Borders UK calls in Administrators

david39

I recently bought a large dictionary that I needed - Chambers Dictionary.

The jacket price is £35.00 and I saw it in a couple of the big book chains at that price or slightly less.

I eventually bought it on Amazon (brand new) at just under £17.

'nuff said.

Sapphire

vivatifosi wrote: »

The reality is that the high street sadly doesn't need book stores. If people want to browse rather than buy, there is a substitute in the form of a good library. Borrowings at libraries are up since the recession, so add that to being squeezed by online book sales and the growth of e-readers and the writing really is on the wall except for niche formats or stores able to diversify or with a particularly loyal following.

I disagree. Libraries contain a very limited selection of books. Buying purely online, rather than being able to browse through books in a shop, does not compare. You can't really make a very good choice online, unless you know specifically what you are looking for. You need to see and handle the books in order to make a choice. Not having bookshops would severely limit what people read, to the detriment of general knowledge/education, etc.

Pobby

lostinrates wrote: »

I was thinking, its all very well for people to rave about the impersonality of places like Borders, but in Charing Cross rd, which book shop is busiest? Its been a long time since I was there, but used to browse in the book shops a lot while DH was browsing in Denmark St and Borders was packed, foyles was reasonable, and the dwindling independants were calm and quiet.

Denmark Street. Good memories. Our office was based the in the 70`s.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I love libraries and bookshops. I occasionally buy online, but also take advantage of second hand and charity shops- truly great places to browse for random out-of-print oddities.

My local high street is really taking a battering; Woolies, The Pier, Bay Trading, Barretts, that mens clothes shop and now Books Etc mean there are a lot of unsightly gaps now.

lostinrates

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

I love libraries and bookshops. I occasionally buy online, but also take advantage of second hand and charity shops- truly great places to browse for random out-of-print oddities.

My local high street is really taking a battering; Woolies, The Pier, Bay Trading, Barretts, that mens clothes shop and now Books Etc mean there are a lot of unsightly gaps now.

I much prefer real books to browse through: within reason. We go to a bookshop well known to Davesnave, and I find it uite daunting. The fiction section is, in the main, not subdivided into genres and is only very roughly alphabetical. The problem with that is one is drawn to authors one knows, just to mke sense of the vast jumble of stuff, which is fine, but not a braodening experience.

I like the ''chain'' display taking you to the fiction prize entrants: I try and read the entries in to the major fiction awards, unless it looks like its really not for me, and being able to easily locate them is good, then the groupings of books.....

There are so very many new books, let alone old ones one ''has'' to read, that some preliminary soring helps IMO.

Charity shops are amazing for books...especially cookery books.

bambam101

I used like the Borders in Oxford street, it was my favourate shop in london. such a shame it closed down.

scubaangel

I always found my local one quite unpleasant to shop in, too bright, too expensive, the shelves were too tall - I'm only 'average' height but found there was no way I could see what was on higher shelves much less reach them to make a purchase and not too many staff around to help me reach the stuff I wanted!

vivatifosi

Sapphire wrote: »

I disagree. Libraries contain a very limited selection of books. Buying purely online, rather than being able to browse through books in a shop, does not compare. You can't really make a very good choice online, unless you know specifically what you are looking for. You need to see and handle the books in order to make a choice. Not having bookshops would severely limit what people read, to the detriment of general knowledge/education, etc.

I work p/t in a large library in a fairly large town - the same size town that would have a good bookshop like a Borders. We get stocks of all the latest popular titles and sometimes several copies at a time. Most good, large, libraries do the same.

I do like book stores, but they cannot unfortunately make money from browsers alone. Personally I'd rather high street book shops and libraries were complimentary rather than competing as I love books and agree that you can't beat the sensory experience of handling the books to see which you would like to read. Since the end of the Net Book Agreement we've been witnessing the slow death of over 500 independent book shops. If book stores as a format aren't to be something we look back on as part of the "good old days" alongside decent fishmongers and butchers then either a) people have to go back to using them, or b) they need to change their format to something more relevant.

People also need to know more about what is available in their local libraries. They are used regularly by a large section of the population, but equally there's a big group of people who would never step into one, even though library staff try hard to be inclusive and open to everyone. Many now stock CDs and DVDs, some stock BluRays and a few are in the process of launching e-books for loan that can be downloaded from the library websites without needing to visit the building.

ChrisCar_2

I stopped going into Borders when they started with the coffee shops.
I hate the smell of coffee.

Sapphire

ChrisCar wrote: »

I stopped going into Borders when they started with the coffee shops.
I hate the smell of coffee.

Yes, there's something about Borders that I don't particularly like - certainly I don't like the idea of a bookshop being a coffee shop. I only know the Kingston branch.