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Feb
17
Get Thee to a Bookery! [or Borders Went Belly-Up. Now What?]
2011 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Borders announced that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday (after 2010 losses topping $168 million) and will close 200 stores within the next few weeks (with potentially another 75 to follow), and of course, the interweb is aflurry with opinions and obituaries and cries of “it’s the end of publishing!” This comes as no surprise to those of us who live our lives in the online book community and follow industry news, but for normal readers nationwide, I imagine it is quite a shock.
In fact, I know it is because I’ve been hearing from folks who had no idea that Borders—or the industry as a whole, for that matter—was in any kind of trouble. And that indicates that it might be high time for publishers and booksellers (and bloggers, hi!) to make a more concerted effort to educate their consumers and communities.
And THAT is why, even though I don’t normally wade into the blood-filled waters of blogging about topics with potential for drama, I’m going to share my take on this situation. I’m willing to bet it’s not entirely what you’re expecting. Especially if what you’re expecting is a cheer for the death of a big box store. It’s no secret that I am an ardent and outspoken supporter of independent bookstores, but Borders’ failure isn’t good for anyone (well, anyone but Amazon, really), and here’s why.
Borders is made up of people. People who now, through no wrongdoing of their own (excepting the folks whose royal fuckups got the company into this situation) are out of a job. People who are passionate about books and who want to see the reading community thrive. It’s a sad day anytime thousands of people lose their jobs, and when those jobs involve helping readers discover and connect with books, the loss is devastating for both the individuals and their communities.
(More on Anna’s take here.)
The loss is also devastating for publishers, particularly small and independent presses, who count on big customers like Borders to pay their bills. Nobody wins here, y’all. Not other chains, whose relationships with publishers will be affected by Borders’ failure. Not the independent bookstores, who are now going to hear from publishers about every last cent they owe. Not readers. Not authors. And certainly not people for whom Borders IS the local bookstore. Where are those people supposed to go for books now?
And that question brings me to the moment where I hope you’ll permit me a few minutes on my soapbox.
We do an awful lot of talking in this bookish community about how much we love bookstores. About how they provide us with something we can’t get anywhere else. About how we can’t imagine a world without them. And that’s all fine and good. I share the sentiment, and I’m happy to engage in a good bookstore lovefest every now and then. But what I want is this: a little less conversation and a hell of a lot more action. Brick-and-mortar bookstores are not a given. We cannot assume their existence and survival. We can’t save them singlehandedly—of course, OF COURSE, bookstores have to innovate and work to attract customers who can so easily go online. Of. Course.—but we can’t expect them to hang around just to make us feel warm and fuzzy with the knowledge that they exist.
If price and delivery speed are all you care about when you’re buying books, well, then, that’s your little red wagon to pull. I know there are people for whom that’s the case (you might very well be one), and I know they will continue to go online—to retailers who often use books as a loss leader and in order to get book shoppers to stay and buy other, more expensive items— to purchase books. I don’t like it, but that’s the reality. The reality that indicates our concept of the meaning and value of a book is changing, but the reality nonetheless. I get it.
But if you want something more from the book buying experience—face-to-face interaction, personal relationships, hand-selected recommendations from people who know you, author events, and community engagement—it’s time to put your money where your mouth is and spend your book dollars in an actual bookstore. In my ideal world, we could all do this in an independent bookstore, but if your only local option is a chain store, or if the local store that makes you feel most welcome and best meets your needs is a chain store, go there. Think about what it would mean to not have the option of going there anymore. Think about it every time you buy a book.
It’s a cliche to say that we vote with our wallets, but it’s true. Consumers play a role in determining businesses’ success and survival. We may not be sitting in the boardroom calling the shots, and we couldn’t have prevented this from happening to Borders by ourselves, but we may be able to help preserve the stores that have made it this far.
If bookstores matter—and I think they do, very much—then where we buy our books matters, and it’s time we started acting like it.
Related posts:
I hear ya sister. In Orlando we had ONE indie bookstore that went out of business a year ago. Since then (and even before that) I spent my money at a Borders about a mile or two from my house, which now will be closing. There isn’t another one even remotely close. So, I guess it will be the Barnes & Noble that is close to my kids’ school? Even more devastating to me was the news that the Borders near my parents’ place in IN is closing, and that store was right smack in the middle of Purdue University! WTF? I contributed to that one too!
Sandy´s last [type] ..Monday Movie Meme – Show Me the Money
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rebecca Schinsky, S N Williams. S N Williams said: RT @bookladysblog: Get Thee to a Bookery! [or Borders Went Belly-Up. Now What?] http://su.pr/2RWq4y [...]
