Many interesting comments here. Of course, after almost 2 decades with Borders, I can speak to some of these issues.

  First, the Big Box stores are a fact of life. There are still a few mom & pop stores, but they usually are niche type stores. Where there used to be 7 hardware stores around town, now you got 1 Lowes or Home Depot. Probably the same number of jobs either way. The chain stores offer much better selection, price,and volume. Welcome to the new millenium.

  Second, the selection on the shelves was never politically motivated. We heard the same goff when the Republicans were in power. “Too many liberal books!” Pure crap. We don’t have the book you want,WE ORDER IT FOR YOU!

  Last, E-Readers, Amazon(this one killed our Corporate Sales Dept.)the current continuing recession (books are still a disposable income luxury) and upper level management hubris combined to stall sales, and pile on additional debt.

  They eliminated positions, cut benefits(no raises for the last 3 years),cut hours, then asked us to pick up the slack of lost workers, (I and my fellow employees were asked to clean toilets when they eliminated the cleaning crew in a cost saving measure!)We were also told to push book donations and paid memberships in a final bid to save the company.

  Sure boss, anything you say.

  So, yeah, I’m out of a job in a matter of weeks. But let me tell you something. We got customers who love us…still. They express real sadness and regret we are closing. We will be missed by more than a few. And for what it’s worth, I get to take that with me when they lock the doors for the last time.

So now justice is done?  My very liberal bookstore (one of the few media’s left with Progressive content; the radio had been taken over by rightists by then and TV had been neutralized) closed in 2001 after 2 Borders and 4 Barnes and Nobles invaded my city.

I knew the jig was up for all indies, but I also knew that these big boxes would have their day, only to fall to Steve Bezos’s Amazon.

The writing was on the walls. Good days were not ahead.

Well, when I was a naieve youngster I would mainly read my mom’s Time and People (scanned mostly) mags. Fastforward to now and when I pick up a People, it is worse, significantly more on the “crap” side. Of course, this was a time when the only reality shows in existence were Survivor and Big Brother. Just saying that it is sad that we’ve increasingly embraced stimulation of this kind, rather than the harder road to brain nurishment, which includes reading actual books.

Their demise might have been aided by eReaders and online sellers, but I’m made aware by those around me that so few people read anything of substance anymore. I’m 29, and I never thought I’d see my friends reading all this BS about actors, actresse…socielites. I know it must not just be a normal part of adulthood to grow more intensely engrossed in other people’s lives, because nobody bought Us Weekly nine years ago, and People magazine wasn’t as pointless. I take this as evidence to the degradation of our culture.

The Kindle type readers are electronic. They need a power source to be able to use them. So, what happens when you are out reading a good book and it suddenly dies on you, or it breaks? I would much rather have a copy of a book that only requires the energy of me turning the pages, and I can depend on it. Also, I work in a field that requires the use of field guides to key out plant and animal specimens. I haven’t found too many field guides that are Kindle accessible.

Apparently, judging from how much trouble BN is also in,retail B&M book stores are an obsolete business model. Time marches on. Sorry for the creditors.

Yeay, another BIG BOX store has met its demise. I hope other BIG BOX stores follow behind like Loews Walmart, Home Depot, Etc. Bring back local mom and pop businesses that these BIG BOX stores destroyed.

I will miss Borders.  It was a weekly
visit for me.  I feel sorry for the people
that work there and the people that
shop there.

As usual, the CEOs that left usually dug
the hole deeper and departed with
parachutes of $2+M.  That’s America’s
business card.

One of them even went to A&P, the
grocery chain.  What are the chances?

I stopped buying at Borders long ago, when I realized
the overwhelming preponderance of right wing books in
their political section.  One could find everything
written by Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, whatever his name
Savage is; but try to find a book even remotely
progressive, much less leftist?  None to be found.  I
won’t miss them.