Kindle did not Kill Borders

[NateSean]

A bunch of bad business decisions killed Borders. Decisions made way back in 2001, before the Kindle even had a name.

Now everyone is crying "Kindle is going to kill the paper book".

For the love of god people. That's like saying the microwave will close down top notch resturaunts world wide. Or that the Internet is going to cause the population to collapse because it's easier to masturbate to porn than to hook up with a real...okay, bad example.

My point is, I'm sick of people blaming the Kindle for the downfall of Borders. My heart goes out to the people who lost jobs as I know there are people on CS who worked for them. But the Kindle is not responsible for it.

[BlaqueKatt]

Now everyone is crying "Kindle is going to kill the paper book".

and honestly why is killing less trees a bad thing?

Another benefit to various e-readers is the ability for authors to self publish and not have to submit a manuscript to 654665464790 publishers that don't read past the first 5 pages, and reject it.

I've purchased numerous full length novels and several anthologies for $0.99 to $2.99 and most of them were well written, and I know that most of the money is going to the author, and not the publishing company or agent.

[telecom_goddess]

I like reading actual print on paper still...I stare at a screen enough throughout the day.

I'm sad to see them go....I got the kids great xmas presents there for years. They love books.

[HYHYBT]

There are disadvantages to readers: for example, digital content is only *yours*: you cannot, so far as I know, lend a Kindle file to a friend as you can with a real book, nor pass it on to an heir or anything like that (though you can of course lend the entire Kindle, leaving yourself with none of your other books either. Which means that, though there's no legitimate reason for anything ever to go "out of print" in that context, should the publisher ever decide not to make it available anymore or to make alterations, it's *gone.* Amazon has even retroactively removed books people purchased when it turned out they didn't have the right to sell them, which could never happen with a physical book. Actually the example I'm thinking of with altered content is the first release of the "Aladdin" soundtrack: a line in the opening was found offensive, and all subsequent releases have an altered version. (Changed "where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face" to "where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense.") But many copies of the original version were sold, and some are still out there. If an analogous incident were to happen on an e-book, it would probably be changed even in existing copies at your next sync, and certainly could never be passed on to anyone else.

[mikoyan29]

I've been going to Borders since it was a book store on State Street in Ann Arbor. Then it moved to the old Jacobson's building on Liberty and it was still good. Then at some point it decided to go national and at that point it lost what made it special in the first place. There were lots of things that killed it....the Kindle didn't help its situation but it wasn't the only factor.

[KellyHabersham]

The main issue I had with Borders is that (at least, the stores in my area) usually did NOT have the books in stock which I was looking for. And I wasn't into getting them ordered, because I had some problems the last time I'd tried doing so via the Borders website. (plus, I wasn't always able to make a bus trip)

[Andara Bledin]

I have to agree that their book selection was a bit... haphazard. Particularly for manga, which I have spent a great deal of money on. But even with popular and established authors, there would be notable gaps in what books they had in stock.

As an example, you would think, with how insanely popular Jim Butcher is right now, that they'd make some effort to keep the Dresden Files books on the shelf. The full-size Borders we'd visit would rarely have more than half of the books, scattered through the series, and sometimes wouldn't even have a copy of the latest one at all.

^-.-^

[Ginger Tea]

I only ever bought language books and graphic novels from the Borders in Cambridge, I hardly glanced at their DVD and CD section, I shop at HMV and Virgin/zavvi (till they closed) for those, althogh not big, their graphic novel/manga section was larger than the local Forbidden Planet's, I would go there for latest releases and Borders as they carried back stock, you could on some books, walk out with the complete or up to the minute run, to do that at FB would require an order, order at FB or walk out with the first 10 volumes there and then.

[PepperElf]

and, more interesting, is... wait... wasn't borders partnered with amazon a while back?


if i remember correctly they broke off in order to compete....

