LOL, awesome caption there, great job and thanks for the laugh when I needed one badly!

This is great, now with my iPod touch, I can see just how much cheaper the book is on amazon before deciding to buy it.

Sweet! Now I can go there and use their wifi to download any ebook I want for *free* off the newsgroups!

And now I shall sit back and await the rants about how its stealing, wrong, etc.

@osiris73: Somewhere an author just ate a tin can of beans and cried themselves to sleep on a dirty mattress.

@osiris73: Assuming they don't block any "potentially objectionable" sites (anything and everything that could threaten the store revenue)

Dudes, post as follows:

"Thank you Borders. I will buy many books and things now from you. If only everyone else offered free WiFi I would buy more stuff at those places, too. Other retailers: offer more free WiFi so we will buy more of your stuff."

@catnapped: You've alluded to my thoughts on whether they'll block me from price checking Amazon with their own wifi.

I always thought that free Wi-Fi was a no brainer for bookstores. Every Borders I've ever been in has had people with their laptops running small business meetings in the cafe. So, you'll get more of those people. And you'll get the people who like to grab a coffee and a couple of magazines and sit in the cafe while listening to some streaming music (that's what I do). I don't think this necessarily will translate into more sales, but it will get more people in there, so at least there is a chance for more sales.

Better late than never... but not much.

Will enjoy it tho til the chain tanks.

@Fresh-Fest-1986: That was beautiful. I heart you for that.

Doesn't Borders Online actually just drop-ship from Amazon anyway?

This is also another bad thing for T-Mobile. They were the HotSpot provider for Borders. They lost Starbucks to AT&T, and now Borders to Verizon.

Ugh. Verizon.

@Al Swearengen: More people (at the big chain bookstores, anyway) does not necessarily equal more sales. When I worked at BN the vast majority of people in the cafe NEVER bought any reading material. They'd buy a drink and spend hours destroying a stack of magazines (with coffee spillage, if they were feeling generous) and then leave behind a gigantic mess. Customers who HAD bought reading material would complain to management because they couldn't get tables.

There are lots of small stores where this would be a great idea, but the chains attract a certain species of pseudo-customer who sucks up product and labor at a rate vastly disproportionate to the profit they give the company.

@sixseeds: *I forgot to add that I am no great fan of big soulless corporations but that particular customer behavior bothers me.

I think it was the CEO of Panera who equated free WiFi to bathrooms, in terms of being a basic service any place that wanted to attract customers should offer.

It'll be fun to sit in Panera, which censors their free WiFi, and surf on Borders' (next door) free WiFi, which I assume will be less censored.

@sixseeds: The B&N pseudo-customer infuriates me.

If I owned B&N, I would vastly reduce the scope of that "sit anywhere in the store as long as you like and read our books" policy. It's abused and ruins real sales. I know this because at least twice in the Park Slope, Brooklyn B&N I've left the store in frustration after stepping over--literally stepping over--people camping out mid-aisle reading books. It's not a library, people! Buy the g*ddam book or get out!

*shakes cane angrily at youngsters*

@osiris73: No rant. but enough people do that, borders will go bankrupt, and then no free wifi for you.

@georgi55: Seconded!

it's almost upsetting that this makes news. It really should be a no brainer. Wifi is like air conditioning.

This is just a reaction to Barnes and Nobles which started to offer free wifi.

This really does seem like too little, too late. Borders seems to be on their last legs in so many ways having cut store stock to almost nothing, laid off most of the experienced staff ala Circuit City, constantly offering coupons that nearly offset any store profit (which I love!) and offering such a poor website that is almost always more expensive than Amazon and frequently longer shipping times. So, hurray for moving into the 21st Century only a few years too late and when it would seem it no longer matters for you.

@PotRoast:
I believe that Borders no longer uses Amazon since they launched their own website a few years ago.

@sixseeds: I must be abnormal then. I can't go into Barnes and Noble without buying something, ever. If we decide to waste time in the coffee cafe we do so after buying whatever pile of books and magazines we wanted.

Free wifi is a big plus. I wish we had a Borders where I live. Knowing that the Borders on Michigan Ave in Chicago has wifi is a big plus. It jumps it higher on our list of places to stop when we are in town.

@Chris Walters: Ours cut down on the chairs they have. There are maybe three actual stuffed chairs off in one area. The only other seating left over by the magazines is a wood bench lining the windows.

I get annoyed by the paid wifi campers that sit and do their entire days work there thus leaving no seats in the cafe for anyone else.

@Al Swearengen: It certainly makes it 100% more likely for NaNoWriMo groups to have write-ins there. We used to meet at Borders all the time, but we switched to Panera for the WiFi two years ago.

@Chris Walters: B&N's policy (when I was there, anyway, about '04-'05) was great customer treatment (in theory) implemented horribly. Liberal return policy, quick service, and no corrections/criticism, ever. If you have a pulse and are on the store premises, you can do no wrong. Hence the proliferation of pseudo-customers.

Incidentally, at least one customer asked me if the B&N membership card entitled him to borrow books and then return them after a few weeks. He looked very confused when I directed him to his local library.

I think it's awesome. I'll definitely go to Borders and Barnes and Noble more often.

Although I have wifi at my house, sometimes it's nice to go to a coffee shop or cafe that has free wifi and just relax, eat and write. Both Panera and Corner Bakery offer wifi and I frequent those places a lot as well as my friends.

I'm no deadbeat, I spend money while I'm there which is why it's smart for places to offer free wifi. It does attract paying customers.

"and then he said something about building a community, yakkity yak."

Yer killin' me ovah hih!

Ha! That's me in that picture. My wife took that at the borders express in Washington PA.

*sigh* Nothing is free... companies make "butt loads of money" (a technical term) selling statistics: It is called data mining. These stores can easily read most, if not all, data transmitted through their routers. They don't even need a packet sniffer or spyware. Even the internet providers themselves (e.g. verizon) keep the surfing habits of their subscribers for extended periods of time. If anyone doubts this, they can call their internet provider and ask for themselves.

Data mining is a HUGE industry. It's used in both marketing and other less reputable venues (e.g. identity theft). Many companies pay handsomely for any of this information because it translates to profit (albeit, often indirectly).