Big Discounts As Remaining Borders Bookstores Prepare To Close
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Beginning Friday, everything at the remaining Borders bookstores is 40 percent off.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Mary Frances Bragiel reports, this comes as a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge approved the liquidation of the company, and the retailer begins shutting down stores good.
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Attorneys for Borders say they're hoping for a last minute deal with Books-A-Million, which could save at least 35 stores.
But at the only remaining Borders store in the city, at 150 N. State St., the signs are large and plenty – "Going out of business, everything must go."
"I hate the fact that there is no bookstore now in the Loop," said Ceil Rasco. "I can't believe this is happening."
Rasco was one of several standing outside the retailer, waiting to take advantage of the sale that begins Friday – 40 percent off just about everything.
"I kind of figured that by two, three weeks after this, that everything, that the stock's going to be picked clean," a man said.
A woman in line, who didn't want to be identified as she used to work for a publisher says despite technology like Kindle she doesn't believe the traditional book will go out of style.
"It's a trend that I think is going to swoop back up. People will know what they miss," she said. "But it's going to take a while. We're going to hurt for a while."
As recently as the beginning of this year, Ann Arbor, Mich.-Borders operated eight Chicago stores, and several more in the suburbs. Many of the Borders stores, including the locations in the old Goldblatt's building in Uptown and along the "Miracle Mile" of 95th Street in Beverly, were heralded as the catalysts for economic revitalization in their areas.
But all the city Borders locations except the State Street store, and most of the suburban locations, closed this spring when the company reorganized in Bankruptcy Court. In all, 228 stores closed as a result of that move.
