The Kindle Monologues

Some thoughts on Borders [the soon to be departed book store - this isn’t a post on immigration ;)]

So it’s finally happened - after a long drawn battle, Borders has finally emerged defeated, with the announcement on July 18th [the day after the final Australian store closed its doors] that the company was entering into the liquidation process, having filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, in February.

By September, Borders will cease to operate - it’s ~400 remaining stores will have closed, and 11,000 people will - in an economy that’s quite frankly gone to hell and back recently - lose their jobs, and have to try and get new ones.

Which sucks. Obviously.

As you can imagine, the news has distressed quite a few people [not least of whom, the 11,000 people who’ll lose their jobs within six weeks], including the ever vocal legions of ‘real’ booklovers.

…This is not OK…

…Whenever a bookstore closes I feel a piece of me going with it…

…Borders is going out of business, I am legitimately upset…

…Guyz I’m seriously cryin now…

…I can’t believe they’re going to take the rest away. Borders is literally my favorite store. And they’re taking it away from me. That’s just selfish. They don’t know how much it means to me…

Those are just some of the comments that came up, when I searched for Borders here on Tumblr. Clearly, for whatever reason, the store means a lot to some people. Dig a lil deeper, however, and you’ll find comments such as:

…E-READERS ARE GOING TO DESTROY MY PRECIOUS BOOKS!!!! I CAN’T MAKE THE SWITCH, I NEED THE PHYSICAL BOOK WITH PAGES AND ALL IN MY HANDS WHEN I READ!!!!!…

…I don’t want a crappy digital one I want a REAL ONE…

…Also, call me stubborn, but e-books can fuck off the face of the planet…

…ebooks can suck it. Nothing will replace the feeling of a well read book in your hands…

[Incidentally -that last one? Do / Did Borders sell ‘used’ books? I always thought their books were new, and thus, not ‘well read’ when purchased. Anyways, pedantic point aside…]

It’s perhaps no suprise that someone who runs a Kindle / e-book orientated tumblr stream, would also have a few opinions - not only on the news that Borders is finally closing, but the reaction certain people have had to the news.

I’ve written about Borders a few times since joining Tumblr. I wrote a small post back in November 2009, a few days after the UK ‘arm’ of Borders went into Administration. Then, in March of this year, I wrote another ‘six point plan’ type post, explaining why, imo, Borders was having to shut most of its stores.

However, seeing as how the process is coming to and end - I figure it’s time to post - hopefully for the last time - my thoughts on Borders.

The reasons [IMO] Borders has gone out of business.

1. Woeful, inept management / business decisions.
2. It’s the economy, Stupid.
3. The adaptability of Barnes & Noble.
4. The decline of reading, as a form of entertainment.
5. The rise of Amazon, and other online retailers, pushing PHYSICAL books, for vastly superior prices.
6. The emergence of e-readers.

Incidentally - those aren’t necessarily ranked in any particular order, bar the order in which they popped into my head.

1: Woeful, inept management / business decisions.

I think among the business reports this has been the most noted factor in the fall of Borders, but it’s something that’s been greatly lacking from the majority of posts here on Tumblr [and by that I mean the ‘in-depth’ posts, not just the people who’re posting quick posts about how upset they are].

Borders, as a business, has been on the decline for a number of years now. Do you know the last time Borders made a profit? 2006. [The original Amazon Kindle, for those wondering, was released on November 19th 2007. The current generation Kindle - by far the most popular selling e-reader on the market, came out in July 2010]. So for the last 5 years, the company has failed to post a profit. That in and of itself is bad enough, however, Borders didn’t simply cease being popular, it started hemorrhaging money.

As of February 2011, when Borders filed for Chapter 11, the company owed almost $1.3bn - which is a significant chunk of change.

Part of the reason for the rapid decline in sales - poor management decisions, chief among them:

• A Huge push into physical music, as consumers were abandoning the format.
• A HUGE expansion of their physical stores.
• Handing off their online presence to Amazon.
• Attempting to diversify the range of goods sold in their physical stores.

