Starting this Friday, July 30, 2011, all Borders Books stores started their Going-Out-of-Business sales. They are "selling everything not nailed down", including the fixtures and cafe equipment.
By their own admission, there are several factors that have lead to these store closings.
1) The economy
2) eBooks
I wouldn't be true to myself if I didn't elaborate! :)
Any catastrophic failure is usually the result of a series of combined events, rather than a single circumstance. For example, let's consider the sinking of the Titanic. Yes, I am an amateur sleuth, at best, but off the top of my head, I can name several issues that, when combined, led up to the sinking of the Titanic. The Titanic could have most likely survived any ONE of these concerns, alone by itself, but in combination, they resulted in the sinking of the Greatest Ship on Earth (at the time).
a) Questionable craftsmanship of the rivets used in the construction of the hull.
b) Only after the sinking of this ship was a double-hull mandatory. The Titanic's hull was a single thickness.
c) After the sinking, shipping routes were changed to a more southerly route, to avoid iceberg flows.
d) It was night time! Icebergs could be easily seen during the day.
e) The lack of moonlight made visibility almost impossible. This was a totally moonless night. Any other phase of the moon would have been more helpful!
f) The night of April 11 - April 12, 1915 was unusually calm. Even during the night, if there were any waves at all, the foam from the waves crashing on the surface of an iceberg would have been an early warning sign to the men in the crows nest.
g) This ship had, at best, poor maneuverability for it's size. Emergency maneuvers or hastened moves were out of the question.
h) Even though they still had two boilers that remained unlit, this ship was moving at an excessive rate of speed. If they were going a bit slower, they would have had more time to react to an emergency situation.
i) There was an iceberg directly in their path! No iceberg = no sinking!
j) They did not heed iceberg warnings sent via wireless radio from other ships in the area.
....and this list could continue for quite some length. Here, I have listed just the most obvious circumstances that led to the Titanic's sinking. Granted, several of these circumstances could not have happened without the presence of another. For example, if there was no icebergs in the area, iceberg warnings from other ships would have not been issued, in the first place.
At any rate, had only ONE of these circumstances been true, but the remaining circumstances had not taken place, there is a really good change that the story of the Sinking of the Titanic would not have been told, because it wouldn't have happened.
Another good example would be the Terrorist attacks that were directed at the United States on September 11, 2001.
(When referring to the events that occurred on September 11, 2001, I **WILL NOT** follow lazy suit and say, "9/11". How incredibly disrespectful! Can't we honor those that died on that day by at least giving them the dignity - and your TIME - by not bastardizing this tragedy by shortening or abbreviating it's title, TOO? But the bastardizing and shortening of everything on the damned planet is another topic for another blog!) Happily continuing...... :)
There are several factors that contributed to the tragic loss of life and property on the morning of September 11, 2001. It wasn't one event of circumstance - it was several. The obvious events were the attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and in a field over rural Pennsylvania. Less obvious, but equal contributors are (at the time) the general lack of airport security, and many, many more factors.
More elaboration on the multiple factors that brought down Borders is necessary:
1) The economy
I will try my damnedest not to wax political, so I will just leave it at this:
During the duration of recent past Presidential tenures, the economy took a serious downturn. Even though many people are trying to blame it on the current administration, his job is to make an honest effort at cleaning up the gargantuan-sized hot mess created by his predecessor. I will readily admit that personally, I would not want to take on that job!
Many of today's young adults have not experienced anything but a bad economy (that started at least 12 years ago!) They have lived with financial 'hard times' all of their recent memories.
When compared to the average American's income, and unless a serious sale is running, books are by no means an inexpensive adventure.
I have spend thousands of dollars on new books at the long-defunct Walden Books (owned by Borders!), Barnes & Nobles, and Borders. The subjects that interest me are, minimally stated: VARIED!
I have purchased books on everything from Inderior Decorating (Divinely Decadent by Stephen Calloway) to many, many books on knitting, probably 200 lbs of music books and two books on computer modeling and graphic rendering (for the free downloadable "Blender" modeling program), and a couple cookbooks.
