Bored at Borders - Revisited

In August 2008 the economy was melting down, but the crazy events that would transpire just months later hadn't occured yet. Yet, in August 2008 I was writing about Borders bookstore and a change in the way I felt about the store.

I would have had no idea that a couple years later they would enter bankruptcy and be sold to a liquidation company through the bankruptcy courts.

Today, the discussion around a major retailer like Borders closing center around new media and economic down turn.

While new media and economic down turn combined is clearly one explination (and the easiest) for why the Border's brand has failed, but I was talking about this before, and at least economic down turn had no impact on my general disinterest in with brand.

I wanted to revisit my 2008 post titled "Bored at Borders." In the post, I don'tt come to any final conclusions or explinations about my growing disinterest, but in discussing the rise of Borders and Barnes and Nobles (along with my bordom) I drew out the following potential reasons why I didn't enjoy Borders Bookstores like I previously had.

I have to wonder if beyond new media and economic down turn if these reasons also should be part of the conversation:

• A market full of gimmicky books


• Overblown advertisement for fad novels and movies


• Online sites recommend to me what I might be interested in, creating a different browsing habits


• Online pricing beats big box retailers

Just some thoughts, three years following the previous post about my thoughts on the retailer, with an image in the post of a liquidated Media Play story, a similar retailer that also rose and fell.

I think limiting the conversation about store failures to technology and general economic data might limit the opportunity from missing some other lessons that can be learned in these company closures.