I Read the News Today Oh Boy
I just saw it, as reported in the Wall Street Journal; Borders Books and Music is liquidating. Closing up shop. Disappearing. All the stores will be gone by September.
This hurts. It’s yet another example of the financial shenanigans that the money people keep perpetrating. The deals that these people actually pull off lead to private jets that fly to private islands. The ones that go bust lead to… the closing of 399 remaining stores, 10,700 people losing their jobs, on top of a first round of store closings, a month or two ago.
For me, it’s also personal. Even though I’m not an employee. Never was one. I don’t know anyone that works at a Borders. I don’t own any stock.
What hurts the most to me is that this means another place where I would escape the drudge, where I would be surrounded by collected books and magazines, on various and sundry topics, not the least of which is all things automotive, from around the world… is soon to be no more.
As for national chains, that leaves Barnes & Noble, God bless them. That’s it. Any others? None that I’m aware of. So, if those stores close, then what?
Oh, sure, you can go to websites, where you can find some magazine content. Or you can pay exorbitant amounts to iTunes for one-off electronic versions of some of the magazines.
But it’s not the same. It’s not the same as thumbing through an issue of Thoroughbred and Classic Cars, or Octane, or Evo, or the one-marque books like Forza or 911 and Porsche World or Performance BMW or Mercedes Enthusiast or Ultra VW or the motorcycle magazines like Bike and Motorcycle Sport & Leisure, or the one-offs like Top Gear Supercars, or the new efforts like 0 to 60, all in the course of an afternoon or evening.
It’s not the same as propping oneself up, leaning on a shelf, feeling your feet go numb by the time you get to the want-ads, or the outrageous comparison tests. Or lounging in a comfy chair with a pile of reading material by one’s side.
And, remember, in these stores you can lose yourself on whatever topic interests you. Because you’re sure to find the work of like-minded souls, who publish books and magazines on that very topic, somewhere in the world.
What? You say that that’s the problem? That people just hang out in these stores, reading? Considering the literacy rate in the world these days, might that be viewed as a good thing?
But they don’t actually buy anything? You say that, most of the time they just camp out, plugged into their laptops, enjoying the free WiFi?
That may be. But, if it’s so, it’s not exactly the worst of human pursuits, either… to read, to learn about something. Maybe some restrictions should be put on who settles down, where and for how long.
For Borders, though, it sounds like it’s too late.
Actually, the seconds may be ticking down for all of us. Think of a world without any Borders, or Barnes & Noble, or independents, whose numbers are also shrinking. What then? Unless you’ve done enough financial wrangling to be able to afford a subscription to the offshore magazines, or pay for their tablet content, or fly to the UK on a monthly basis, how are you going to keep up?
I know. Let’s all petition John Malone and Liberty Media to move ahead with their acquisition of Barnes & Noble as quickly as humanly possible… with the proviso that the stores stay open!
This opinion was written and expressed by Dick Badler. Badler is a contributing writer to TFLcar.com and a longtime car guy.
*Expressed opinions are not necessarily that of TFLcar.com
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