I never had the good fortune to step foot into an US branch of Borders - the two times I’ve been to the US, looking through bookstores wasn’t exactly on the itinerary. By all accounts, however, the UK ‘arm’ of the business operated along the same lines, so that, plus accounts I’ve read from people familiar with the the US stores, leaves me feeling somewhat justified with these opinions:

1.1: Back in the late 1990s - a time at which consumers were starting to develop an understanding of digital music, Borders invested heavily - in terms of stock, and floor space, in physical music. Floor space that could have been used to carry books - the main product of a book superstore, after all, was turned over to middle of the road music. The last UK branch of Borders I went into, not long before the company went into Administration suffered from the same problem - and by that point we were well into the era of the iPod, iPhone, etc, etc.

1.2: A lot has been made of the fact Borders currently has ~400 [399, I believe] physical stores, which’ll soon be vacant. Which is a significant number of stores, the majority of which take up a significant amount of floor space. Back in February, however, when Borders filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, the company had 659.

At its peak [2003], Borders occupied 1249 locations, across its various brands [Borders, WaldenBbooks, etc, etc] . For comparision, Walmart - the worlds largest public company, currently has 8,970.

Was Borders really only 7x smaller than Walmart? In the board of directors dreams, maybe, however, in reality - there was never really any demand for that number of stores - and that’s definitely become the case as the years have progressed.

1.3: Speaking Typing about mistakes the company made back in the early 2000s - here’s another significant one. A lot of people currently grieving [and I’m not using the word flippantly - go read some of the posts people are creating - I’ve grieved less for relatives than some of these people are for a bookstore] the death of Borders, are turning their attention towards Amazon. Now I’ll address that in far more detail when tacking points 5 and 6 [the emergence of a digital market for Physical books | the emergence of e-readers], however the ‘hand of Amazon’ had a role to play well before Jeff Bezos decided to unleash the Kindle on the world.

Back in 2001 the [then] management team at Borders decided to hand their online business to Amazon - borders.com simply re-directed visitors to a non-branded part of the larger Amazon.com website. For Seven years, as Amazon transformed from a relatively small company, into an industry leader, then industry transformer, Borders were forced to sit around like grinning chimps, and relish their ineptitude lack of foresight. When Borders did eventually launch their own internet presence, in 2008 - the company was already on the path that’s led to the events of the last few days.

1.4: I touched upon this with point #1, but allow me to simply recall an example I had with Borders [UK], a few months before the company filed for Administration. 

Back in 2008, a podcast I watched regularly at the time - Geekscape [episode link], reviewed a small European film called Let The Right One In. I’d previously read good things about it, but seeing the review on the show made me want to go and eventually check it out. Because the film wasn’t due out over here in the UK for a while, I went to my local library [and my how things have changed from 2008 - 2011] and requested a copy of the book of the same name, by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

I subsequently fell in love with the book, and then eventually - when it was released over here in the UK - the film.

Anyways, flash forward a wee-bit, and I decided that I wanted to re-read the book, and rather than borrow the library copy again - I decided I wanted a copy of the book to keep [this was in the pre-Kindle era, at least for me]. I happened to be due to go into Birmingham for something, so popped into Borders, with the intention of picking the book up.

Given the themes of the book, I expected it to be in the horror section - no sign of it. I then noticed a ‘vampire section’ [full of Twilight and similar books] - it wasn’t in there either.

General Fiction? Nope, couldn’t find it amongst that. So, eventually I snagged a member of staff, and asked them where it’d be. Another quick look through Horror - no sign of it.

Eventually, the member of staff goes and searches for the book via their computer system:

“Ooh - it’s showing three copies, but that likely means we’ve sold out - we can’t re-order books if the system shows that there are copies left, but at the same time, its’ likely the system is showing books that don’t exist”.

However, had a I wanted wrapping paper, or craft paper, or bows and ties, or maybe vastly overpriced music / DVDs - they’d got that.

But not a book.

[And it wasn’t a one off - I’ve read similar stories from other people, across both the now defunct UK stores, and the US ones].

Right, so those are some of the bad management decisions out of the way, onto the second main point:

2: It’s the economy, Stupid.

