RIP Borders - Borders Closing Its Doors

After a great 40 year run, Borders Books and Music is closing their doors. I never worked at Borders but it was the first book store I would visit on my own. I would sit there and coo at the enormity of the written word. It is very sad to hear this news. I know we all saw it coming but it really is still shocking that this is the end of Borders. I suppose it's a lot more shocking and sad for the 1100 employees that are about to lose their job. I remember back in the 90's when Border's became popular when it was putting the so called smaller boutique shops out of business. I remember the disdain I had for this and I promised I wouldn't frequent Border's. I would only patronize the local mom and pop book stores. However, in the end, Border's won because they had a much larger selection of magazines and most importantly the introduction of the coffee cafe. I loved to sit and drink coffee and read the periodicals.

In the end, the demise of Border's will be blamed on the fact that they denied and ignored the power of the Internet. They literally had the same frame of mind as folks that would say the Internet won't last. I remember saying to my friend, 17 years ago, do you have an email address?  She then proclaimed, "NO, and I'm never getting one." Today that same friend is a Facebook addict and I remind her all the time the ridiculousness of her past statement. It was pretty much the same attitude Border's asserted when Amazon was born. They waited too long to catch up to technology.

The other thing that was great about Border's was they were the first ones to carry music as well as books. You could always pick up the latest record from your favorite artist and also discover new ones. I bought so much independent music at Border's back when people still purchased music. It was also very typical for an artist to have Border's on their list of tour dates. And Border's supported artistry so much they would allow the artist to sell their Cd's and allow them to keep 100 percent of the profit. Rest in Peace Border's. I will miss you.