illennium

Got an email that one of the Manhattan locations starts liquidating tomorrow. Everything (with "limited exceptions") is 20%-40% off but they won't take coupons. Not worth it yet, although as usual by the time it is worth it, there won't be much left.

maxfisher

Does the email say that they won't take coupons? A couple of my local stores are closing and I got an email that says "Save more with your Borders Rewards Benefits and accrue Borders Bucks with qualifying purchases." I'm tempted to head down to one tomorrow. The only way these closings would have anything even close to a 'deal' would be if they allow people to use coupons with the 20% in-store discount.

Edit to add: Nevermind, just saw that the coupon itself says it's not valid at closing stores. Kinda crappy, considering their site says something about how all Borders Rewards benefits will still be honored at closing stores. Guess they're just talking about Borders Bucks.

dino88

^Coupons discounts are taken off the list price, so it wouldn't really make a difference if they accepted coupons or not.

greylocke5

I just called Borders 800 number and the service rep looked up my old orders, and then placed a new order for the two CDs that had been canceled; most importantly, she applied the 33% off to the new order. (It was a tedious process that took about 15 minutes total but she did not argue with me over the % off.) I then received email confirmation of my new order so I am all set.

So You should be able to get the 40% off applied if you decide to reorder your item.

illennium

Yes, the email says "No Coupons."

chard31

Yup, I still have about $100 in gift cards...

There was a 50% coupon a few weeks ago, so I printed it out and went to the store and even with the 50% off coupon and gift cards, there was nothing there that interested me...

Guess I need to start buying stuff anyway just to use the cards...

rmw650

Glad I now know that coupons won't be able to be utilized for this closing sale for the specific stores then. Thanks for the heads up guys and gals.

Ghostbuster

I stopped by the local Borders today, hoping to pick up a couple books at 40% off. Every section that I visited (Science, Computers, Science-Fiction, etc.) had a 20% off sign. I left empty-handed. Once all books are 40% off, I will probably stop by again to see what is left.

The store was filled with people, and the check-out line was 2-3 times longer than during the lead-up to Christmas (stretching to near the back of the store). I can't help but consider most of the people clueless given that Borders has offered 33% off coupons nearly every week over the course of the last several months.

BuckNaked2k

Welcome to the world of liquidation sales!

kenbenobi

I was going to post basically the same thing! There was NO parking at my store! People created spots, and there still was no room. The checkout line was ridiculously long, but I had to wait in it cuz I had "ship to store" items to pick up. The sign said everything was 10-30% off, but like you said, they have 33% or 40% off coupons like every other week, so it's just silly! Needless to say, I didn't even bother looking around. I got my stuff and left.

illennium

To be fair, coupons can only be used on one item, whereas right now everything is discounted. So there is a difference.

kodave

My experience with Borders has been that if its a "regular" type item, even with 40% off, only then does the price come close to Amazon's for the vast majority of things since Border charges list price (and on occasions I've found stickers charging more than list price!).

The store near me is closing and they had someone with a sign on the street corner saying "20-40% off" or something like that. The parking lot was absolutely packed. I didn't even try to venture into the store because of the crowd - plus I didn't think there would be any good bargains.

I'm sure anything that's a quick mover was shipped out to a Borders warehouse or to another store to sell at full price. The only thing that would really interest me would be some of their normal bargain books - sometimes you can find a cool coffee table book for a few bucks, and if those bargain books are discounted an additional 20-40% you might find something neat for extra cheap.

This sort of reminds me of when Virgin Megastore closed. All prices were marked up to their original list prices - DVDs that came out 7 years ago were priced at $25 or so then marked down from there. I went in during the 40% off phase and there were some people walking around with literally armfuls of DVDs. With 40% off you might as well walked down to Target and paid the $10 or $15 regular price they were asking. I was conflicted on whether to feel bad that these people were essentially overpaying for DVDs during a liquidation, or whether it was their own fault for not being smarter.

I can only imagine the situation at Borders is similar, though I'm sure there are some exceptions. There are probably a lot of people thinking they're getting some slick deals - probably people from Slickdeals.

And yeah, Borders coupons are off list price so they wouldn't do much good much good here even if they were accepted. I wouldn't panic about using Borders gift cards yet - yeah their financial state is crap but I doubt they're going to go completely out of business soon. And in a almost-worse-case-scenario, just redeem the gift cards online, especially if you're paying over $25 for something and qualify for free shipping (or whatever their threshold is).

kodave

I'm pretty sure the one at The District is closing. The only OC survivors are Costa Mesa South Coast Plaza, Brea, Mission Viejo (both the regular and express stores), and Rancho Santa Margarita.

