I stopped by the Borders liquidation sale after work yesterday. To be perfectly honest, it was in part to extend the amount of time I’d be able to stay in air-conditioned comfort. I told myself I could check cookbooks (I decided to go for canning), and craft books, as well as magazines. Anything else, I can find for much better value online.
And that’s really the problem, isn’t it? There was a time, that when the BF and I didn’t have any set plans for a Friday night, and we wanted to get out of the house, we’d head to Borders. We even christened it the Evil Place, because it was such a time suck. But I’ll admit, it was mostly a time, not money, suck. I long ago went over to using Amazon for the times when I want to buy a new book. When I’m buying new, it’s usually a hardcover, and or larger paperback, and from a strictly economic standpoint, I’d be an idiot to pay full price, when I can get them well-discounted online. Borders became my stop for pre-approving book purchases. If I liked what I saw, they often went on a list for future buying or gift-requesting. They didn’t often leave the store with me (magazines are a different story. I definitely bought my fair share of magazines from that place.)
I’m actually pretty lucky – our Borders is one of, if not the, busiest stores in the chain in New England. From what I understand, their lease had some stipulations that effectively kept the other large chains out the Maine Mall area. With them now gone, if we don’t have a Barnes and Noble up and running by Christmas, I’ll be flabbergasted. So my chain bookstore options should continue.
But it’s made me think about a few things. We do still have some local bookshops in the area – both general and specialty. If internet sales can sink one of the largest chains in the country, I think I owe it my indies to make sure they don’t follow. Being a responsible consumer these days is hard. As much as I love the internet, and the globalization it allows, it does sometimes make me wonder how it’s effecting us on a local level. I think someday we’ll have shaken all these issues out, but in the meantime, it sometimes seems like no buying option is entirely a good one. You can either save money, or save local jobs. I just hope we someday get to a point where that choice is no longer an issue.
8/27/11 Notes
Borders is up to 50% off, and drew BF and me with its siren song last night. I decided to restrict myself to cookbooks, craft books, and fantasy/scifi that I’ve actually wanted to read, in that order.
I lucked out with two cookbooks I’ve had one my want list for a while (saw one other that I couldn’t quite justify buying because it was more of a nice to read but I’ll probably never cook from it book). Sadly, the craft section was well picked over. But, I managed four books out of the fantasy section – one I read and loved, but had borrowed, two more in a series I’d already started, and one by an author I like.
BF managed three graphic novels to fill in holes in his collection, and a cookbook he was interested in, so it was a fruitful trip.
We also heard this week that Books a Million has bought out the lease here, so we will be getting a new bookstore (I imagine they’ll be in by Christmas. They’d be idiots not to.) I’ve never been in one of their stores before, so I’ll be interested to see how different it’ll be.
2023 Note: Tried BAM once. Was not impressed. They’re still around, but we’ve never been back. We transferred the “Evil Place” title to Bull Moose music when they added books to their Scarborough and SoPo locations.