Sadly that great bookshop,Borders has bitten the dust and is haveing a closing down sale,20%off all stock and 50%off all Law books.

Loads of people at Cheshire Oaks store today all buying stuff,pity they didnt before it went bust.

Best wishes to all the helpful and knowledgeable staff who work for them.

pity they didnt before it went bust.

Bit of a circular statement that, I suspect people are buying because it's now decounted? Pity the bookshops are so much more expencive than t'internet for an identical product. People will vote with their feet.

Always sorry to hear people are put out of work mind.

I suspect they're still more expensive than Amazon et al even with 20% off.

Arrival of Borders did challenge (and change) the bookselling cartel in this country though.

Borders weren't exactly a small company – they could surely have sold books with at least some discount on publisher prices? So not sure how much sympathy I have.

I am however in a cafe round the corner from the Glasgow one right now, and will go for a look before I go home.

Borders weren't exactly a small company – they could surely have sold books with at least some discount on publisher prices?

Exactly, I would happily buy from a bookshop if you were only paying a premium of a couple of quid on a book for the pleasure of browsing and being able to take the book away. But 50% extra in most cases in places like Waterstones? Nailing the lid on thier own coffin.

If you visited on a regular basis you would know that 20% was a regular thing and 2 for 1's were often found, if you signed up for the email you got an email every week offering discounts on something or other.

Its the like of asda and tesco etc that have been the downfall of most bookshops. Borders had some rather dodgy senior management and have been close to folding for the last 12 months, this hasn't helped there case and is the main reason they are closing. Sales across all branches are slightly under last years figures(like most retail businesses I would guess) and if cash is still coming in then where's the problem?

Staff in my local store were spot on and its sad to hear yet more peeps are on the scrap heap in time for xmas.

Founder of Waterstone's was on the radio very early Friday morning saying it was a pity but the Borders model was flawed for the UK market. Firstly large out of town(mall) stores (in the main). And then they shot themselves in the foot by stepping out of just books and found that they were then in direct competition with Asda et al (but not able to be as cheap) and no longer a pure book shop.

Just because it works in the States doesn't make it a valid model in all contries.

Bookselling is divided into the following:

1. Online – volume, no shop overheads

2. Supermarket – "bestsellers" and other pulp

3. Waterstones and, er, Waterstones – loss leaders on celeb biogs, everything else is expensive

4. A handful of specialist and local indeoendent shops – all going the way of the local butchers, bakers and grocers.

Borders didn't quite do any off these, but a shame to see that the staff will be out of work.

borders are owned by amazon, same company

allyharp – Member
I am however in a cafe round the corner from the Glasgow one right now, and will go for a look before I go home.

I hope you managed to get in. My office is across from Borders and it seemed like it would be risky to go in and come back out alive!

50% off all OS maps in the one in Leeds today – did seem to have been cherry picked already though, and was a scrum to get in. The place was full of the kind of people who walked in because there was a huge 'closing down – 50% off' sign in the window, half of them looked like they didn't even know what Borders sell/sold…

Lots of the type who thought books where just for libraries,in Cheshire Oaks today,never seen so many closing down signs,watching people trying to deduct 20%off books was interesting,if they cant count and subtract,what hope have they got of reading a book.

There isn't a Borders particularly near to me (and I suspect most decent stuff has gone already) but it's a real shame, I loved that shop. Bought a book, read it over one of the instore Starbucks then usually bought another book on my way out!

crazy-legs – Member

There isn't a Borders particularly near to me (and I suspect most decent stuff has gone already) but it's a real shame, I loved that shop. Bought a book, read it over one of the instore Starbucks then usually bought another book on my way out!

You pass one on the way home in Stockport, in fact I've been past it tonight on my commute – wish I'd remembered, I'd have popped in!

borders are owned by amazon, same company

Not so, they are owned by a private equity company in the UK, nothing to do with the US operation.

Used to like browsing around Borders but I always got the impression that was all people did, had a cup of shitbucks, then went home and ordered from Amazon.

Being an addictive buyer of magazines, i'll be disappointed when they close as it'll be harder to get hold of some of the US mags they sell. I'll probably be loads better off mind, cos they're all around the £4/£4.50 mark.

50% off all OS maps in the one in Leeds today

Glasgow only had 20% off! Wasn't worth buying at that price.

One thing I didn't know until they went into administration was that Borders UK was separate from the US company. If I wanted something I always bought from Waterstones instead because they were a UK company!

only ever went in cos they had a nice coffee shop and easy parking,now will have to find somewhere else,
do not read books as i fall asleep before getting to the bottom of the first pge

my local borders has removed a lot of the high price books (for example microsoft press) from the shelves, its all the trash left now.

I always bought my books from Fopp when in Manchester, who usually had exactly the books i wanted when i wanted them at a price that made you buy two, you could pick up a handful of CD's on the way out to make the trip a result. Sadly it too suffered the credit crunch flu but appears to have been bailed out by HMV which might be frying pan into the fire I cant see why they want to save the competition in face of their own war against the internet.
Borders was always good for a browse but other than a coffee never bought much other than mags. It's a shame now i have the new iPhone Book bar scanner app I could have used it more to decide which books to buy from Amazon

iPhone Book bar scanner app

right, I need to find a mate with an iPhone then I can catalogue my entire library at home for insurance purposes 😉

I'm sad to see it go. They were a part of my working away from home strategy as the Starbucks in them was never as busy as the stand alone ones in the same locality. I've spent many an hour browsing stw working in the ones in Oxford St, York, Bristol & Glasgow.

the Starbucks in them was never as busy as the stand alone ones in the same locality

I've found the exact opposite in Glasgow actually. Once me and a friend were sat in the Glasgow one with some books for studying and faced with a huge queue at the counter. So she went downstairs and outside to the one right next door, and back up with 2 coffees before the last person in the Borders queue had got anywhere near the front!

I was in the one in Milton Keynes last night and a very disgruntled member of staff told me that they bit the dust mainly because someone at head office stopped paying suppliers who eventually pulled the plug on them.