The winds of change over at bankrupt Borders are blowing the company from its current Ann Arbor, Mich. headquarters over to Metro Detroit. [More]
borders
In Search Of The Mythical 10% Additional Borders Discount
By 4.6.11
Do you live near a closing Borders store? Did you receive an e-mail last week promising 10% off in addition to rewards-card discount and liquidation markdowns? Devin did, and he and other customers were frustrated when Borders employees wouldn’t give him the discount promised in the e-mail. Except the message didn’t promise any additional discount. Or maybe it did. [More]
Closing Borders Store Tells Customers Where To Find A Restroom
By 4.4.11
We’ve gotta hand it to the employee at a doomed Borders store who still has a sense of humor about the company they work for going down the drain. [More]
Borders Employee: I Don't Want To Mislead Customers To Sell Rewards Cards
By 3.17.11
Reader “Ann” works at Borders, and wants Consumerist readers to know that many employees there find the constant flogging of the rewards program problematic. Ann, for one, found a sales script that employees are encouraged to use so troubling that she wrote in to Consumerist about her concerns. [More]
Scoping Out The Sad State Of Affairs At A Borders Liquidation Sale
By 3.3.11
The liquidators have swooped into Borders with giant black and yellow signs screaming 20-40% off. But are these sales a good deals for consumers? I visited one to find out. [More]
Scenes From A Borders Liquidation Sale
By 2.23.11
Savvy shoppers know that there aren’t any true deals to be found at the liquidation sales of closing retailers, but most people aren’t savvy shoppers. Employees of doomed Borders stores are sharing their experiences online, and report that their stores are doing record business now that the liquidators have arrived and the garish “store closing” signs are up. Thanks to consumer confusion, business is good at the stores that aren’t closing, either. Who knew bankruptcy was so good for business? [More]
Borders Turns The Page To Chapter 11
By 2.16.11
We knew this was going to happen, and now it has come to pass: Borders has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to shutter 30% of its stores as a result. [More]
Borders Prepares To File For Chapter 11
By 2.12.11
After failing to keep pace with the boom of e-readers and develop a strong digital presence elsewhere on the interwebs Borders Group Inc. could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-protection as early as Monday or Tuesday. [More]
Borders Delays Payments To Vendors For 2nd Month
By 1.31.11
Stumbling book store chain Borders has said that it would delay payments to landlords and vendors for the 2nd month in a row. In a terse press release, the company said the move was meant to “help the company maintain liquidity while it seeks to complete a refinancing or restructuring of its existing credit facilities and other obligations.” In other words, they’re trying cling to cash and stave off bankruptcy. Borders also announced receiving a $550 million loan from GE Capital. Better keep pushing those loyalty cards to customers that could become worthless pieces of plastic if the company goes belly up, Borders clerks, you’re our only hope! Customers, if you got a Borders gift card for Christmas, now might be a good time to cash it in. [More]
Borders Meets With Publishers Instead Of Paying Them
By 1.4.11
Though they swear everything is hunky-dory, Borders is delaying payments to big publishers and setting up some coffee klatches to talk it over. Is Borders reaching its final chapter? [More]
Is Ordering Drinks Without Ice Just A Scam To Get More Delicious Beverage?
By 7.28.10
I like to order my cold drinks (especially soda) without ice, because–shocking revelation–I don’t really like ice. I didn’t realize that all of these years, I’ve been running a massive scam on the eateries of America, weaseling extra beverages out of them with my innocent request. That’s what a barista at a Borders store accused JD of doing when he ordered an iced chai with no ice. She gave JD what he describes as “half a cup of lukewarm chai” (pictured). New Borders policy, or was she a vigilante anti-ice crusader? [More]
Up-To-The-Minute Coupon Codes For Hot Sales
By 6.23.10
The deal aficionados on the FatWallet message boards have various discussion threads devoted to providing the most current coupons for a slew of stores. Rather then dig for them, here’s a master list of their official store coupons and clearance threads. Members routinely get rid of dead coupons and post new ones, so this is definitely one to bookmark: [More]
Borders's Bold New Business Strategy: Crazy Pricing
By 4.1.10
Troubled and experiencing a turnover in its leadership, perhaps Borders is trying a new strategy: completely illogical pricing. Hey, it works for Target. (Thanks to Asa in New York for the photo!) [More]
Borders CEO Quits After A Year On The Job
By 1.26.10
Borders CEO Ron Marshall has decided to move on to better things after only a year. The troubled bookseller is currently in the process of closing 182 of its Waldenbooks stores (more than half of them), and is generally being frowned upon due to its lack of initiative in getting into the e-reader market. (Amazon has the Kindle, B&N has the Nook, and Borders has um…hmmm…) Now they’ll have to find a new CEO to turn things around. [More]
Borders Crushes Employee Morale To Push Copies Of "Piano Teacher"
By 1.6.10
There is some sort of epic battle going on inside Zone #5 of dying book seller Borders to move as many units of the novel The Piano Teacher as possible. And goddamnit, people are just not pulling their weight, according to a string of emails from Zone VP Mike’s demoralized underlings posted on LiveJournal: “To the GMs of these 16 stores, thanks for nothing. Had you managed your inventory, processed your freight and/or effectively executed a simple expectation (SELL at least one Make/Key ITEM EVERY DAY), your team (Zone 5) would have won…If you can deliver we will finish one, one-hundreth of a percent ahead of Zone 3 for PTD sales of Piano Teacher. If not, we lose…again.” [More]
Borders Gets Into Ebook Business, Relaunches Shortcovers As Kobo Books
By 12.16.09
Shortcovers, an ebook retailer that I recommended to a Sony Reader owner last month, has morphed into something called kobobooks.com, and it’s now partially owned by Borders. If you own an ereader other than a Kindle, or if you read ebooks primarily on a smartphone, you might want to add it to your list of sources for ebooks. [More]
Borders To Close 200 Bookstores
By 11.6.09
Borders announced that 200 of their stores will be, in the words of their CEO, “right-sized” by January. The shredding focuses on Waldenbooks, Borders Express and Borders Outlet stores, mainly those in malls and airports. We kinda saw this coming.
Borders To Offer Free Wifi
By 10.1.09
Later this month, Borders and Verizon will roll out free Wifi access in “virtually all” Borders stores, with no password or access fee required. Borders’ CEO Ron Marshall says their goal is to extend “the open atmosphere of exploration that is at the core of every great bookstore experience,” and then he said something about building a community, yakkity yak. You know how press releases are. Whatever, Marshall, we’re just happy you’re offering free Wifi access!
