Wednesday 5 January 2011

Borders: the end is near

We lost them in the UK and I'm still mourning and now it looks certain that the US is about to lose the toubled book chain Borders. We only had a Borders superstore for three years in the nearby village of Talbot Green and I spent money in there each and every week, often visiting twice a week but the company pulled out of the UK market a couple of years ago.


The troubled Borders Group, the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States, announced Thursday it’s delaying payments to some publishers as it attempts to restructure its credit lines. The news sent shares tumbling 11 percent.
“As part of this potential refinancing, Borders has determined that it is necessary to restructure its vendor financing arrangements and is delaying payments to certain of its vendors,” company spokeswoman Mary Davis told Reuters. Although she declined to provide the names of the publishers, she said Borders was working with them to restructure their arrangements with the chain.
The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based bookseller reported earlier this month that an inability to secure adequate financing could result in a “liquidity shortfall” in early 2011, meaning the chain would run out of cash to conduct day-to-day business.

3 comments:

David Cranmer said...

I hate to see any book outlet disappear.

Ron Scheer said...

The Borders in my neighborhood claims to be closing its doors within the next few days. I stopped by last night and picked up another armload of books at 40% off. Tables of recent trade paperbacks are 75% off. I may go again today, though I don't expect to find anything more. A huge 2-level store has contracted its display area to about 25% of what it used to be.

Given the competitiveness and marketing pizzazz of UK bookstores, I'm not surprised that Borders found it rough going there.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Ron that's what happened here - I spent a fortune at first 50% off, then 40% off and then in the last two days 90% off. I had a load of bargains but I felt terrible.

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