They state:
Borders is the third largest bookstore chain in the US, one of the original big box superstores that offered consumers thousands of books and music CDs in a single location....In addition to changing the way Americans shop for and read books, Amazon and e-books also undersell Borders’ traditional bricks-and-mortar offerings, a double-whammy to the original big box superstore that once led the market....One possible upside? The demise of superstore booksellers could revitalize the neighborhood bookstore.
Let's look a bit at this.
1. I do not read E books, mainly because I use books to create not to just enjoy. I have not read a novel in a decade at least, yet read at least 400-500 books, in pieces, per year. Many are electronic but I need a markable copy. Electronic books are essential, and unfortunately the old books scanned in by Google in pdf are not readable or searchable pdf, real pity. But many of what I have are, and when I place a work in progress on line it is searchable pdf.
2. I get most new books from Amazon, almost all, and frankly a lot more recently. This past year has been a big jump. Remember to pay your sales taxes. I do. But that means also that Amazon sells milk as well as books, and lawnmowers as well as magazines. What will that do to say Home Depot as well as Borders.
3. I get most old books from ABEBooks, a great source to find the oldies. There are of course others.
4. I visit the used book stores, you never know what you may find. It let's you see things you have not even thought of, I wrote a whole book on the early 7th century from stumbling on a paperback in a great bookstore in Henniker, NH.
5. Local bookstores with new books are often rare as hen's teeth, just look at Harvard Square, it was once filled with them. Yet a few remain, there is a good one in Princeton.
6. Academic books are a menace to the economy. Why in God's name do we need a new edition of an economics book as touted by my second favorite economist from Cambridge. What has changed, they are still ignorant of how the economy works, so why issue a new edition, use Keynes, at least you are at the source, and frankly not much has changed. There should be no need for 30 pound college and high school texts.
So what is the future of a Borders, probably not much, they were a deer in the head lights. Pity.
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