The least expensive books that we have purchased from these book sellers were close-out sale items, at $4.99 - $7.99 each. The average full-priced book that I have purchased starts at $25, and goes up in price quickly. Most of my music books were at least $20 - 25, and one that I can recall off the top of my head was $50. The two books that I bought for the FREE Blender program were $45 each. With tax included, these books were $105. One hundred and five dollars for two books to learn how to use a free program! I don't know why the hell I am complaining, because the prices of many of the other books are much higher than $45. There is a Lego model version of Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater" house. I was interested until I noted the price: $129! $129 - for a box of Lego bricks that isn't a foot square, total. If one was in the least bit creative, you could get the Lego blocks, yourself, and construct this project for a mere fraction of the cost of that kit.
Please do not misunderstand the intent of this blog. I am the last person that will bitch about the price of QUALITY items. For example, I go to national award-winning art shows in the St. Louis area several times a year. While walking through every show, I will always hear somebody mumbling - or NOT so mumbling! - about the price of the art work. Without a doubt, I know that they aren't aware. nor do the complainers care about:
1) The artists are out of work for 6 months while touring the country, pedaling their wares.
2) The entry requirements for any major art show are simply **unbelievably** difficult. It is not as simple as signing up and paying your entry fee, my good friends. In fact, I don't know of a single art show where the requirements are that simple!
3) Once you get accepted by the panel of judges (!!!), the price of entry to the St. Louis Art Fair, for example, is $1,500 - $2,000, depending on where the booth is located.
4) Have you stopped at an art store and looked at the price of materials lately?
5) Most of these artists have spent many years experimenting and refining individual techniques that got them to the Art Show level, in the first place. Is there any compensation for these years, please?
6) The majority of artists at any art show have to travel across the country - and some from around the world - to get to the shows. We then have to consider the cost of travel: Wear and tear on a vehicle - including the trailer used to tow your art work, lodging, food, fuel for the vehicle, and any other expense incurred on the road.
Admittedly, I am an amateur artist. I have probably inadvertently overlooked half of the items that should be on this list!
Considering these facts, I think all artists that enter art shows should DOUBLE the prices of their work, and start going up from there! The only downside of that action would be that the murmurs from the idiots would increase continue, and they would be eliminating more possible sales.
The moral of this segway: I am the last person that will complain about the price of handmade QUALITY. I do, however, have a beef when I know most books are mass produced using paper and machines, both of which can function fairly inexpensively.
In an era where we have to worry about feeding ourselves, health care, housing and general living expenses, you will find that "purchasing an expensive book" to be way down that list of priorities.
2) eBooks
Are you kidding me? Both Barnes & Nobles and Borders sell eBooks - Nooks, etc.
Call me "old", if you want to, or if you will have it that way, but calling me "old" is better than calling me "dead", if you know what I mean.
Don't knock on my door asking me to buy an eBook (or asking me to pay for on-line games), or virtually anything that I cannot **HOLD IN MY HAND**. I will tell you here and now that the answer is, "Thank you, but no THANK YOU!"
In 2 - 3 years, your eBook will be horribly outdated and worthless. Ten years after I am dead, the books that I buy will still be on their shelves. The only effort that has to be applied to get them to be useful is to take them off the shelf, and open the cover! The money that I spent on those books can be spread over a lifetime. When your eBook is outdated, or becomes obsolete, all that money you spent on downloading 'books' (that you can't hold in your hand!) will go to waste. If you really, *really*, need to spend your money, and you would rather spend it on a worthwhile cause, please send it to ME! I still have the things that I buy. I can still hold them in my hand. And I can still use them on a daily basis.
Example: An MP3 player.
The 2 year extended warranty on my 2 gig MP3 player expired 3 years ago! I bought my 2 gig MP3 player (an iRiver) 6 years ago - for $169 I just checked BestBuy.com for comparable players. The smallest player that Best Buy offers now is a 4 gig - for $39.
$39 for 4 gigs will get you twice as much memory on the MP3 player that I have for 1/4 the price!
The only computer that is still compatible with this device is my laptop, which still runs Windows XP. This MP3 player has no updates that are available, so when my XP-run laptop dies (and it is also 6 years old!), I will have to replace my MP3 player. I use this player 45 minutes a day, every-other-day, and I have since I bought it.
However....