Borders’ bankruptcy will have an effect on the book industry, but I’m optimistic for the future of booksales. I wrote about this on my site, but you bring up other points. You’re right that people vote with their wallet, and that means the best stores get the most business. People also choose the service they want and the options today are greater than ever before. Online buying, ebooks, and service are all parts of a successful bookstore, including the indie. An independent can’t, and shouldn’t compete with the big guys. We’ve always been a business that caters to our local community. I believe there could be a renaissance of independents, if the big box continues to close. I’ve also seen people take their local businesses for granted, then be surprised when a business closes. Maybe the loss of a Borders will wake them up and support, not just their independent bookstore, but the other local businesses.
Patrick´s last [type] ..January 19 – 21- 2011 Winter Institute Galley Room
Love your soapbox! I agree. We can’t just say we love our bookstores, indie or chain, we have to show it by getting out there and buying books. In this case, the action goes much farther than the word.
Shelly Burns´s last [type] ..Review- Tell the Truth BB Wolf
I am with you: it’s a sad day when thousands of book lovers/sellers lose their jobs. And i agree that it’s not really good for anyone that a huge number of bookstores closes.
I do put my money where my mouth is and buy my books locally – eight books in the last 5 days,thank you very much. I wish people would realize that giant online seller does absolutely nothing for their community – no jobs, no taxes, no nothing.
Eight books in the last five days is impressive! Rock on, Kathy.
Patrick, I sincerely hope you’re right about the renaissance of independents. That would be marvelous.
i was listening to a story about this on NPR yesterday until they interviewed a guy who admitted did most of his shopping on amazon, but liked to go to borders occasionally to check out books face-to-face. i very forcibly turned the radio off.
Looking at that list of closing Borders stores makes my heart hurt. One of my favorite things to do is hang out in a book store.
Selena Blake´s last [type] ..Guest Blogging at Tara Nichols’ blog
Rebecca, I believe it for two reasons. One More Page opened in Arlington, VA., and I’m about to open Novel Places in Clarksburg, MD. That’s two new bookstores in the D.C. area, where the big box ruled for a lot of years in the suburbs. In my county, Montgomery, only a handful of religious bookstores, and a couple of used bookstores exist. That’s with a population of 1 million. The second reason is one of my online customers. She’s in Massachusetts and her local indie closed. She refused to go to B&N and found me online. She’s now my biggest customer because of the personal service. See you on Twitter, @NovelBooks
Patrick´s last [type] ..January 19 – 21- 2011 Winter Institute Galley Room
Testify! I know my local indie, Fountain Bookstore, has similar customers, and I’ve heard the same from folks who call Rainy Day Books in Kansas City from hundreds of miles away because of the relationships they have with the booksellers. Would love to hear more stories like this and take them to the public.
It’s like people who stand in an indie bookstore and say, “No, don’t bother ordering it for me. I just got it from Amazon on my phone.” NOOOOOO.
I agree. Wholeheartedly. Yes.
Even about the part where we can’t do it single-handedly, though my credit union knows I try. I’m a bit of a bookshop whore. Well Read, Books & Books, Borders (until they lock the doors), Barnes & Noble, Murder by the Beach… Maybe I spread my love too thin, but they’ve all offered something different and they’ve often been the place I needed for that want/requirement at that moment.
I had to break the news to my boys yesterday that our Borders was closing. We are a family of avid readers, the type of family who will spend 3 hours in a bookstore and it feels as though 5 minutes has passed. We used to have wonderful Indie stores and we knew everyone and our children grew up in bookstores, not toy stores (yes, I took my children from babyhood on and they always behaved!). The Indie stores began shutting down and we were left with B&N, Borders and Half Priced Books. Half Priced Books relocated and now Borders is closing and one must ponder what will happen to B&N? This is a real fear. For six years I lived in no where Wyoming without a library or bookstore we had to travel to another state! Life without the luxuries of a bookstore are bleak, education and reading goes down and to be honest I am seriously concerned with the direction education is heading as a whole based on what is coming down from the Hill and what my husband is being told about research and teaching grants which are normally funded. It may appear as though I digresses, but in reality I think it is showing a trend in society to value reading/education far less. Yes people are shocked about Borders and I am saddened beyond words, yet mention the fact some people in Washington want to do away with the DOE and people say, “so” or “we need to cut spending” or worse, “what is the DOE”. I say enough. Libraries are struggling to stay a float in some states, bookstores are going under and legislation is not looking much better for education.
Yes, we as consumers need to fight back, we need to let people know we value reading and education. We need to support our local bookstores.
As for what Patrick wrote, I hope he is correct. I know from the two Indie stores I visited daily that went under the main reason was they could not pay the high taxes the city wanted.
Kathy- I think I spent about as much as you did on books this past week.
