Borders Books & Music

they went out of business

RIP Borders.
You were a good store with a lot of good memories. I used to hang out in your café with my girlfriend who then turned into my fiancé who then turned into my wife. Especially when she was pregnant with our son, we would spend hours here looking over baby books and all that jazz. Lots of good memories. Always thought their prices were just a bit high, but great environment. Kinda bummed to see it go, even though we haven’t frequented this spot for quite some time now.

Borders was never my favorite, I always preferred an independent or Barnes and Noble, but I am still saddened to see it close. I am afraid I was part of the problem — I read like crazy but I have a Kindle and I shop a lot from
.
But I think the larger problem was:
A. People don’t read anymore and 2. People treated this like a library with snacks. I would see piles of books in the café, some badly mistreated.
Now Borders is having a going out of business sale. I feel bad for the employees some of whom were amazing — they really knew books and shared a passion for reading. I love the idea that there are people in the world who still turn to books for escape, information, solace, education and amusement.
I have been here the past few days, buying cards, 2012 calendars and books at very good prices.
Printed materials, get it while you can.

This Borders has really improved in the last few months. The author appearances and special events are long overdue. Last month the author of the children’s Spiderwick books were in, signing books for patrons. They had a big event for Where the Wild Things Are and an event for the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. I know they have had adult authors in the past few months as well, I just did not know any of them. Finally, this Borders is acting like a full-​service book store to write home about!

I’ve been to many other Borders before and I’m in general a big fan. This particular location did not fail to impress. It’s quite large and has a very spacious seating area in its coffee shop section. Which I did use and loved the comfy arm chairs.
My one complaint would be that when you walk into the store it seems a bit disheveled. There are displays and tables everywhere and it takes a minute to get acclimated to the store and begin to understand how everything is set up. After I wandered a bit it became clear how everything was organized (and there was very nice signage).
The staff was very friendly and helpful, but also left you alone if you looked like you didn’t want distractions, which I didn’t. As a children’s librarian I always end up in the children’s section and today I ended up spending about 20 minutes in the board books writing down ISBNs (yea, I’m a nerd — get over it) and I was left alone the whole time which I greatly appreciated. There was staff everywhere — almost every section had an employee ready to help. At first I thought this was excessive, but then I realized it made shopping much easier for those people that didn’t know exactly what they wanted.
This seems like a very detailed review for a chain bookstore, but I have to say that I’ve been in a lot of chain bookstores and they can vary greatly. This particular one has great coffee, a large selection of books, movies, music, a huge graphic novel section, and generally is a nice place to visit.

I’ve been going to this bookstore since I was a child. I remember getting RL Stine’s «Goosebumps» or KA Applegate’s «Animorphs» series books in elementary school from the store. Needless to say, I always put this store above others in the area, such as the Waldens (Same franchise, nevertheless), and the Barnes & Noble across the street.
There are a few things that need improving throughout the Borders franchise, and this store alone. One, would be the T-​Mobile hot spot Wi-​Fi. I don’t think most people are willing to pay additional money for access to their networks, and I find that to be a disadvantage, as other cafes in the area, such as Panera Bread, have started offering free Wi-​Fi. When I’m not in the mood for a good book (Which is rare), I usually just enjoy getting out of the house and relax in a comfortable chair while on my laptop. I’m sure everyone could appreciate that.
I also had a bookshelf fall on me, had it fallen on someone smaller, they would have certainly been hurt. I for one am thankful that I was the person it fell on and not a child. Whatever happened to making sure your store is safe?
The third would be the new staff they hired. Not only have I received sub-​par help, one employee had the nerve to tell me that he was too tired to help me with finding a book. Not only is that bad for business, it’s also bad for reputation, because I just don’t feel like going into this bookstore because of that, and I won’t recommend it to my friends and family anymore. There are nice employees who go out of their way to help you, but I’ve been seeing quite the opposite from a few employees, it’s very disappointing.
I don’t know what else to say. I hope this turn for the worst is only temporary.
EDIT: LOL, they closed. Good riddance to a shitty business.