Why Borders Failed While Barnes & Noble Survived: Lesson in

Lesson in Adaptation: Not to harp on this point (okay, maybe a little!), but if you don't keep in touch with what your customers want, are actually doing, and adapt and change to fit that, then this demise is inevitable. It's why we frequently ask all of you for suggestions/ideas/comments on how you navigate (thank you neptune for starting that timely, lovely thread recently!) and use 285Bound and would like to see out of it. Please keep them coming so we can serve you best! :thumbsup:

I'm sad to see Borders go, but as one person put it in the story, I shopped there to find what I wanted, then went home to Amazon to price compare, and usually ended up getting it through Amazon (especially if it was available for my Kindle). I love going to book stores and browsing and will miss that aspect, but survival of the fittest - Barnes and Noble will be it for now. Maybe some little bookstores can flourish again? The one type of books that I always do buy at the store are my kids' books, so I'll still need them for that. How about you guys? Do you still browse/purchase from bookstores, and if so, any particular kind of books/periodicals (I have friends who go in for the comics or fashion mags)?

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/138514209 ... c=fb&cc=fp
Why Borders Failed While Barnes & Noble Survived
by Yuki Noguchi
July 19, 2011

It appears to be all over for the Borders bookselling chain. The company will be liquidated — meaning sold off in pieces — and almost 11,000 employees will lose their jobs. The chain's 400 remaining stores will close their doors by the end of September.

Along with competitor Barnes & Noble, Borders pioneered the book megastore business. But Borders made some critical missteps over the years that cost it the business. The vast tracts of retail space that Borders will soon vacate speak to a gargantuan business that essentially killed itself. Borders also had an early technical advantage: a superior inventory system that could optimize, and even predict, what consumers across the nation would buy.

But in the mid-1990s, Borders lost its edge. "It made a pretty big bet in merchandising. [Borders] went heavy into CD music sales and DVD, just as the industry was going digital. Barnes & Noble also invested in beefing up its online sales. Eventually, it also developed its own e-reader, the Nook. Borders did not. Instead, it expanded its physical plant, refurbished its stores and outsourced its online sales operation to Amazon.