Can I confide in you, because you're my favorite confidant? OK. Here goes:
Mark, my significant other, has 4 MP3 players that are sitting on his desk even as we speak, and he has used them a combined total of maybe one hour. They are all of much newer vintages, and have at least 3 - 4 times the capacity of my MP3 player. His MP3 players have to be charged via a USB connection, and do not have removable batteries. They *all* hold a charge for only minutes at a time before needing to be recharged. MY old MP3 player still uses a single AA battery, and my digital camera uses two AA batteries. When the charge in the batteries in my camera get so low that the camera won't even power-on, I remove them and save them. I can run MY old MP3 player for 4 - 6 MONTHS, 45 minutes a day, every-other-day on the run down batteries that I have discarded from my camera!
What is the point of all these numbers, and all of this ranging and raving? My point is: My old technology, even though a bit outdated, still functions as it was expected to do so from the day I bought it to this very second. Your newer technology is being produced with considerably less care and quality, and I will be using mine long after you have discarded yours in the trash (or abandoned it in the junk drawer!)
My minor point:
Books: Will still be functional hundreds of years into the future.
eBooks: (Understated) Uh - Not so much!
Making matters worse, Borders sold the very device that helped to put them out of business.
Class, can I have a volunteer, please? C'mon! Raise your hand! OK...OK.. You... In the front row... Go ahead.. Give me your answer to this question:
"How very intelligent of a business decision do you think it is for a book store (Barnes and Noble - are you LISTENING?) to sell the very device that will predictably run them out of business?"
(Teacher pausing, waiting for the student to answer the question)
(Students looking blankly at the teacher, because they are more worried about the cell phone vibrating in their pockets, rather than actually learning something......)
Teacher:
"OK, I'll give you a little hint: An example of a good business model would NOT be to sell the very item that would soon put you out of business, and to make the minds that use them even more mushy. That, my good students, would be better examples of laziness and GREED!"
In Summary:
There are (were) at least 2 two-story Borders stores that are on the route that I use to commute to virtually anywhere in the St. Louis area. One is in the same shopping center as a Whole Foods Market. On a very regular basis, I would go to the Whole Foods Organic Market, get my lunch from the hot food bar, and sit in the window seat in the cafe in the front of the store, eating my adventuresome lunch and watching folk walk by, about their daily business. After my lunch, I would usually walk 2 stores down to Borders. Like several other Borders stores in the St. Louis area, this store was 2 floors tall, with a cafe inside. I didn't just use this establishment as a library, I shopped there. As I said in this blog, I have spent several thousand dollars on many different genres of books and merchandise from Borders stores. I not only lived there, but I shopped there, too!
Removing major book sellers can't possibly serve to help today's society, and the diminishing levels of education, morals, values, and energies, in general, of the American public, and specifically our youth.
The fibers of the fabric of our society are becoming unraveled at a rate that is alarming. Withing ONE generation, our youth went from "glad to be here / eager to learn something" to "You owe me, and you know it / I don't give a crap about you / What can you do for me?"
To make matters worse, lazy-assed adults are following in their KIDS footsteps. They have learned from their children on how to get by (for now!) by thinking and DOING less, and being incredibly lazy in every aspect of their lives. Neither generation is aware of the long term ill effects that this behavior (or lack, thereof!) will produce. I can tell you one thing that is certain: When other countries beat your pants off, and kick your ass in technology, art, skill, education - and virtually every-other issue on the damned planet, you only have yourselves to blame.
There is something to be said for the old children's song, "Make new friends, and keep the old! One is silver, and the other - Gold!" A well balanced society keeps a F-I-R-M grip on their past, while bravely charging forward. Please note that I didn't say that you need no grip at all on the past, OR a death grip on the past, I said a FIRM grip on the past. Likewise, nothing was said about having a weak grip on the future, or a strong hold on it, either. BALANCE.
Closing bookstores is NOT included in this balance.
Closing bookstores = an increased lack of education
Lack of education produces BLOCKHEADS.
I hope to God that fate chooses one of these BLOCKHEADS to administer a pain shot, for example, to those who think it is a good idea to further diminish our country. My guess is that at that time, it will be a bit too late to hope that the person filling that syringe paid attention in class, and that they are observant, and detail oriented. BOOKS help to achieve those qualities. BLANKNESS - not so much!
