The final nail in the coffin for Borders stores?
April 4th, 2008 | by mbhunter |Borders Books and Music is starting to close up shop where we are. It made an announcement two weeks ago that it could put itself up for sale and has lined up financing to continue operations.
Tuesday, Amazon.com announced TextBuyIt, a text-messaging service that gives pricing information for books, DVDs, and CDs off of Amazon.com, and then allows the user to buy them. Now with just a plain old cell phone it’s possible to see immediately how much cheaper that book is on Amazon. Right in the store. No waiting for that internet connection!
Brick and mortar booksellers have been getting hammered by web retailers and discount stores like Wal-Mart. Since a new book is a new book is a new book, price is really the only consideration. More and more people know this, and will hold off buying the book in the store in order to get it cheaper online. (After checking out the book in the store, of course.)
Borders has teamed up with Amazon.com, but the stores are marginally useful in the evolving business of bookselling. Sure, customers can check out books up-close and personally in the stores, but they can also just read the whole thing without buying it. A lot of the offerings on Amazon.com have previews of the content, which serves much the same purpose, but also prevents freeloaders from reading but not purchasing.
It’s better for the seller’s bottom line to do it the Amazon way: browse online, and ship, without all of those buildings to maintain. At some point it may be the only way. And Amazon is speeding that transition.
17 Responses to “The final nail in the coffin for Borders stores?”
By R on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply
There will always be a pretty big number of people that will shop and purchase instore goods. The same thing could be said about most goods other than groceries; Its nice to physically browse but its usually cheaper online. For most the “wait” factor is not worth the savings, you only save money with amazon if you use standard shipping or slower which may take 3-6 business days to get to your home. It all depends on the value you place on time.
By Mr. Stupid on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply
If you compare the price of a book at Borders and the price of the same book at Amazon, plus shipping charges, it usually works out to about the same, and in some cases, works out in Border’s favor. I wonder if the TextBuyIt service also tells you how much shipping will be.
Of course, there are ways to squeeze every ounce of value out of your Amazon purchases:
http://stupidmoneyhacks.com/?p=28
-Mr. Stupid
By FFB on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply
It’s a shame if Border’s can’t stick around. Personally I love going to book stores to see and feel the books. I even like the way they smell (maybe that has to do with the Starbucks in our Barnes and Noble?). BUT, I do tend to check the book out at the store then see if I can get it cheaper online. Book stores need to find a better discount plan. Why pay full price?
As for shipping that was mentioned above, Amazon usually has free shipping if you order $25 of stuff. If there’s a book I want I’ll wait until there’s other things I need to order to get the free shipping.
By Aryn on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply
If Borders goes out of business, I will be sad. Even looking at books at Amazon isn’t the same as getting to actually flip through it – especially for non-fiction like cookbooks and travel books.
By Mrs. Micah on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply
I enjoy Borders for our date nights. We buy coffee and browse various books. I’ve even bought a few books…though mostly through Amazon. I suppose they can’t credit one to the other.
By Jerry on Apr 4, 2008 | Reply
While I love and support most bookstores, I absolutely loathe college bookstores and the ridiculous mark-up on textbooks. I will avoid buying books there if at all possible, and find the internet to be a last bastion of sanity in a market which rapidly leads to obscene budgets for college books. All I want is some insurance that I am paying a fair price for a text, and not being taken to the cleaners because I am trying to learn and better myself.
Jerry
http://www.leads4insurance.com
By ajeh on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply
The Borders in my area closed a little more than a month ago. The “store closing” sale was awesome.
By John M on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply
I don’t believe bookstore will completely die out. This is one area where a smaller store with mostly new titles should do better. Borders will be unable to change to this type of format because the stores are just to large. I hate browsing through amazon, and the department store collection of books is small at most places. I would love a revival of the neighborhood bookstore/coffee shop.
By Chief Family Officer on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply
It’s not hard to understand why the brick & mortar bookstores aren’t doing well. Where else do you walk in and find yourself face to face with the clearance (bargain books) section? Sure, they’re getting hit hard by competition, but I’m equally certain there are many things they could change internally that would result in greater sales.
