Borders trouble, could lead to BIG TROUBLE!

[olshanski]

And I thought this was a thread about B2.

 

[kitsune9]

Borders has been in trouble for some time. Their 5 year stock price had a high of $25 and it's now trading at just under a dollar. It sucks to be an employee there if they had bought into any kind of DRIP plan or employee stock purchase plan.

 

[Holy Bovine]

As someone who doesn't frequent the big box book stores (Chapters/Coles/Indigo is the big chain here in Canada) I see this as a golden opportunity for small bookstores to thrive. Many already are (in my hometown there is a 'mom & pop' bookstore that has been in business for 40 years and still going strong). Of course most people (especially gamers) are pretty cheap and will go for the amazon discount every time then bitch there is no free gaming at their local gameshop (or that they don't have one/it closed).

 

[carmachu]

Cnt see it affecting paiazo that much. 100k? I rarely see more then one book from them on the shelves. I see more FFG ones then Paizo.

 

[gamerprinter]

Cnt see it affecting paiazo that much. 100k? I rarely see more then one book from them on the shelves. I see more FFG ones then Paizo.

Being a Pathfinder GM, player and 3pp developer, I am hopeful that Paizo gets a minimal hit in this regard.

GP

 

[jefgorbach]

Daily Finance confirms Borders was counting on an Xmas miracle to reduce ongoing operating losses. However Management was on the Naughty list making the long expected bankruptcy an almost certainty sometime this year as remaining suppliers refuse to continue extending credit for unpaid inventory.

Furthering the depressing news is the company's CIO and General Counsel manned this sinking ship's lifeboat yesterday. Investors, who saw their shares end the year at a measly $0.96 (below the NYSE required $1 minimal trading value) are already following suit, forcing shares down another dime this morning on higher volume than average for the past 6 months. Expect the NYSE to delist the stock should this trend continue, forcing it into the more risky universe of penny-stocks.

BTW hopes of a Barnes & Nobles buyout foundered last August when they began looking for someone to buy them!

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Borders: Getting Closer to the Bookseller's Final Chapter - DailyFinance

Two Top Borders Executives Resign - FoxBusiness.com

Borders Death Watch

 

[Mark CMG]

Borders has been circling the drain for a while.

(. . .)

Really, it's been obvious for the past decade or so.

Yup. This isn't really new news. I'm surprised they still have any locations open. A couple of summers ago a friend who worked for Bennigan's restaurant showed up to work and found that her job had disappeared over night. That was a sudden closing with the whole chain going under in just a couple of months and hardly anyone expecting how quickly it happened.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8y072L4wAc]YouTube - Bennigan's Restaurants Close Across Country[/ame]

 

[fuzzlewump]

Of course most people (especially gamers) are pretty cheap and will go for the amazon discount every time then bitch there is no free gaming at their local gameshop (or that they don't have one/it closed).

I prefer penny-pinching money grubber, thank you.

Also, free gaming at my place! Everyone's invited!

 

[billd91]

One of my earliest memories of my D&D hobby was saving up my allowance and going to the Waldenbooks in Sooner Fashion Mall. I would pick up the latest copy of Dragon Magazine, and drool over the Companion Rules Boxed Set that someday, someday I would be able to afford. (Sadly, it went out of print before I could afford it. But not-so-sadly, the Rules Cyclopedia came out soon afterward, and it is hands-down the best D&D book I've ever bought.)

Waldenbooks certainly holds a place in my heart as well. Before I could get to the nearest game store easily, the closest mall had Waldenbooks. We were playing out of the red box and starting to transition to AD&D. I got my first Players Handbook there with my own money ($11). I also used to go in with scratch paper and a pencil and copy out the attack tables from the DMG as our characters leveled up. I spent a LOT of time in front of the D&D display.

 

[Ulrick]

Borders has been circling the drain for a while.

Basically their competent management left after Kmart bought them in 1992. Kmart merged the successful Borders with not quite as successful Waldenbooks, then spun them off.

Really, it's been obvious for the past decade or so. One of the primary symptoms is that they hadn't updated any of their POS or back office systems since the mid-nineties. They just started refreshing these systems last year. I know one other national chain in the same condition, Blockbuster.

Bad management, late movement into online sales, ancillary sales, and electronic media doomed them.

So Sears, Kmart, Borders, and Waldenbooks are all part of the same inbred corporation? Oh good lord.