[Before any mourning Borders fan accuses me of calling them stupid - go read this Wikipedia article]

Again - in all fairness, this one has been highlighted in most of the business reports - but again, it’s been somewhat neglected here on tumblr, in favour of people bitching about Kindles - in short, the economy has gone to hell in a handbasket, over the last few years.

Take into consideration the decline in the number of people who read for pleasure [which is a significant enough factor, imo, that I’ll address it separately later], combined with the aforementioned poor management decisions, made by the seemingly ever rotating upper-management types at Borders - these factors alone are enough to damage a company.

But when you add in the state of the economy - not just on a national / global scale, but to individuals, then of course that’s going to have an impact. Food prices are on the increase [to put it mildly]. As are fuel prices - pretty much everything is on the increase, except peoples’ earnings, which are, in real-terms, on the decline [i.e the buying power they have is decreasing, due to the increase in prices].

So, naturally, people are having to cut back - even the ‘true’ booklovers, who claim they’ll never go digital - at the end of the day, even the people who claim to ‘practically live’ in Borders will have noticed their spending power has been on the decline - if you’re a self-sufficient adult, your bills and living expenses have to come before buying books [unless you’re insane, and plan on living in a box surrounded by physical books]. And if you’re still reliant on your parents for financial support - well it stands to reason if their finances are stretched, then the amount of money that’ll ‘trickle down’ is consequentially gonna be reduced.

So, those factors - the decline of ‘disposable’ income people have, plus the aforementioned factors that Borders themselves were responsible for - IMO, those alone would be enough to challenge even the most balanced company - and Borders, with the unsustainable amount of debt it had - most definitely wasn’t in a sustainable position, regardless the economical factors.

And that’s before you factor in the smart[er] business decisions of their main ‘physical rival’ - Barnes and Noble.

3: The adaptability of Barnes & Noble.

Among a significant percentage of posts that are appearing on the demise of Borders, their big rival, Barnes & Noble, are referenced. Mostly, it has to be said, in a quite negative way. I’ve personally never even stood outside a Barnes & Noble, much less ventured forth into one, but it does raise an interesting question - how come Borders failed, yet Barnes & Noble, a fellow Bricks & Mortar store - survived?

This article, from National Public Radio, sums up the reasons in a far, far more succinct way than I’ll ever be capable of. Having read through it, I’m actually tempted to ditch all the text in this post, and simply replace everything above, with a link to the article in question.

One of the points they make co-incides with my main opinion regarding Barnes & Noble - they adapted to the changing demands of some readers, and brought out their own e-reader.

Yes, Borders eventually got ‘on the bandwaggon’ and signed an agreement with Kobo, to carry their e-reader [Incidentally - this is perhaps worth pointing out to the legions of ‘real booklovers’ espousing their typical hatred of e-readers - your precious Borders, sold them]. However, even this happened far too late.

Barnes & Noble on the other hand - a company facing the same economical and sociological [i.e the decline in reading as a form of recreation] factors gambled, and came out with their line of Nook e-readers.

Which now - whilst not occupying the same market share as Amazons Kindle, do occupy a significant percentage of the e-reader market [I believe, the Nooks recently started outselling Kindles, on a month-by-month basis, which is somewhat impressive].

Now of course - we could all be here in 5 years time, ‘mourning’ the demise of Barnes & Noble [something, it seems, the hardcore Borders devotees would enjoy], however, given they’ve ‘hedged their bets’ with their Nook range - I’d be willing to surmise they’ll be around for a while yet.

4: The decline of reading, as a form of entertainment.

I’ve referenced this point a few times already in this post - and a fair few times within other posts, but I’m gonna do it again.

Reading is neither ‘sexy’ nor ‘cool’ to the majority of people

I know if you’re reading this - particularly via this stream, but just as equally, if you stumble across it via one of the tracked tags, you’ll disagree. If you’re reading this - of course you’re a fan of reading.

The point, however, is that the majority of people aren’t. The ‘golden days’ - when people read for fun, are long since past. There are numerous distractions - distractions that affect even the most dedicated bibliophile [be they of the physical book, or e-book variety] has to contend with - TV, DVD, the internet, etc, etc.

