Other Shoe Drops for Borders
This scene captured by Erin Nekervis is set to happen again at the remaining Borders locations across the country.
It was only in February that Borders closed down a ton of their locations across the country (and seemingly every one in the Chicago area except for the State Street store) as they tried to restructure their debt in the wake of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Borders announced yesterday that they're canceling a bankruptcy auction and closing its remaining 400 stores nationwide, bringing the story of the nation's second-largest bookstore chain to a whimpering coda.
In a statement announcing the closings, Borders President Mike Edwards said, "We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but for the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time." The biggest obstacle was Borders' inability to find a buyer to bring it out of bankruptcy.
Other headwinds included not being able to compete with Barns & Noble and Amazon.com, especially in the highly attractive e-reader market, which just became more competitive with Amazon's announcement that it would rent out college textbooks to students on its Kindle. Barnes & Noble has also lost business to Amazon, but with its Nook reader has found a steady revenue stream that Borders couldn't match. Barnes & Noble has also more proactive than Borders to revamp its stores to appeal to a broader consumer base with DVDs, educational games and other products.