jimac51

That's the best piece of info so far in this thread. Thanks for the heads up.
Our local (Whitehall,Pa.)GOB sale stard yesterday. First thing was the incredible absence of GOB!! All Sales final!! Fixtures For Sale!! yellow,black and white signs. The liquidator hadn't gotten there yet,so the signs were in the back room(there is probably a legal reason for this,but never let it be said that Borders employee got a sweat from physical work. This coming from an ex-employee who broke the seal of the first truck for this very store in 1999.Even the corporate new store team wasn't going to push themselves. They thought "manual pallet jack" were a trio of temps.).Even a piece of carboard and a Sharpie from Stasples would have helped as all the mangers with their bluetooth(blueteeth?)devices hanging out and explaining to the suckers the plan.And suckers,indeed. Bigger than Black Friday and the Sat. before Christmas combined. As Groucho might quip:If they went out of business every year,they would still be in business.Next:Starbucks(under the Seattle's Best shield),vacated the premises,even taking the bagged coffee with them.Bring a thermos,sell a cup for $5 and make some dough 'cause you sure won't save anything at the register. I'm ashamed to admit I did buy,though the biggest purchase were two hand puppets that were unique to the building and with all of the commotion,my wife and I didn't want to lose them.A marked down bag of Christmas chocolates(6.99 to.98 cents)was the best bargain and the last one.Also,they pull the Borders stickers from all purchases,including clearance and mark over the original UPC( though not going through cellophane,if there). You may protest,but I don't know how far you will get.Besides the GOB signs in the backroom,I could see pulled merchandise,including a rack of cards,probably a consignment item,which you can't blame anyone,since Borders never paid for this unsold stuff and it doesn't legally belong to them.
Still,I forgot to spend my $4.39 gift certificate this time. Was hoping to buy a small coffee,but,alas.I did get to tell the store manager that this company doesn't know how to go out of business properly.
A note on fixtures. Some of the metal gift/dust collectors fixtures are not for sale. But some of those end cap wooden pieces,if not attached to the gondola(the rest of the fixture)are mighty strong and wouldn't look too shabby in a back room or basement. No prices on them yet,as well as the furniture(that should get a chuckle,sweat stains included). Fixture prices usually don't get lower than inital offering,but with the probability of the whole chain going South by this time next year,one wonders where they'll all go.Can you say "lightning hitting an abandoned warehouse at 2AM"?
In the meantime,the recently(last year,this time)demise of the last Waldenbooks here has been filled by one of those discount book guys calling themselves Read Green Books,with one wondering if the "read" is pronounced "red" and why. Lots of lightly used books,some library extras and some real overstocks,but hasn't it been a while since Rush wrote a book? Like falling back into the 1980s,waiting for a Jane Fonda book with Hanoi Jane(I really love her) in leotards to show up,and voila,there it is. Goodwill price:25 cents. Here:$4.99.Paying the mall rent. Priceless. Brainless.Worthless.

lordzeppelin

I'm sure the manager who is about to be unemployed was really thankful for your douchey expertise. Congrats.

kenbenobi

Based on what I saw at my store, I completely agree with you. People are overpaying, just because it is a GOB sale. People just don't research these days. Except for us cheap SOB's, of course...

kenbenobi

True, but I didn't see many people holding stacks and stacks of books. Most people had one or two items, and they were with another person, so they could have each used a coupon... But I suppose for the few people that did buy many items, they wouldn't have wanted to make 5 trips to the store, just so they could use a coupon on each item...

BuckNaked2k

rmw650

Went to the Mount Prospect, IL one this morning and was it ever packed as DVDs and books were starting at 20% off but not too many deals for right now. Going to wait just a bit before returning there.

chard31

Went to my local Borders today just to look around and the parking lot was way overfilled...

WDF?

The general public is nuckin' futs!!!

izatright

From the stories, sounds like you're wrong. They always milk the most out these sales and get as much as possible. As for fixtures, if they're not selling them it's because they're sending them to other stores (that aren't closing) or because they can't. Some fixtures have to be sent back to the copyright owners or the company they're licensing / renting it from or else they simply agreed not to do so when they originally received the item.

whotony

zzzzzzzzzzz

BuckNaked2k

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

- H. L. Mencken

Vendetta-AKK

Thanks for this very well spoken criticism. I have several friends who work at the store in my town that is GOB. They have all had the very difficult process of finding out they are going to lose the jobs they enjoyed made worse by the predominate rudeness of those coming to clean the corpse.

I am not saying that people should not shop the liquidation if they chose, but please have the decency to realize that many of the employees have worked at the store for a long time and are losing their jobs.

Living Deadpan

Yes, I discovered this awkwardly at a Tower Records clearance years ago. I'd brought up dozens of CDs & DVDs to the counter, and the checkout process was made even longer because every single one of them had a security device they needed to unlock. I tried making small talk through the silence & monotony of his job:

ME: I bet you'll be relieved when this is all over.
CLERK: No! I loved this place, I'm going to miss it.

So then I stand there guiltily as I hear the clacking of a dozen more security cases being unlocked & trashed.

(Apologies for being OT, but this thread's already so OT that being off-topic is now on-topic)