Sunday, July 24, 2011

Borders Books: The End Of An Era

I was surprised to hear this week that Borders Books was unable to find someone to buy the company and ultimately decided to liquidate and go out of business after 40 years in business.   I learned from my dad to love books and spent many hours at older bookstore chains like B-Dalton and Waldenbooks when I was young.

When the older bookstore chains closed down in the Bay Area, I started buying books online from Amazon and other locations.  It was quick and convenient to just order.  However, I soon realized that ordering online had it's pitfalls.  You couldn't really read the book and you had to wait a few days for the book to arrive.

Within the past five years or so, I began going to Borders (and Barnes and Noble to a certain extent) to read various books and magazines in my spare time.  Borders became a home away from home.  It was great to peruse through various books, magazines and comics.  I admit that I didn't always buy stuff while I was at the store.  I think a lot of people did the same and that is perhaps why Borders struggled in recent years.

In addition, the rise of electronics books was probably most damaging.   People were able to buy e-books much more quicker than buying from Amazon and that hurt stores like Borders.  In fact, up until the past three weeks or so, I was never an e-book reader.  However, due to circumstances, I wanted to pick up a few books to read.  There was no bookstore around AND I had some online credit from Apple.  I ended up buying a few e-books and now reading some things from my phone.

All in all, it is a sad time that Borders is closing.  I guess I'll have to go to Barnes and Noble and perhaps my local library instead.