By kitty on Apr 6, 2008 | Reply
I’d hate to see our Broders close. I mostly buy on amazon, but their cafe is a nice place to meet people – as Mrs Micah said. Especially good for “first dates”. I like to browse books as well, and very occasionally I might buy something.
Not sure how they are doing in our town. When the Borders opened a number of small bookstores went out of business. So, I guess this would be poetic justice. Still I’d be sad. Maybe they’ll stay here – this is an expensive area with some seriously rich people. Not sure if these seriously rich people visit Borders. Will see.
By Anitra on Apr 8, 2008 | Reply
I like brick-and-mortar bookstores (and they should like me); almost every time I walk into one, I walk out with an impulse-bought book. With Amazon, I put things on my wishlist and keep them there for months or years before I decide to spend the money.
However, my favorites are used booksellers, and there aren’t many of those in my area – a local comic/game shop that has a back wall of used sci-fi, and some of the local libraries sell used books to raise money.
By Ezra on Apr 10, 2008 | Reply
As far as price, even if the total price after shipping in most cases is the same whether you buy it online or at a brick and mortar, the company isn’t so much interested in how much they can sell it for but how much money the company can make while selling it at a price.
A warehouse fairly near a publshing company, or even better a good supply arrangement where online company X actually has no stock and does little more than act as the middle man, simply sending an order to the publisher/supplier who then ships it directly to the customer is much less expensive than leasing retail space in an area people want to go (e.g., near a mall where the montly lease price is near ridiculous). This means that the online retailer has much higher profit margins, which is what business is concerned with. Once consumers realize that businesses will only sell you something if they can make a profit off it, which is after they pay the building lease and for the chairs and tables you sit at while browsing their books for a date, perhaps they’ll stop complaining about price so much. If what you like is the ability to go on a date and use their facilities and the atmosphere, you should be prepared to pay extra for it.
By Michele on Apr 12, 2008 | Reply
My mother’s bookstore closed a month ago. I wrote about it in my livejournal and posted it on a local newspaper website.
http://www.recordpub.com/news/simple_article/3543912
I am not surprised its happening.. but its sad nonetheless.
By G on Nov 10, 2008 | Reply
Amazon has tons of used books – Borders doesn’t! I have purchased books ranging from Harback to college textbooks that were priced as little as a penny and no more than $15.00 (compared to $65 pricetag at Borders). The combined price and shipping has never been close to equal the price without taxes at Borders! As far as shipping goes, alkmost always use standard shipping and always have the item within the week I order it – I simply choose a seller in the same state!
By Kevin on Jan 4, 2009 | Reply
I had a feeling big store chained bookstores were eventually going to see their decline. The book business has changed. Now authors are selling their own books. Most deals can be found online for less than half the price that Borders or a Barnes and Nobles sells it for. Sure some people love to browse, but not enough to keep the chain bookstores in business. Yeah they’re browsing, but rarely buying anything. It’s cheaper to go online and the selection is much more vast online. You can find things you can’t find in these corporate bookstores.
By Tyler on Jan 4, 2009 | Reply
Those that commented on here about loving Borders only said they love browsing the aisles of books and being able to see them and touch them and enjoy the store on dates etc., but no one eluded to being willing to buy the books to keep them in business, which it shows as the corporate bookstores have been now losing millions of dollars each year and growing, because the market is changing. People order there stuff on line now, and Amazon is much cheaper. I don’t know how much people pay on shipping, but I’ve only paid a couple dollars. A book in Borders is $24.95 new and then on Amazon it’s $12.95 new, sorry going with Amazon.
By Elizabeth Karan on Nov 30, 2009 | Reply
I have been trying to use a Borders gift certificate, and every time I go to their on line store I just can’t do it because their books are 10 to 15 bucks more expensive than Amazon. For example, today’s search was 26.37 free shipping at Amazon, 28.76 free shipping at Barnes and Noble and 39.95 free shipping at Borders. That’s an outrageous difference! Where would you order from? Actually, I bought a slightly used copy for even less at Half.com.