Borders Bookstore.

Borders.

Borders is a 'large bricks and mortar' bookstore that has recently gone into Administration. As I understand it, this means that they are unable to pay their ongoing debts and need to pay back the money they owe, so they have handed over the business to an administrator who will try and recoup as much money from the sale of assets as possible.

Borders has an online component to the business as well, and I'm not sure if this will affect that too, of if they are two separate entities.

Personally, I like Borders. I have always liked the way the stores are laid out, not to mention how big they are. Entering a store always feels more like going into a library rather than a bookstore. This is in part to their policy which allows you to go in and read a book before you decide if you want to buy it. I've been to many bookstores that don't allow this and I always feel like when they ask me if I need any help, what they are actually trying to say is 'Just buy the book or get out'. Borders never made me feel that way.

Until recently, a few of the stores had a fully functioning coffee store inside, with tables and chairs around where you could read any book while enjoying a beverage. This has always been one of the great things about this chain and it will be sad when they close the doors for the last time.
The other great thing I liked about Borders is that they are among the few non-niche bookstores that source and sell Manga. All of it is in English too (the only exception being a few titles that are specifically for non-english readers). There are also a lot of graphic novels stocked too which you would only usually be able to see in smaller stores or comic book stores, and every comic store I've been to has been small, cramped, and smelly.

The good:
- Freedom. Able to read any book without being harrassed or made to feel like a free-loader. This actually made me want to enter the store regardless of if I was particularly looking for a book or not, and usually ended up in a sale.

- Range. The range of books has always been good. Much better than other stores due to the larger floorspace. Also allowed for more non-book items like boardgames and CDs/DVDs.

- Instore Coffee stand. Strategic placing of Borders stores around shopping centrers where there are other activities, such as movies and bowling, meant that you could plan to meet there, and while you wait have something to do. It might be inconvenient for me to buy a book while I waited 15 minutes and then have to carry it with me, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy a coffee and a muffin before a movies and grab a book to read. After the movie, I may end up going back to buy that book.

- Price. As of the adminitration anouncement, Borders have been selling everything in their store. Everything. Books, games, shelves, chairs, computers, displays, posters, magazines, trolleys, everything. They've also slashed prices by up to 50% so getting a hardcopy of something that previously put you off by the price is now a no-brainer(if someone hasn't already taken what little copies there are left).

The bad:
- Sometimes, their open atmosphere was taken advantage of by genuine freeloaders. Most of them are OK, but there were times when you would get the odd troublemaker, spoiling the experience for everyone. This wasn't often, but it wouldn't happen at a regular bookstore.

- Heating. Trying to create a cozy atmosphere in a store that large means there are going to be compromises in climate control in certain areas of the store. Unfortunaltey, these always seem to be located right under the Manga section and the computer book sections, so nerds like me got sweaty a lot.

- Goodbye. The fact that ereaders and tablet devices have made reading digital content more accessible has made real book sales take a dive. Large floorspace stores like Borders have huge rents, and the larger number than normal staff all need to be paid. Recently, even Borders have been offering an ereader branded the Kobo (which a friend of mine owns and works wonderfully). They also had the Sony ereader for sale at a few stores.

Conclusion:
As of writing, Borders is currently still open, but going into finale Administration soon. It is one of the best bookstore chains I have ever shopped at and it will be sad to see them go.
They did have a go at getting into elecrtonic distribution but I think they got into the game just a but too late and with such a large backlog of stock, it just isn't going to survive in it's current form.
That being said, I really hope something comes out of this, or another store opens up to fill the gap that Borders leaves behind. I would love if they could take the best parts of what Borders is, which is the freedom and the atmosphere, and migrate that across to the electronic book distribution scene.
I was speaking with a work colleague the other day and we came up with a few napkin ideas, such as making the coffee bar the central theme of the 'store' and have wifi acess to customers with free ebooks to read while within the wifi radius.
For those people with no device of their own, a separate section where they provide wired devices that basically offer the same thing at no extra charge to the customer. Apart from the inital cost, there would be not much maintenance, and the coffee part of the business would have minimal additional training requirements for staff, with the possible exception of a technical person on hand or on call if something goes pear-shaped. They could leverage that staff member too by offering technical support for customers' with ereader questions issues.

They could also still have various ereaders available for sale and do offers with pre-loaded books to make theirs more attractive than online or other standalone retail ereaders. I think giving the customer the option of buying the book at a reduced rate than elsewhere online might also be a good incentive. Deals like coffee plus the morning paper to download onto your device while you wait would be awesome.

Rating: 9/10 (as far as book stores go).