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NEWS: Borders Lays Off 10% of Its Corporate Workforce




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FeralKat



Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 402
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:18 am Reply with quote
Well, I saw this coming. Sad My heart goes out to all the employees that were laid off.
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TatsuGero23



Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 1277
Location: Sniper Island, USA (It's in your heart!)
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:22 am Reply with quote
Ah Michigan... nothing but trouble.
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TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 4020
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 12:55 am Reply with quote
Crying or Very sad
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504NOSON2
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Joined: 28 Jul 2008
Posts: 647
Location: Body:Santa Barbara, CA ~ Heart:New Orleans, LA
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:13 am Reply with quote
Hope Answerman doesn't lose his job. Which one is it that he works for again? Borders or Barns? Bad news anyway. Sad
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LordRobin



Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 354
Location: Akron, OH
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 8:49 am Reply with quote
Borders is, sadly, a store that lost its way. I remember the first time I visited a Borders, in 1994. A friend and I spent 90 minutes in the store, and we both walked out with a book we never expected to be able to find. Fast-forward 15 years and Borders is more-or-less just a big bookstore. That "you never know what you will find" magic is gone.

What's depressing is how the store has attempted to deal with its troubles. Instead of finding a way of recapturing the magic that made its store a destination, they just cut, cut, cut. We're losing the Borders closest to us, but I can't say I'm surprised, because last year they removed the video and music section and replaced it with... nothing. Just moved the shelves around to fill up the space. Now, to be fair, the neighboring unit has been vacant since CompUSA went belly-up, which probably hurt the traffic to the store, but that hasn't stopped Hobby Lobby from being ready to move in as soon as Borders leaves.

My wife and I like getting manga at Borders, so this is a royal bummer. But there's still the huge Barnes and Noble up the street, Amazon.com, and ordering from our local comic shop.

------RM
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 25 Oct 2003
Posts: 7583
Location: Wales
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:20 am Reply with quote
I assume that's not including closing ever Borders store in the UK just before Christmas..
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Jaymie



Joined: 18 Jun 2009
Posts: 915
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:44 am Reply with quote
Soon bookstores will be a thing of the past. It's unfortunate, but Amazon has a wider selection and better prices overall, so it's not completely terrible for the buyers out there.
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thefuturemrsuzumaki



Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Posts: 105
Location: Saint Charles, Illinois
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 10:48 am Reply with quote
This depresses me. Borders was a place where I could go with my cheapskate father and actually be allowed to buy some manga (granted that they were having a sale or if it was Christmas/my birthday). Now the only bookstore that I'll have is Barnes & Noble, and they hardly ever have sales on manga. They don't even have as much manga as Borders does. And Borders even goes so far as to sell Pocky, Yan-Yan, Soul Candy (from Bleach), and a host of other otaku snacks; not to mention they'll sell plushies, anime t-shirts, notebooks with anime characters on it, pencil sharpeners of Negima! or Soul Eater...the list could go on. But now it's all going away thanks to this horrible economy.

I think it's safe to say we can blame it on our previous president. >.>

[[And...not every kid's parent is gonna let them buy countless books on Amazon; my parents are very stingy when it comes to purchasing things online.]]
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MagicallyDelicious



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 157
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:50 pm Reply with quote
TheFutureMrs.Uzumaki wrote:
This depresses me. Borders was a place where I could go with my cheapskate father and actually be allowed to buy some manga (granted that they were having a sale or if it was Christmas/my birthday). Now the only bookstore that I'll have is Barnes & Noble, and they hardly ever have sales on manga. They don't even have as much manga as Borders does. And Borders even goes so far as to sell Pocky, Yan-Yan, Soul Candy (from Bleach), and a host of other otaku snacks; not to mention they'll sell plushies, anime t-shirts, notebooks with anime characters on it, pencil sharpeners of Negima! or Soul Eater...the list could go on. But now it's all going away thanks to this horrible economy.

I think it's safe to say we can blame it on our previous president. >.>

[[And...not every kid's parent is gonna let them buy countless books on Amazon; my parents are very stingy when it comes to purchasing things online.]]


The Borders Express here USED to sell plushies and wall scrolls. But they stopped, a long time ago. They do still have a small selection of candy, but the manga section at my Borders has been shrinking, to the point where half of the releases I want aren't even in stock. I can never find NANA or We Were There, for example. All they have on major display is half a shelf of Naruto.

I do honestly prefer Borders to Barnes and Nobles, but I have to say the last time I was in a B&N, they had more anime related stuff than Borders.
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EricDent



Joined: 28 May 2008
Posts: 997
Location: Georgetown, TX
PostPosted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:31 pm Reply with quote
The weird thing about moving to a totally new state is the sheer lack of bookstores in general in the Austin area. They only have about 2 Barnes & Nobles within decent driving distance from where I live. Yet the only Borders (not counting the Express that allready closed) is at least an hour away...

I do prefer Borders, since I am a member of their club, and don't want to spend $ 25 a year just to get a measly 10% off at B&N.

However since it is so far away, I very rarely shop there...
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SnaphappyFMA



Joined: 14 Jan 2009
Posts: 216
Location: California
PostPosted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:46 pm Reply with quote
Sorry to hear about this. Hope it isn't the beginning of the end for Borders.

The Borders stores in my area have begun adding a lot of anime-related merchandise, all from Viz (notebooks, pencils, bookmarks, gel pens etc. - all Naruto, Bleach, Inuyasha, Ouran, Soul Eater, Fruits Basket). That's in addition to the Pocky and ramune and plushies they were selling before. It's nice to see them expand in this way. The economy may be picking up at this point, so it would be good if Borders could just make it through this period and survive to see better times. Smile
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