Obviously, as readers we can ignore those [and FYI, anyone who claims that most e-readers, the Kindle in particular, are forms of distraction - try using the web browser on one - You’ll want to snap the thing in half after about 10 mins. They’re good for reading, not wasting time on the internet] forms of distraction, but the point still stands - reading isn’t ‘cool’.

People don’t wanna lose themselves in the stories contained within a book, they don’t wanna spend hours emerging themselves in the latest story from a favourite author - they wanna see what The Kardashians are upto this week. Or which Z-List nobody from Jersey Shore / The Only Way is Essex, is sleeping with whom.

Or which celeb is gonna appear on the latest ‘reality tv’ show.

Reading isn’t cool, for most people. Consequence? Less people are buying books. Gone are the days when, in a rush, you’d get someone a gift token for a bookstore, or a giftcard to Borders - just give ‘em a £/$20 Amazon voucher.

I’d also like to take a line or two, to reference one point that seems to crop up - the general decline in literacy standards, and the ‘rise’ of e-readers. Do people really think that illiterate people are buying e-readers?

Seriously?

The people buying e-readers, are people who love to read.

[Side Note: I think most readers will acknowledge this - as referenced by the number of Borders articles that have been tagged with phrases such as nerd, geek worries, etc, etc,]

5: The rise of Amazon, and other online retailers, pushing PHYSICAL books, for vastly superior prices. A practice, incidentally, started by stores such as Borders.

Ever noticed the letters R.R.P? On a book? They stand for Recommended Retail Price. However, to many, they stand for something else - Really, Really, Pricy.

It’s almost unthinkable to most people, to pay the ‘full price’ for almost anything these days, in particular books - £18.99 for Neal Stephensons’ Anathem - outrageous - I’ll pay £9.99 and no more.

Now I’m gonna be upfront and honest here - I for one, welcome the fact that books rarely sell for their R.R.P Not because I want the authors to receive less [the price for which a book sells doesn’t have as much of an impact on the royalty the author receives, as you may think] for their work - but because it helps me to buy more books [be they physical/print or electronic/digital]. I’m sure most people, if they’re honest, would readily admit the same.

Just think about it from your own perspective [i.e. the two people who’re nice enough to still be reading this] - when was the last time you paid the full price for a book? And realistically, would you read the number of books you currently do, if you had to pay the full price for ‘em? [This assumes, of course, that you can’t find said books in your local library].

One of the factors that comes up, when you look at the reason why people have stopped shopping at Borders [and to be fair, other brick and mortar stores] is the issue of price - for the most part you can get books cheaper online, than you’ll be able to, via a ‘physical store’

But please - Borders fans. Take 30 seconds to do your research, and don’t use that as an excuse to rant against online retailers.

About 20 years ago, when Borders started rapidly expanding onto the high street, and the malls, people were claiming the stores would destroy independent bookstores. Want to know one of the reasons why?

Borders buying power. Borders was able to negotiate contracts with publishing houses, to buy in books at a vastly superior price to the independent store.

Effectively, Borders was to Independent bookstores, what Amazon [and other online retailers] have become to Borders.

6: The emergence of e-readers.

Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the emergence of the e-reader - I haven’t. The difference, however, is that unlike a staggeringly large number of people who’ve blogged about the subject, I don’t think it’s the presiding reason Borders has ended up going out of business. At best - at absolute best, the emergence of e-readers, has served as the final nail in the coffin.

Regular readers [who’re kind enough to read the crap I write] will know I’ve made reference to this in the fact, but it’s worth repeating:

A recent survey, showed that approx. 12% of all US households have access to an e-reader. 12% Lets assume that every household in America buys books [which, clearly hasn’t been the case for a number of years - hell, I’d venture decades, at this point]. That leaves 88% of households, that buy physical books.

Hence my opinion - the numbers don’t add up. Removing an absolute maximum 12% of people from the marketplace, shouldn’t be enough to bring a multi-national company to its knees - even one that fails to react to the emergence of e-books, such as Borders.

