Borders Books: Documenting Its Fall Through Its E-Mail Newsletters

thoughtcatalog.com:

There was a brief period when I chose to believe that the cheapest way to buy a book was to go in a Borders bookstore and pay for one with a coupon, an outrageously good deal of a coupon that seemed to appear in my inbox in a slightly different form every day: 30 percent off bestsellers one day; 50 percent off any one book the next.

Read the whole story: thoughtcatalog.com

Comments

[raven119]

12:59 PM on 02/11/2011

When I saw the ad for kobo I thought it would go great with the six hand-picked wines. I misread the email and read kobo for kobe. My bad.

[ValdaDeDieu]

03:00 PM on 02/11/2011

Oh, that's funny. Sounds like something I'd do. Was it during the full moon? Perhaps you simply needed something rare...

So delicious...

[manelady]

09:25 AM on 02/11/2011

I've had a Kindle for a few years and do the majority of my book reading with it. However, I still need to have books on my bookshelf, although now I am particular what I put there. The classics will always be with us and I really, really like having hardbacks on my shelf. There is a place for both. Hopefully, Borders and B&N will come up with a streamlined plan that can keep bricks and mortar stores available for everyne.

[ValdaDeDieu]

11:56 PM on 02/10/2011

Borders made a huge mistake in not cashing in on the ebook bonanza. Authors are doing all the work promoting their books, and the selling venue, for a percentage of the sale price. Borders, in an insane move, tries to charge authors $29 .00 per ebook to sell. Whatever they call the charge, i.e., "conversion to eformat" (my quotes), that's what it amounts to.

Do you know how much money they could have made over the holidays if they had offered the same deal Amazon, Barnes, Smashwords, and Google gives to authors; namely upload your book, and we take a percentage? They would have had at least as many ebooks for sale as Amazon, Barnes, Smashwords and Google AND THEN, they could have offered all books at 10% off Amazon's price...

It hurts to think of good employees losing their jobs due to CEO and Executive level incompetence. Borders used to be my favorite bookstore for browsing, buying books, meeting other bibliophiles...

[Sarijj]

08:39 PM on 02/10/2011

I have been documenting the fall of Borders on my blog http://theviewfromsarisworld.blogspot.com for years. I watched my local Borders go from an upscale customer oriented store to a warehouse looking outlet with grumpy and often illiterate staff. A clerk actually asked me who Sherlock Holmes was.
Borders has tried everything to stay afloat except the obvious, cater to those who do read and ensure the store is well stocked. I am saddened to see its decline but cannot say I will be surprised if it fades away.