- Michael
By their own admission, there are several factors that have lead to these store closings.
1) The economy
2) eBooks
I wouldn't be true to myself if I didn't elaborate! :)
Any catastrophic failure is usually the result of a series of combined events, rather than a single circumstance. For example, let's consider the sinking of the Titanic. Yes, I am an amateur sleuth, at best, but off the top of my head, I can name several issues that, when combined, led up to the sinking of the Titanic. The Titanic could have most likely survived any ONE of these concerns, alone by itself, but in combination, they resulted in the sinking of the Greatest Ship on Earth (at the time).
a) Questionable craftsmanship of the rivets used in the construction of the hull.
b) Only after the sinking of this ship was a double-hull mandatory. The Titanic's hull was a single thickness.
c) After the sinking, shipping routes were changed to a more southerly route, to avoid iceberg flows.
d) It was night time! Icebergs could be easily seen during the day.
e) The lack of moonlight made visibility almost impossible. This was a totally moonless night. Any other phase of the moon would have been more helpful!
f) The night of April 11 - April 12, 1915 was unusually calm. Even during the night, if there were any waves at all, the foam from the waves crashing on the surface of an iceberg would have been an early warning sign to the men in the crows nest.
g) This ship had, at best, poor maneuverability for it's size. Emergency maneuvers or hastened moves were out of the question.
h) Even though they still had two boilers that remained unlit, this ship was moving at an excessive rate of speed. If they were going a bit slower, they would have had more time to react to an emergency situation.
i) There was an iceberg directly in their path! No iceberg = no sinking!
j) They did not heed iceberg warnings sent via wireless radio from other ships in the area.
....and this list could continue for quite some length. Here, I have listed just the most obvious circumstances that led to the Titanic's sinking. Granted, several of these circumstances could not have happened without the presence of another. For example, if there was no icebergs in the area, iceberg warnings from other ships would have not been issued, in the first place.
At any rate, had only ONE of these circumstances been true, but the remaining circumstances had not taken place, there is a really good change that the story of the Sinking of the Titanic would not have been told, because it wouldn't have happened.
Another good example would be the Terrorist attacks that were directed at the United States on September 11, 2001.
(When referring to the events that occurred on September 11, 2001, I **WILL NOT** follow lazy suit and say, "9/11". How incredibly disrespectful! Can't we honor those that died on that day by at least giving them the dignity - and your TIME - by not bastardizing this tragedy by shortening or abbreviating it's title, TOO? But the bastardizing and shortening of everything on the damned planet is another topic for another blog!) Happily continuing...... :)
There are several factors that contributed to the tragic loss of life and property on the morning of September 11, 2001. It wasn't one event of circumstance - it was several. The obvious events were the attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and in a field over rural Pennsylvania. Less obvious, but equal contributors are (at the time) the general lack of airport security, and many, many more factors.
More elaboration on the multiple factors that brought down Borders is necessary:
1) The economy
I will try my damnedest not to wax political, so I will just leave it at this:
During the duration of recent past Presidential tenures, the economy took a serious downturn. Even though many people are trying to blame it on the current administration, his job is to make an honest effort at cleaning up the gargantuan-sized hot mess created by his predecessor. I will readily admit that personally, I would not want to take on that job!
Many of today's young adults have not experienced anything but a bad economy (that started at least 12 years ago!) They have lived with financial 'hard times' all of their recent memories.
When compared to the average American's income, and unless a serious sale is running, books are by no means an inexpensive adventure.
I have spend thousands of dollars on new books at the long-defunct Walden Books (owned by Borders!), Barnes & Nobles, and Borders. The subjects that interest me are, minimally stated: VARIED!
I have purchased books on everything from Inderior Decorating (Divinely Decadent by Stephen Calloway) to many, many books on knitting, probably 200 lbs of music books and two books on computer modeling and graphic rendering (for the free downloadable "Blender" modeling program), and a couple cookbooks.
