Robin Agnew
A few years back I would have cheered the demise of Borders, a super store that viewed us as ant like detrius, ready to be quashed. We surely couldn't match the magnitude of their book orders, or the magnitude of their author star power. We had to operate like guerilla fighters, thanks to Borders. And in fact I talked to a fellow bookseller this morning who WAS delighted - citing the aformentioned quashing of many, many independents. The thought of this particular bookseller was that they got what they deserved.
And yet. My husband's first job in Ann Arbor was as a Border's employee, back when they were one of the greatest bookstores on earth, with backlist so deep it and clerks so intelligent (they had to take a very difficult test to become one) that there was no comparison. We still know folks who are working there who are going to lose their jobs. That is beyond sad. Borders is an anchor of our downtown, and one of the last local standing businesses in the university saturated part of town they are in, which is filled with chain restaurants and even a Rite Aid and a 7 Eleven.
I am hopeful of course that we'll benefit by picking up some of their mystery readers. There are plenty of them. But it still seems like a sad day for bookselling in general, and probably not a good sign for the future of bookselling. The bookseller I talked about in the first paragraph thinks the benefits will out weigh the negatives. I guess that remains to be seen, but I love books and bookselling. I hope my fellow bookseller is right.
Adios, Borders.
