The demise of Borders bookstores legitimately makes me sad. Considering I remember when I saw one for the first time at Springfield Mall when I was still just a young child, seeing their inevitable demise now is kind of like feeling the loss of something very familiar and a symbol of childhood.
Borders was always my preferred merchant of literature, over Barnes and Noble, and to some degree, even Amazon.com. Mostly because of the coupons that Borders sent out on a very frequent bonus, and it enabled me to purchase my choice of books at a discount, at mostly my own convenience. As opposed to Barnes and Noble’s bullshit “membership,” which cost actual money, in order to save 10% off purchases through the finite time frame of 365 days. I don’t like having time limits attached to my hobbies, especially ones that cost money.
It’s kind of ironic in a way, since my first exposures to Borders left me with this feeling of elitism to a degree, that bookstores of this magnitude were kind of snobby. But then Barnes and Noble came around, and kind of upped the ante, leaving Borders to be the perceived B-store in comparison. As I grew older, and had the financial means to regularly buy books, I found Borders to be preferable, and gradually got to the point where I would only go to Borders. But for reasons I can’t really comprehend, more people typically preferred going to Barnes and Noble. I think the best analogy is like Barnes and Noble was seen like Publix Supermarkets, versus Borders being the Kroger. Walmart vs. Target. McDonalds vs. Chic Fil-A. And so forth. Two entities essentially peddling the same crap, but due to marketing, demographics, and identities, one is seen as the superior brand over the other.
Unfortunately, in the war of book merchants, Borders lost, and are aggressively being liquidated as we speak. Soon, their stores will be closed down, their logos removed from shopping centers, their spaces to be transformed into department stores, and mega-gyms, and possibly Barnes and Nobles.
Seeing as how I am a sentimental person who applies emotion to situations that normally wouldn’t warrant it, I wanted the last book purchase I made from a Borders to be at least a good one. By the time I got to a Borders last week, most of the store was already ransacked, with a ton of things I typically enjoy already sold and gone. I’d have gotten a Palahniuk book, but every single copy of everything he wrote was gone, not to mention I already own them all already. Most every other author I liked were in similar boats, or being the book snob I am, I wasn’t satisfied with the mangled condition of some of these books, that overzealous sale-seekers throw around in their false sense of urgency.
Ultimately, I think I found the most poignant way to close out my history with Borders – with a baseball book. The Bullpen Diaries, which mostly revolves around relief pitching and most notably, Yankees closer, Mariano Rivera, was the last book I purchased. Seems kind of appropriate to have the guy who is the best in the world at shutting the door on baseball games, being the subject of the last book I’ll likely ever purchase at Borders before they’re completely kaput. It’s hard to say that I’ll reneg on this and get something else; with the prices being slashed again, and the already depleted status of the stores as it is now, it’s hard to say that I’ll find even the diamonds in the rough at the stores if there’s a next time that I swing by.
Not sure what I’m going to do, moving forward as it pertains to future literature. My reading has weaned off over the last few years, as I’ve become a more selective reader, and lord knows what happens to the rest of my time these days. I may do some shopping at Barnes and Noble, or simply use their stores as a live catalog, to analyze the things I’m interested in before purchasing them on Amazon. But it can’t be Amazon alone, because I like to analyze and study the book sleeves, and do some window shopping before I purchase anything too. Or maybe I’ll just reduce my reading even further. Who knows, but it certainly does suck that Borders is going out of business.