[NateSean]

I was going to start a new thread, but I decided I'd just bump this one again. At work someone cried foul about the Kindle destroying books again and how it was responsibile for Borders closing.

Growing up I remember three video stores in my town. Actually, there were a couple popular ones in North Adams as well where I spent a chunk of my childhood. Some lasted quite a while, others have long since closed.

But the more recent stores I used to rent videos from have been closed in the last five years specifically. Why? Because Netflix was the more convenient option for renting videos and was increasing in popularity.

Did you notice that no one cried foul when thousands of privately owned video stores went out of business because of Netflix?

Mind you, I'm not blaming Netflix. I personally loved it back when I could afford it because like my family and quite a few people, I could get all of my favorite TV shows on DVD. But there's no denying that the convenience and speed of Netflix caused the brick and mortar video rental stores to lose profit. So how come there was no uproar over that, but when yet another corporate chain goes out of business it's a nationwide scandal?

[tabbyblack13]

I own a Kindle and I love it. I can buy a lot of books and have them in one device. I admit that I have not been in a Boarders since I graduated college because there where no stores here. There is a used book store and a Barns and Noble here. I'm not big into the online shopping so I would rather go to the store to pick it up.

I think there were many reasons why Boarders when under.

[anakhouri]

I work in an independent bookstore that is surviving by the skin of its teeth. Customers often comment that e-books are killing bookstores.

I tell them no, e-books are still a pretty limited market. Amazon put our sales in the toilet long ago, and continues to hold our head under the water. I often see customers come in, look at books, write titles on their pads (or Smartphones) and walk out without buying anything. Because they are making lists of things to purchase on Amazon.

That and the fact that 1 out of 4 Americans didn't read a single book last year (and bad business decisions. We are opening a new store in an old Borders location, and while they were clearing out they found books that had been on the shelf for 2 YEARS. At my store things stay a maximum of 9 months; they don't sell, they're gone to make room for something more marketable.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, I was gonna suggest the same thing. I feel pretty confident that Kindle is not killing bookstores. However, I think Amazon has been doing some major damage to them.

A brick and mortar store just cannot compete. They have overhead they have to pay for. Amazon can speed a book to me in a day or two, and usually for no shipping and a substantial discount on the price. And way more people use Amazon to buy hardcopy books than that do all their reading on a Kindle. My eighty+ year old MIL regularly buys books off of Amazon with no help from anyone. When it's that mainstream, it's going to change things.

I put on my pajamas, get a glass of wind, and order a book. In a day or two, the Magical Box Fairies bring it to my door and hand it to me.

I go to a Barnes and Nobles or whatever, I have to drive there. I have to go in, find my book, stand in line to buy it, pay more money for it than I would have if I'd just ordered it online, and then get harassed repeatedly to get a rewards card while I'm trying to pay. Then I have to drive home.

It simply does not make sense to go to a bookstore anymore.

[insertNameHere]

It simply does not make sense to go to a bookstore anymore.

Pretty much. Had I not found a discount coupon for the battery store I just went to it would have ran me $95 for the same thing WITH shipping I could get for $78.. ended up costing me $85 after the discount and for the fact I got them same day and now my UPS is functional. If they didn't have a coupon and I wasn't leaving town for 9months I probably would have ordered online and waited. Same thing with computer stores around here they have the same stuff they did 2-5years ago at those same rates, To hard to compete with newegg on product costs. Why buy a 80GB driver for the same price I can get a 500GB or larger

[Evandril]

It simply does not make sense to go to a bookstore anymore.

The reasons to go to a bookstore is to talk to the people there, browse the books, see what's out, and what's coming out. Of course, all of the above require a *good* bookstore, which is less common as of late. Tattered Cover (A MUST visit if you ever make it to Denver) has actually opened new stores in the last few years, though they open them VERY slow, and take care in picking location (One is in an old theater), stock and employees (They hire, in order of preference, English students, knowledgeable students, English graduates, ect) and have the best customer service I've ever seen.