However - if we switch back to the real world, and acknowledge the point I made earlier - that the number of people who read for recreation has been on the decline for years - then at that point, removing 12% of readers will have a slightly more significant impact.

Unless, of course, you follow industry trends, anticipate this, and react accordingly. Something Barnes & Noble [eventually] did with their Nook.

From my own perspective - I’ll continue to buy physical books. Take my Michael Connelly collection, for example. I own all of Michaels’ books, in 1st edition hardcovers. It might not be logical, but I’ll continue to buy his books as physical books, in order to keep the collection ‘complete’.

But new authors - or more to the point - authors who’re new to me? I’ll buy them in whatever format is more convenient - be that physical books, or e-books.

Bonus: How many people who’re ‘depressed’ about Borders shutting, were regular shoppers?

Over the last four days - since the it became ‘official’ that Borders was to be no more - at a conservative estimate, I’d say I’ve read 200 posts about it.

Here are the titles for some of those posts:

• What is this nonsense that all borders are closing by september?
• What the fuck? borders is closing down. Nooooo
• Borders you’re joking take that email back this is a bad joke you can’t go out of buisness
• Borders is closing?
• Oh shit - - borders are closing?

Etc, Etc.

Now I can appreciate not everyone who has posted about Borders lays claim to being a huge, huge fan. That said, a number of posts where people have claimed Borders ‘is their life’ or ‘a second home’ or ‘a place where I’ve made so many friends with the staff’. DO start with a similar heading.

I haven’t stepped into a Borders store [the last UK one] since December 2009. I’ve never stepped foot into one of the United States ones. Nor, for that matter, am I a ‘devotee’ of Borders.

So how come I’ve known since February, that the store would - at absolute best, be broken down and sold to other parties. Or known for a few months, that this outcome - the winding down of the business - was the only likely outcome?

Read some of my posts - I can barely write - it’s not like I’m some kinda business expert, worthy of a spot on Dragons Den.

It makes me wonder how many of these ‘devotees’ of Borders, actually shop in the stores, on a regular basis.

Clearly not enough - or else despite the problem I’ve outlined above, the business would have been able to continue.

The ‘I’m not sure if this counts as a potential reason, so I’ll make a quick reference to it in passing’ reason.

The following passage of text originally appeared in this post by Tardis Alert.

…I spent three years at the store, my tenure ending a decade ago, and at least once a week I would get faced with the “clerks here used to be so educated, you don’t have to pass a book test, therefore you’re dumb” attitude. This attitude was based solely upon the bias of the customer, they’d take one look at me with my super young-looking face, my funky glasses, pink/purple/blue/whatever color it was at the time hair and make false assumptions without ever speaking to me or testing my knowledge. 

[I added the emphasis]The reason I reference it? The majority of people are undoubtedly on the young side. Myself and Tardis Alert - people fast on the road to 30, or - Christ forbid, actually older than 30 - are somewhat of a small minority.

What can I say, I’m just that hip

*Allows pause for hysterical laughter from anyone who knows bugger all about me*

The point is - the physical appearance of the staff isn’t gonna factor that highly for most people who’re the age of the average tumblr user. Which is awesome. However - in doing the prep work for this post, I briefly stuck my head into some forums that are geared to the - shall we say slightly older audience - and similar quotes - not being comfortable with how the staff dressed / not feeling it’s appropriate for a bookstore - they showed up in abundance.

However - the reason why I’ve added it to the very end - I’m not sure it was a contributing factor. I just thought it was interesting - not least of all, because I’ve heard the same comments applied numerous times to some of the staff in HMV - a [primarily] UK based music / films store - which will be going out of business within the next five years.

- - - 

So those are my thoughts on why I feel Borders has gone out of business. And now, when I press Submit, it’ll join the ranks of the other Borders related posts ‘out there’ on Tumblr. And due to the volume of text, it’ll likely dissapear just as quickly - but at least I can say I had my say.

Farewell Borders - While I personally won’t mark your demise as anything more than an example of how to run a business into the ground, I do feel sorry for the people who’re going to lose their jobs, and - I would hope this goes without saying - I hope they find jobs quickly.