The Borders bankruptcy court judge yesterday approved the liquidation of the 40-year-old company, but with a twist: up to 35 of the 399 stores to be shuttered may be bought by Books-A-Million.
For several weeks, it had been rumored that Books-A-Million was interested in some of the stores. Yesterday a Borders lawyer said in court that the two companies are negotiating for BAM to buy 30 stores with an option to buy five more, saving as many as 1,500 jobs from the 10,700 that will vanish when Borders closes. There is some urgency about the deal since BAM wants the stores as is, not after a going-out-of-business sale. According to the Wall Street Journal, if a deal is reached, BAM will buy the stores from the two main liquidators--Gordon Brothers and Hilco--and the unsecured creditors' committee will support the deal only if it adds more value for them.
The stores in which BAM expressed interest range across the country, from Maine to California, with the single-largest group in Pennsylvania. Most are not in large cities but are in regions where BAM, whose 231 stores are in the South and Midwest, has little or no presence. BAM opened in at least several locations of Borders stores vacated in the first wave of closings after the company's bankruptcy filing in February.
Books-A-Million would "acquire the inventory and merchandise at the included stores, then negotiate with landlords on leases," according to Reuters.
The sales at most stores begin today. Borders indicated that gift cards will be honored during the sales, Borders Rewards Plus members will continue to receive discounts through August 5, and Borders Bucks will be honored until they expire July 31.
---
While lamenting the loss of jobs for so many booksellers and the blow to the book business, the American Booksellers Association and Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association both had advice on measures indies can take in reaction to the closing of Borders.
For the ABA's "action kit," click here.
Deb Leonard of GLiBA made these suggestions for booksellers near a Borders that's closing:
1. Pick up some new fixtures for a bargain price.
2. Check out their staff for possible new hires.
3. Contact community organizations that usually do event orders through Borders stores, and offer them the same discount that Borders offered to move their business to your store.
4. Continue to beat the drum about buy local, and how your store contributes to the community, while buying online does not.
5. If you sell e-books, make sure that you trumpet that fact in every possible way: signs on your front door, signs on bookshelves, written on the bottom of your store receipts or bookmarks, or heck, get a tattoo if you are so inclined, but make sure that every customer knows that you sell e-books!
---
Among many touching tributes to the fallen company are some on a Facebook page for former Borders employees. For example, Neil Carver wrote:
"Jan 3, 1990, chalklined and fixtured Store #02 in Columbus. Nearly died on day 3 of the sort due to rupturing appendix, but made it back after a week or so... spent the next 19 years at Borders. Shit canned March of 2009. I did not miss Borders then. It had ceased to be an organization worth caring about, because it had ceased to be an organization that cared... but what it had been was culturally powerful and intensely personal... as demonstrated by this page and all these people. My thought... do not mourn what has passed, but remember what was so great... the passion for knowledge and art and the written word, the cultural touchstone that was built on this passion, and most of all the people who generated all of that passion... and take that to wherever you are now, wherever you go next. Borders proved that a business and a job could be a community and a lifestyle that transcended base mercantilism. It doesn't matter that it didn't last, what matters is that it was, and you were part of it."
---
And PBS NewsHour's Arts Beat spoke at length about the state of bookselling with booksellers at eight major indies. Our favorite reply came from Neil Strandberg, manager of operations at the Tattered Cover, Denver, Colo., who said in part:
"I have every reason to believe that in 10 years' time there will be a retail setting that everyone recognizes as the logical descendent of today's retail bookstores. The trick for all of us is to juggle declining printed book sales with new products and new services and the appropriate amount of real estate in the right location. Hardly an easy task but if the indie community has anything going for it, it is the fact that we are a feisty, determined, creative bunch that love what we do. Taking a cue from some of the technologies that been so disruptive, collectively the indie community is crowd-sourcing the sustainable bookstore-like thing of tomorrow. One of us is going to figure this out."
On Monday Shelf Awareness will publish more commentary about the end of Borders and the challenges of bookselling.