Borders stalls book payments, doubts survival in e-book era

I generally prefer Borders to Barnes-and-Noble because they always seemed to stock more titles. But I almost never buy anything at either of them without one of their 30-50% off coupons, which brings them close to Amazon's price.

I can't find it, but there's an article out there somewhere about how Boston Market has really struggled because they set their prices high and issue a lot of discount coupons, so a lot of their customers are bargain shoppers not people looking for higher quality.

I definitely wish that either book chain (or a new business) would focus more on the "experience" part of what these stores are now. They're always busy, but mostly full of people with laptops. I know some of them won't spend a dime there, but I suspect most of them would pay a couple bucks an hour for a comfortable seat, power, decent wifi, and access to snacks, drinks, books, and gadgets to buy. I know I would.

I think you hit on something very important - that the buyers who decide what gets sent to the bookstore matter a lot.

Let me give you a couple of examples from the days when my parents ran a general and Christian books and music store...

The store was located close to several antique shops - women would go antiquing, drag their husbands along, then stop at the bookstore. Our bookstore had a huge selection of books on antiques and collectibles for just this reason - stuff you would be hard pressed to find even today in a Borders or B&N, like a $200 book on Tiffany Lamps, or even a $30 book on Depression era pressed glass.

Of course, the men were often bored - until they saw the books we had on cars, trucks, car repair, woodworking, military aircraft, etc.

We would sell at least $1000/week of car repair manuals such as the Chilton or Motorcraft series (and this was a small store). The $17 book on small gas engine repair (lawnmowers etc.) did very well also.

When we found people were restoring old Mustangs, we started carrying the $80-$110 Hollander Interchange manuals, which tell you which parts from which Mustangs are exactly the same for each year (e.g. a suspension component from any of 65-68 Mustangs might be identical, making it easier to find the part).

If you walk into a Borders today, you will find very little customization of each store for the local market. For instance, in the York, PA, store, home of a big Harley Davidson factory and filled with people who like hot rods (big cruise nights in the area) ... not even a small table packed with such books.

Second example: the Christian music buyers were always focused on the teen market (Christian Rock like Petra, etc.) -- but Christian music-buying teens usually have far less allowance money (IME) because their parents are more conservative.

So our music selection ignored the teens, and focused on having the music that the parents or other Christian adults would want (tended to be Christian country, Sandi Patti, and Christmas albums). Those folks, being adults, and in the prime of their earning years, had little hesitation in buying, often multiple items at a time. The buyers at other stores turned up their nose at such folksy stuff, to their detriment I think.

Imagine the sales lost by bookstores nationwide by focusing on Twilight books, heavily discounted, which attract distracted and less-rich teens, versus looking for and exploiting local niches.

I actually love going to bookstores. Borders included. Books make great gifts, I like the way they look and feel, and I don't mind paying for them.

That said when I do buy books I RedLaser them and buy online. Here's what bookstores could do to get my money:

-sell coffee and make a quite place i can plug in and use wifi

-set up small reading/work stations with tables and comfortable chairs spread out amongst the aisles

-sell food and/or beer on site

some places kind of do this with tacking a starbucks in, but they are usually busy and loud and feature the parts of starbucks i dont like and cut out the parts i do. mainly the plush seating areas.

i do a lot of remote work and a bookstore environment seems better than a starbucks or indie coffee shop, which is where I've been spending such time.

Our local bookstore (part of a regional chain) has three times the shelf space for Manga than they do for computer books.

I used to like browsing in bookstores but now its like they don't want my business. Why should I have the bookstore order something for me? I pay more than Amazon and they add no value - that's why they're failing.

"Why should I have the bookstore order something for me? I pay more than Amazon and they add no value ..."

They add value by allowing you to physically browse through books to see what they're like.

I buy some books based on author or recommendation, but otherwise I'd prefer to be able to flip through a book (a, no, "Look Inside!" isn't the same) to get a feel for it.

There's also the serendipity factor you get just from wandering around a book store, picking stuff up because the cover caught your eye or whatever.

The problem for the bookstore is all of that is available to people whether they make a purchase or not, so they end up being the display room for Amazon.