No wonder Borders has sunk

[nlbarber]

I took myself over to one of the 5 closing Borders stores to see if I could get a good price on one or more of the cookbooks that are on my wishlist, but I haven't been willing to shell out for yet. This particular store just entered the second wave of the "Going Out of Business" sale, at least according to the emails they are sending me, so theoretically there have been 2 price cuts.

I did indeed find several things in their cookbooks area, and I looked around for the pricing. Ah, signs are posted on each shelving unit, and the cookbooks are all....25% off. I can get all of them cheaper at Amazon, with no sales tax and free shipping.

Maybe I'll come back when the prices drop again, or maybe not. Amazon has Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table at 38% off list. Baked Explorations at 47% off. Sarabeth's Bakery (which I got for Christmas, thanks older brother!) at 46% off. Bittman's Food Matters at 37% off. Borders, which doesn't offer the special touches of an independant and isn't managing to compete with the online stores on price, seems pretty doomed.

Comments

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I was utterly unimpressed with the Borders' closing sale. The initial 20% off was still more than I ever pay for books from Borders, there was a crowd that made Christmas-time lines look short, and the shelves were a mess. I didn't even bother going over to check the second round of discounts. I have a 40% off coupon to use to order something off my wish list and considering that my wish list is full of items that never appeared in the store at all, that seems a better way to spend my money. I'm quite capable of ordering books one at a time as I get good coupons.

[norabombay.livejournal.com]

At 20 or 25% the prices are still nuts. I went last weekend? Two weeks ago? At 20%- I wasn't looking for books, but for some of the accessories-

And the line was far longer than it needed to be at the price point. Amazon was a lot better deal, and has free shipping.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

I noticed they had lego sets (and WHAT are those doing in a book store???) The prices on the sets was at least as much or more AFTER the 20% discount than those sets are normally at Target and Toys R Us.....

I can see why they have problems.

[filkferengi]

We went by the one in Phoenix. Although most other books were at 40% off, sf & mystery were only 30% off. As you noted, one can get better deals elsewhere. Some of the shelves were tempting, but impractical. [ze spouse is Cute When Relieved. ;)]