Jennifer´s last [type] ..Book Review- The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse
A couple of us were talking about it at the store last night – that so many booksellers who worked hard everyday and love books are going to be jobless very soon. Then we had some loser-bag come in, ask for a book, complain about the price in store vs online, say “nah, I’ll order it at AZN” then have the BALLS to ask us if we were happy Borders was going down the drain.
I have never wanted to smack someone so much in my life. I had to walk away.
I try VERY hard to shop locally for everything unless it becomes absolutely necessary to buy online (but then it’s usually Etsy). I’ve had this discussion many times with the owner of my local yarn store.
(Rebecca, I was actually shopping at our (somewhat famous) local indie one day and overheard a customer actually TELL the owner that they should really have better prices – like at Amazon….I had to collect my jaw off the floor. How rude can people be?)
MelissaW´s last [type] ..SAD- Promises like pie-crust
Price and delivery speed aren’t the most important things to me, but the first is quite a ways up on the list. I find myself at the discount/trade-in stores more than Borders any more because the price of paperbacks has risen so high with the proliferation of “trade paperbacks.” I’m not complaining, the publishers must have seen a reason to make the switch from $7 paperbacks to $15-18 paperbacks, but I’m sure they’ve also pushed a number of readers on the lower end of the financial spectrum out of their customer ranks.
I like Borders, I’ll continue to support them, and I hope they do well. At the same time, I would buy a lot more books if the price point was lower. And it’s not just a choice because I’m cheap, but a choice through necessity.
I have bought only indie for over a year in paper form. I have bought digital through B&N, now with Google e-books I am able to buy digital via my indie. I don’t mind the mark-up I know where the dollars go. It’s 6,000 jobs so far. 7 out of 10 of my local Borders.
Pam´s last [type] ..Review- Devil’s Kiss by Sarwat Chadda
Beautifully put, my friend.
Great post! My husband and I were just talking today about part of this. I drop lots of $$$ at bookstores despite all the books I get for “free” for review. I have a membership card at each of the 3 big chain stores in my area and they have each made comments about how much I’ve spent in a year, LOL.. It makes me really sad Borders is closing for all the reasons you mentioned.
It’s about time. Everytime you buy from Amazon, you are sourcing jobs and tax dollars from your community. Your neighbor doesn’t have a job? You don’t? Shouldn’t you spend your money where your house is?
Quick response to Art: When I worked at Borders and I knew we had the same title in trade or mass market, I would ask them, “Do you like to read, or do you love to read?” If you love to read and you buy a MM, the pages are going to be falling out of the book and the spine starts breaking down after reading a couple of times. The worst that happens when you love to read and you buy a trade, the cover flaps a bit – as is the case with my love to reads. I would rather be able to read a fave 20 times for 15.00 than twice for 7.99.
Now, on to Borders. I think that if they would have invested in marketing their e-readers they would have done a bit better with sales of them. People just weren’t aware that they even had an e-reader out. I’m glad that the store that I spent so much time in isn’t one of the ones to be closed. I’m sorry for all the booklovers that Borders employs that isn’t so lucky.
Thanks for writing this article, and for your continued support to the book-loving community!
I do my bit, for sure – I live that Erasmus quote – “If I have a little money I buy books; if there’s any left I pay rent and buy food.”
Last weekend I went to Borders deliberately to spend $100 on books and I did. I can’t really afford to; I’m only sporadically employed, but I just had to. Scared to death that store would close, as it has much beter stock on history, politics, art, and a bigger backlist of fiction.
That store was spared. I hope the chain survives without merging with B&N, because of the aforementioned better stock.
On the other hand, there are a lot of non-book items at Borders as well as B&N, and even at my only remaining indie. Rarely shop there, as they have focused on children’s books and local/regional stuff, which I’m usually not interested in.
As for trade versus mass market – well, mm would be preferable for me, since price is very important and I seldom re-read. Those few that I do re-read, I will buy in trade or HB version. But before the shift to trades, I bought 3 to 5 pb’s every paycheck. Now, I’m older with more responsibilities, but I just can’t do that anymore. With lower prices, I’d buy twice to three times as much,
The publishers have made as many stupid decisions as the chainstores, and the continual increase in price is a major idiocy.
Anyway, got a new job assignment for next week – will go back to the store when the paycheck comes in.
[...] industry folks, authors, bloggers, voracious readers – is buzzing with the news. Like Anna, Rebecca, and a ton of others, I’ll add my voice to the din. Hopefully, approaching Borders as someone [...]
[...] book-evangelizing people just lost their jobs as Borders is closing 200 stores. Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog has a great overview of what this all means and what book lovin’ people like ourselves can [...]
