Goodnight, Borders

I haven't written on Borders Books in a bit; meanwhile they've been liquidating themselves into oblivion. It's now being reported that the last few stores still in existence will cease to be this weekend. I never really shopped there, and have no personal connection; also I work at a bookstore that isn't a Borders, and so had a general notion of disliking them for many years. But it doesn't matter. I am still a bit sad about this, as long as it has been brewing, still a touch moved by the disappearance of a huge chain that, in most places that it is leaving, will never be replaced. I have been reading a book called Empire of the Summer Moon, about the last days of the Comanches who were for a time the big power of the Southwest. They had a great number of rivals in their day. I wonder if the little tribes that had been oppressed and beaten by the Comanches paused for a moment as the last bands of that once proud nation rode into their degrading reservation life and out of the plains. I wonder if those tribes thought that it was a loss to their people for the Comanches to be gone. From what I've read, they wouldn't have, but of course their rivalries were things of blood and fire and terror, and in books, it's only sales and jobs. So I can feel sorrow, I suppose. And I do. Goodnight, Borders. You meant a lot to a lot of people, and I'm sorry that for large swaths of the nation, there will now be no bookstores at all. I'm sorry for all the people who lost their jobs. And that, I suppose, is the last I will write on this topic.

A last word about Borders

A good piece from the Stranger's books editor Paul Constant, one of Seattle's best voices about the industry.

It had better be a big sling stone

I do not think it will end this well for the Kobo...

Concerning this post, it turns out that at least one ebook reader isn't just going along with Apple's plan to get their fingers into every bit of profits from iPad ebook sales (ten years ago, that last bit would have been so ridiculous to type; come to think of it, it still is a bit so even now.  But we move on....) The Kobo, which is one of the lesser players in the market, has come up with a notion to still use something like an in-app sale to move their books. There's a lot of technobabble there, but what it seems to come down to is that they'll be cheating the system a bit, and hoping, one guesses, that Apple doesn't notice.  I don't think this will end well for the poor Kobo; but then, they partnered with these guys, so very little does.

Borders' Unfortunate Demise

I was going to use the word "sad" instead of "unfortunate," but I'm not actually very sad.  Borders was never a go-to store for me; briefly in the mid-90s I shopped in one branch for a while, but it did not impress me greatly, and I didn't ever go to it after it became more than a one block walk from my transfer spot in Downtown Seattle.  Still, it is unfortunate that a chain of 600 stores a year ago, employing 14000 or so people then, and still almost 11000 now, is going out of business.  Slate has a nice article that explains some of the major reasons why, although I think it's not comprehensive or anything.  Minor reasons are the need to pay sales tax (avoided by Amazon, and if you think it's not much, add 5-10% to all Amazon prices and then reassess); and becoming too similar to Barnes and Noble, their major competition, and thus losing much brand loyalty.  But maybe that last was just my observation.