that hand sold books.
As a writer you wonder how people will ever find your books. It can’t all be through “social media.” There is a human element to actually getting off your rear and visiting a book store. I hope it won’t be lost in the fallout.
Hey Ellen!! Yeah, I hate it too. I think some indies countrywide will be stronger because of the collapse of Borders but I don’t agree with those pundits who think indies in general will take back the scepter if B&N also fails. That day is long gone as ebooks take more and more of the market.
And, by the way, congratulations on the latest Lacey book and its oh-so-lovely PW starred review
Unfortunately there is also another side to the story. I loved going to Taylors, a very large bookstore chain in Dallas. They had a great book selection, often carrying books I could not find anywhere else in the city. Suddenly the store policy changed making it a very unpleasant place to go. Because I buy so many books and can’t remember all of the ones I have on my shelf, I had the habit of writing down the title and author’s name and going home and checking to see if I already owned that book. If I did, I purchased a different book by that author or another author. When the store policy changed, clerks walked around the store, yanked books out of my hand,and confiscated the paper I wrote the title and author’s name on. They accused me of copying information from the book when I only wrote down the author’s name and title. One snotty clerk said, “Taylors is not a library”. After the clerks did this twice, I bought from B & N and Borders instead. Within a year after Taylors started treating me this way, they were out of business. I assume it was because people, like myself, did not like being treated in this manner.
I’ve never lived near a Boarder’s, although I have, of course, visited more than one. I have lived near a B&N, and shopped there, but frankly have never really enjoyed the experience. The amount of books is overwhelming and although I’m a dedicated browser, even I don’t have that much browse in me. Only once have I had a B&N clerk come out from behind the counter to guide me, with enthusium, to a book he recommended. I forget what I was looking for, but remember the help I got. In the many indie’s I’ve been in over the years, I’ve had many such experiences and found a lot of books and authors I might have missed otherwise. Which was why, when my first boo came out, I was so thrilled to have someone in one of the indies tell me they “just loved the book.” I knew very little of their stock would be returned. Besides, if your book seller loves it… I won’t personally miss Boarders, but the impact it’s passing–or should I say downsizing–will have on an already confused and far from stable industry does, I must admit, make me nervous. Iit’s hard to imagine that Amazon and Kindle will end up the only place we have to buy, or the only place we have to sell one. So I, for one, am heading for my nearest indie, and its quite a ways, and I’m going to buy–something. It won’t be hard. I’ll just ask the clerk. Kathleen Delaney author of the soon to be released Murder Half-Baked
Elaine, that’s just awful! With behavior like that, they deserved to go out of business
How fascinating to be given a glimpse into what life was like in the days when your store AND Borders could happily coexist. I hope the fall of the latter gives rise to more of the former.
And for the record, I do object to that idiot customer (as a store owner probably cannot, at least not to his face). At the writing series I run, I coax attendees to purchase books after each event, while my co-host, a staff member, can’t do so with the same…urgency.
But bookstores are one of my favorite places in the world, if I want them to be there, places of respite for me, my children, and their children’s children, then I better “vote with my dollars”. I will buy two or three copies of a book to support an author just coming onto the scene–and make sure I’m paying for ‘em at a cash register with a real live book lover behind it.
Kathleen, indies everywhere appreciate your extra effort
Jenny, I have to admit that, in the last few days, our good manners began to elude us. At that stage, I figured a little honest reaction on our parts was in order and warranted. We weren’t outright rude and we chose our “targets” but, I gotta tell ya, it was liberating and it just felt good
On the other side of the coin, we honored our “good” customers, our friends, every step of the way and they are the people who made it all worthwhile.
What Ellen said: “It can’t all be through social media.” I go to bookstores sometimes with my trusty notepad to escape social media, to be honest. We have all had moments of simple burnout with the online stuff and long to talk with an real live bookseller.
I miss Creatures ‘n Crooks more than I can say. It was a good reason to go to Richmond a couple of times a year and spend some money on hotels, meals, and all the rest. The fallout from losing such places can’t really be measured.
Lelia – Of course I meant “A real live bookseller.” Obviously, I get very caught up in this topic.
And I miss you and all the other wonderful authors who visited us over the years. I know signing events are frequently less-than-stellar in terms of books sold but the face-to-face contact, the camaraderie between author, bookseller and reader, is worth it all
Leave a Reply