Borders files for bankruptcy, to close 200 stores

Bookseller Borders, which helped pioneer superstores that put countless mom-and-pop bookshops out of business, filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, sunk by crushing debt and sluggishness in adapting to a rapidly changing industry.

The 40-year-old company plans to close about 200 of its 642 stores over the next few weeks. All of the stores closed will be superstores, Borders spokeswoman Mary Davis said. The company also operates smaller Waldenbooks and Borders Express stores.

Borders Group Inc. President Mike Edwards said in a written statement that cautious consumer spending, negotiations with publishers and other vendors and a lack of liquidity made it clear Borders "does not have the capital resources it needs to be a viable competitor."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41536256/ns/business-retail/?GT1=43001

In bankruptcy other creditors will attempt to make unredeemed gift cards considered an unsecured creditor and move them to the bottom of the list. Then request the judge prevent Borders from paying those unsecured creditors (allow people to redeem cards).

If you have a card SPEND IT NOW!

Their Borders Rewards program allowed me some great deals. Loved to take the kids and spend a Saturday afternoon there. Hope my area isn't targeted.

Edit: YES! We're not on the list, woo-hoo!!

La Habra
Pico Rivera
Cerritos

But sadly, the store that is a mall anchor in my hometown is on the list.

Just one more kick in the balls to that community.

I prefer it to Barnes and Noble, which we also have, though I miss the local competitor that closed down a few years ago :(

I'm sorry I accidentally hit unrec! I feel like a weasel now. :-( Sorry!!

I like borders, but I also like my local mom and pop stores... the ones that borders helped kill.

But my local borders is not on the list. I like the place for the cafe... in the afternoons.

But I live in Whittier.

There be book stores here.

I'll be happy to learn how to do it old-school again.

Sucks all those kids have to lose their jobs, though.

We use Borders for new releases and magazines and go to mom and pop for used books. Most of the mom and pop shops are used books now anyway.

With 5 readers in my house used books are the only way to keep reading new stuff and not go broke :)

Recently we have stopped buying hardcovers as we can't afford them..

stores here called Half Priced Books and don't need the stink of a mega book dispenser that cannot come up with a winning business plan.

PLEASE DON'T BAIL THEM OUT. Just kidding, they sell books not stocks so no worries.

but between Amazon and e-books I fear most local & chain bookstores will be put out of business.

hand and the fact that everyone in the store has an interesting story to tell. I wish they would add some tables and chairs to their stores. I remember when I was a kid and running around in the Half Priced Books store in downtown Houston...they sold Mad magazine and they had a gazillion of them! :) I even worked at one for a few weeks...kinda wish I would have stayed and not moved on to what I thought was a 'better job'. Really great people and amazing selection of books. Still have an original Egyptian Book of the Dead that I got at one decades ago. No telling how much it is worth (I wanted to learn how to read hieroglyphics).

but that is small comfort. Borders is the only bookstore within 100 miles of me, and I worked there when it was still Waldenbooks. Great people there, and there are really no other jobs in town. Sure, I can buy books from Amazon, but it won't be the same and I would hate to live in a town with no bookstore.

Which is too bad even though we still have a fine independent bookstore and more Barnes and Nobles than you can shake a stick at. While shopping for books online is fine, it's the discovery of something that you weren't looking for that makes the loss of just about any bookstore something to be mourned.

Back in the mid 80's they opened a store in my 'hood in Oakland and proceeded to sue the small, AWESOME indie bookstore around the corner for taking the name Walden Pond, even though Walden Pond was there 10 years before them.

Walden Pond is still there. :P

for corporate/big-box Emeryville next door. :eyes:

the special price. Just give everyone the special price and we'll buy from you rather than Amazon.

I have backed out of at least a handful of orders over the past year when they quoted me one price with the card and wanted to sell it to me for so much more without the card. It works at my local grocery store but not online where other options are so prevalent.

which is sad because I actually like it better than Barnes & Noble -- although I buy my books more at B&N because it's closer to where I live. This actually may help Anchorage's great local used book seller, Title Wave http://www.wavebooks.com/, which has managed to survive the big-box influx and actually prosper.