The least expensive books that we have purchased from these book sellers were close-out sale items, at $4.99 - $7.99 each. The average full-priced book that I have purchased starts at $25, and goes up in price quickly. Most of my music books were at least $20 - 25, and one that I can recall off the top of my head was $50. The two books that I bought for the FREE Blender program were $45 each. With tax included, these books were $105. One hundred and five dollars for two books to learn how to use a free program! I don't know why the hell I am complaining, because the prices of many of the other books are much higher than $45. There is a Lego model version of Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater" house. I was interested until I noted the price: $129! $129 - for a box of Lego bricks that isn't a foot square, total. If one was in the least bit creative, you could get the Lego blocks, yourself, and construct this project for a mere fraction of the cost of that kit.
Please do not misunderstand the intent of this blog. I am the last person that will bitch about the price of QUALITY items. For example, I go to national award-winning art shows in the St. Louis area several times a year. While walking through every show, I will always hear somebody mumbling - or NOT so mumbling! - about the price of the art work. Without a doubt, I know that they aren't aware. nor do the complainers care about:
1) The artists are out of work for 6 months while touring the country, pedaling their wares.
2) The entry requirements for any major art show are simply **unbelievably** difficult. It is not as simple as signing up and paying your entry fee, my good friends. In fact, I don't know of a single art show where the requirements are that simple!
3) Once you get accepted by the panel of judges (!!!), the price of entry to the St. Louis Art Fair, for example, is $1,500 - $2,000, depending on where the booth is located.
4) Have you stopped at an art store and looked at the price of materials lately?
5) Most of these artists have spent many years experimenting and refining individual techniques that got them to the Art Show level, in the first place. Is there any compensation for these years, please?
6) The majority of artists at any art show have to travel across the country - and some from around the world - to get to the shows. We then have to consider the cost of travel: Wear and tear on a vehicle - including the trailer used to tow your art work, lodging, food, fuel for the vehicle, and any other expense incurred on the road.
Admittedly, I am an amateur artist. I have probably inadvertently overlooked half of the items that should be on this list!
Considering these facts, I think all artists that enter art shows should DOUBLE the prices of their work, and start going up from there! The only downside of that action would be that the murmurs from the idiots would increase continue, and they would be eliminating more possible sales.
The moral of this segway: I am the last person that will complain about the price of handmade QUALITY. I do, however, have a beef when I know most books are mass produced using paper and machines, both of which can function fairly inexpensively.
In an era where we have to worry about feeding ourselves, health care, housing and general living expenses, you will find that "purchasing an expensive book" to be way down that list of priorities.
2) eBooks
Are you kidding me? Both Barnes & Nobles and Borders sell eBooks - Nooks, etc.
Call me "old", if you want to, or if you will have it that way, but calling me "old" is better than calling me "dead", if you know what I mean.
Don't knock on my door asking me to buy an eBook (or asking me to pay for on-line games), or virtually anything that I cannot **HOLD IN MY HAND**. I will tell you here and now that the answer is, "Thank you, but no THANK YOU!"
In 2 - 3 years, your eBook will be horribly outdated and worthless. Ten years after I am dead, the books that I buy will still be on their shelves. The only effort that has to be applied to get them to be useful is to take them off the shelf, and open the cover! The money that I spent on those books can be spread over a lifetime. When your eBook is outdated, or becomes obsolete, all that money you spent on downloading 'books' (that you can't hold in your hand!) will go to waste. If you really, *really*, need to spend your money, and you would rather spend it on a worthwhile cause, please send it to ME! I still have the things that I buy. I can still hold them in my hand. And I can still use them on a daily basis.
Example: An MP3 player.
The 2 year extended warranty on my 2 gig MP3 player expired 3 years ago! I bought my 2 gig MP3 player (an iRiver) 6 years ago - for $169 I just checked BestBuy.com for comparable players. The smallest player that Best Buy offers now is a 4 gig - for $39.
$39 for 4 gigs will get you twice as much memory on the MP3 player that I have for 1/4 the price!
The only computer that is still compatible with this device is my laptop, which still runs Windows XP. This MP3 player has no updates that are available, so when my XP-run laptop dies (and it is also 6 years old!), I will have to replace my MP3 player. I use this player 45 minutes a day, every-other-day, and I have since I bought it.
However....
