Scavenging At Borders...Almost
So Borders goes bankrupt. Cool. So there has to be a sale, right. Just to make sure, I call my local Borders store and no one answers. This shocks me because I'm thinking that perhaps they've already closed. My impression was that they had till April. So I call back.
"Borders, books and music," a despondent sounding young man says.
"You guys got a sale going on?"
"Yes...we do," and then a sigh.
"Thanks."
So I hurry down there. As expected, the place is swarming with vultures picking at the guts of this almost dead book store. There were more people in there than I had ever seen in that place. Keep in mind this is the same store where I attend my writers group, so I'm in there once a week for different amounts of time. I couldn't help but smile at all the book readers. No one had any less than three books in their hands. A line to purchase books wrapped around so many book cases that it made more sense to measure the line in minutes rather than length.
Half an hour, at least.
It didn't matter what section, upstairs or downstairs--people were buying today, bad economy and all. Not even the rain would stop them. There was even a large number of families that came down. Couldn't believe it. Borders was offering a swapmeet of new books. If they offered punch and pie, they would have achieved unsurpassable sales numbers.
But something was happening below the surface, a passive aggressiveness, maybe. You could hear it in the mumbles of patrons, see it in the faces of the soon to be laid off.
As I perused a copy of Kevin Brockmeier's The Illumination, I overheard a brief exchange between a customer and an employee. Apparently, the customer implied that the prices were still too expensive. The employee said in a lifted voice, "Well some people just want to sit in front of their computer and stare at Amazon all day."
I thought that was interesting. Was the employee actually implying that Amzon.com was the cause of all this? Was Amazon.com the cause of thousands of lost jobs?
So now I take a different look at my surroundings. Upstairs I see forty Steve Harvey books for sale. Forty. Not that loyal Harvey fans would buy his book here anyway. My opinion, it's the wrong demographic for that title. Borders just decided to have forty plus books for reasons I don't know about. There were at least the same number of some book about Keith Richards. It still sold for over $25. At first this didn't matter to me, and then I go check out some of my favorite authors, hoping to find a jewel for a price I could afford. I find four copies of Kurt Vonnegut's new short story collection. $20 a piece. This actually pisses me off. Because upstairs they have more copies of stuff published fifty years ago. I really wanted While Mortals Sleep, but not for that price. Just because Borders is bankrupt doesn't mean I have to go bankrupt.
Now that I'm angry, I see the store for what it is. A great huge portion of these books should have stayed in some slush pile somewhere. Wall to wall mediocrity, sold for way too much. I'll give an example.
To read more follow the link.
http://ulharper.com/blog/category/blo...
"Borders, books and music," a despondent sounding young man says.
"You guys got a sale going on?"
"Yes...we do," and then a sigh.
"Thanks."
So I hurry down there. As expected, the place is swarming with vultures picking at the guts of this almost dead book store. There were more people in there than I had ever seen in that place. Keep in mind this is the same store where I attend my writers group, so I'm in there once a week for different amounts of time. I couldn't help but smile at all the book readers. No one had any less than three books in their hands. A line to purchase books wrapped around so many book cases that it made more sense to measure the line in minutes rather than length.
Half an hour, at least.
It didn't matter what section, upstairs or downstairs--people were buying today, bad economy and all. Not even the rain would stop them. There was even a large number of families that came down. Couldn't believe it. Borders was offering a swapmeet of new books. If they offered punch and pie, they would have achieved unsurpassable sales numbers.
But something was happening below the surface, a passive aggressiveness, maybe. You could hear it in the mumbles of patrons, see it in the faces of the soon to be laid off.
As I perused a copy of Kevin Brockmeier's The Illumination, I overheard a brief exchange between a customer and an employee. Apparently, the customer implied that the prices were still too expensive. The employee said in a lifted voice, "Well some people just want to sit in front of their computer and stare at Amazon all day."
I thought that was interesting. Was the employee actually implying that Amzon.com was the cause of all this? Was Amazon.com the cause of thousands of lost jobs?
So now I take a different look at my surroundings. Upstairs I see forty Steve Harvey books for sale. Forty. Not that loyal Harvey fans would buy his book here anyway. My opinion, it's the wrong demographic for that title. Borders just decided to have forty plus books for reasons I don't know about. There were at least the same number of some book about Keith Richards. It still sold for over $25. At first this didn't matter to me, and then I go check out some of my favorite authors, hoping to find a jewel for a price I could afford. I find four copies of Kurt Vonnegut's new short story collection. $20 a piece. This actually pisses me off. Because upstairs they have more copies of stuff published fifty years ago. I really wanted While Mortals Sleep, but not for that price. Just because Borders is bankrupt doesn't mean I have to go bankrupt.
Now that I'm angry, I see the store for what it is. A great huge portion of these books should have stayed in some slush pile somewhere. Wall to wall mediocrity, sold for way too much. I'll give an example.
To read more follow the link.
http://ulharper.com/blog/category/blo...
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