I do buy the majority of my books through actual bookstores. It varies between my B&N, local bookstore, and local used bookstore. Whenever I go on vacation I check out the local bookstores and always buy something. Sometimes I order online, it happens.
However, I think some bookstores (by no means all), or some booksellers, have begun to put less of an emphasis on customer relationships. This is really a shame because as the book blogging community shows: books are passed along by word-of-mouth and good relationships. Maybe it has something to do with the Internet. I feel like some booksellers think their customers just want to be left alone, or they themselves feel uncomfortable approaching customers. A helpful smile and a hello goes a long way in making me want to come to your store. If I have a relationship with a bookseller or store I’m much more likely to buy a book from them. When I was looking for a copy of Any Human Heart I could order it used from Barnes and Noble for about $6, but I ended up buying from my local used bookstore even though it was $11 because I know the booksellers there and they’ve always been great and helpful. Ordering online from B&N– there isn’t a face with that action.
I agree with everything you said here and I’m not arguing it– just pointing out some things I think need to change.
Ash´s last [type] ..Leif Reads- But what about all this snow
Hey Rebecca,
I love Borders I did not realize how bad the situation was!
The truth is that eBooks are much cheaper then hardcover or paperback books you can buy at a bookstore. Nowadays everything is about new technology and having everything in the palm of your hand. Everyone is glued to a computer, iPad, iPod, you name it. It’s not the healthiest thing to stare at a screen all day. People don’t realize the stress they cause to their head and eyes. Further more you lose the sentimental value of holding a book while reading, flipping through the pages, enjoying the anticipation as you reach the last few pages of the book. That feeling is just not there when you read from a screen.
I think if we can’t help the bookstore we should at least try our best to help the libraries that are suffering. Can you imagine your city without a library? Sometimes we do not realize what something means to us until we don’t have it!
Saving the bookstore that are still standing is really important however I think we have more power to save our libraries. Libraries are run by the city we can vote or petition for more funding for the libraries. Our voices have a potential to be heard and the problem to be dealt with. As you said, we need to talk less and be more proactive. Do you or anyone else think before it’s to late we should help our libraries not fall apart like our bookstore?
Libraries are certainly in jeopardy as well, and they certainly need community support to thrive and stay alive. The situation with Borders is much more a reflection of book buying practices than book borrowing ones, though, and that’s why I focused on stores in this post, but you are absolutely right—libraries need us, too.
[...] Not only are bookworms losing their haven, booksellers are losing their jobs. A recent post at The Book Lady’s Blog drove the point home. One comment in particular pointed the finger at large sellers (I’m [...]
It is sad to see a business close and so many people losing their jobs. It is the management’s fault though. Those of you who say price point is an issue… – why no sales Mr. Bookstore Manager? Bookstores are just huge consignment shops where they can make completely irresponsible inventory buys with virtually no penalty — they just return the books to the publisher. The real numbers are hard to dispute. Bookstores buy their returnable stock at a 40% discount. Something doesn’t sell? No problem! Send it on back to the distributor/wholesaler/retailer and don’t pay a dime. What other industry sells their wholesale product to the retailers and then takes the entire thing back when it doesn’t sell?
Also, there are 29 million or so books actually in print, and a typical bookstore has 125,000 titles in the store. Unfortunately, since people want a specific book, it often only makes sense to go to Amazon. Also, and quite frankly, just because a publisher uses a wholesaler to handle this relationship for the rest of the books, it does not mean they can or will order it for you, either. Talk about a pain in the butt! The bookstores won’t order books that aren’t in stock at the wholesaler, and the wholesaler won’t order books from the publisher until a backorder is placed by the bookseller. Talk about the chicken or the egg. It’s not the bookstore’s fault — it’s just basic math versus real estate. It’s the consumer’s fault for expecting returns with no excuses, browsing and never buying, damaging product while in the store, and treating the stores like they are libraries. You don’t go into a clothing store and try something on and then walk around and meet friends for coffee in it for three hours in the store, do you?
Bottom line: If you want to support the relationship with the local bookstore, DON’T buy things and return them after you read them (that’s what the library is for). DON’T stay in the bookstore and read everything for three hours and not make a purchase (and likely damage the product while you are reading it.) DO insist that the store order the books you want and then show up to purchase them when they arrive. DO buy sideline items, coffee, periodicals and books.
Bookstore management: Educate your consumer on these items, nicely, of course!
In the first paragraph, I meant to say distributor/wholesaler/publisher, not distributor/wholesaler/retailer
re: MM not holding up
I haven’t had much of a problem with the massive number of MM books that I own, or even the MM scifi paperbacks I got from my dad, which are now well over 30 years old. So I don’t really buy the argument that they are a shoddy product or that they somehow define whether I like or love to read.