Can I confide in you, because you're my favorite confidant? OK. Here goes:
Mark, my significant other, has 4 MP3 players that are sitting on his desk even as we speak, and he has used them a combined total of maybe one hour. They are all of much newer vintages, and have at least 3 - 4 times the capacity of my MP3 player. His MP3 players have to be charged via a USB connection, and do not have removable batteries. They *all* hold a charge for only minutes at a time before needing to be recharged. MY old MP3 player still uses a single AA battery, and my digital camera uses two AA batteries. When the charge in the batteries in my camera get so low that the camera won't even power-on, I remove them and save them. I can run MY old MP3 player for 4 - 6 MONTHS, 45 minutes a day, every-other-day on the run down batteries that I have discarded from my camera!
What is the point of all these numbers, and all of this ranging and raving? My point is: My old technology, even though a bit outdated, still functions as it was expected to do so from the day I bought it to this very second. Your newer technology is being produced with considerably less care and quality, and I will be using mine long after you have discarded yours in the trash (or abandoned it in the junk drawer!)
My minor point:
Books: Will still be functional hundreds of years into the future.
eBooks: (Understated) Uh - Not so much!
Making matters worse, Borders sold the very device that helped to put them out of business.
Class, can I have a volunteer, please? C'mon! Raise your hand! OK...OK.. You... In the front row... Go ahead.. Give me your answer to this question:
"How very intelligent of a business decision do you think it is for a book store (Barnes and Noble - are you LISTENING?) to sell the very device that will predictably run them out of business?"
(Teacher pausing, waiting for the student to answer the question)
(Students looking blankly at the teacher, because they are more worried about the cell phone vibrating in their pockets, rather than actually learning something......)
Teacher:
"OK, I'll give you a little hint: An example of a good business model would NOT be to sell the very item that would soon put you out of business, and to make the minds that use them even more mushy. That, my good students, would be better examples of laziness and GREED!"
In Summary:
There are (were) at least 2 two-story Borders stores that are on the route that I use to commute to virtually anywhere in the St. Louis area. One is in the same shopping center as a Whole Foods Market. On a very regular basis, I would go to the Whole Foods Organic Market, get my lunch from the hot food bar, and sit in the window seat in the cafe in the front of the store, eating my adventuresome lunch and watching folk walk by, about their daily business. After my lunch, I would usually walk 2 stores down to Borders. Like several other Borders stores in the St. Louis area, this store was 2 floors tall, with a cafe inside. I didn't just use this establishment as a library, I shopped there. As I said in this blog, I have spent several thousand dollars on many different genres of books and merchandise from Borders stores. I not only lived there, but I shopped there, too!
Removing major book sellers can't possibly serve to help today's society, and the diminishing levels of education, morals, values, and energies, in general, of the American public, and specifically our youth.
The fibers of the fabric of our society are becoming unraveled at a rate that is alarming. Withing ONE generation, our youth went from "glad to be here / eager to learn something" to "You owe me, and you know it / I don't give a crap about you / What can you do for me?"
To make matters worse, lazy-assed adults are following in their KIDS footsteps. They have learned from their children on how to get by (for now!) by thinking and DOING less, and being incredibly lazy in every aspect of their lives. Neither generation is aware of the long term ill effects that this behavior (or lack, thereof!) will produce. I can tell you one thing that is certain: When other countries beat your pants off, and kick your ass in technology, art, skill, education - and virtually every-other issue on the damned planet, you only have yourselves to blame.
There is something to be said for the old children's song, "Make new friends, and keep the old! One is silver, and the other - Gold!" A well balanced society keeps a F-I-R-M grip on their past, while bravely charging forward. Please note that I didn't say that you need no grip at all on the past, OR a death grip on the past, I said a FIRM grip on the past. Likewise, nothing was said about having a weak grip on the future, or a strong hold on it, either. BALANCE.
Closing bookstores is NOT included in this balance.
Closing bookstores = an increased lack of education
Lack of education produces BLOCKHEADS.
I hope to God that fate chooses one of these BLOCKHEADS to administer a pain shot, for example, to those who think it is a good idea to further diminish our country. My guess is that at that time, it will be a bit too late to hope that the person filling that syringe paid attention in class, and that they are observant, and detail oriented. BOOKS help to achieve those qualities. BLANKNESS - not so much!
- Michael
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