courteous

When the Borders by my work was closing, it took many weeks for it to go below 50%. Then one day I said screw it and went in. Everything was 90% off...the last day or second to last day. I got 8 books of which I have read 3. It kind of reminded me of shopping in a used book store in that I probably wouldn't have bought those books normally, but since they were cheap, I'd give them a go. I couldn't believe the lines early in the closing process, though. Like others have said, with all their 40% coupons, why would people go crazy for less than they could have easily gotten before? I think it's the big "EVERYTHING MUST GO!"

jwstl

Not necessarily. With coupons, you were limited to one item per purchase. With this sale you can buy as many as you want at 40% off. It makes purchasing multiple items easier since it doesn't require multiple trips.

GMan2819

It shows how poorly Borders was run. A lot of their books were sold at MSRP and they almost never advertised sales. Some people point to e-tailers with their discount pricing taking away customers but the fact that people are packing the stores for only 10-20% off refutes that argument.

Hal2000

Perhaps a bit of clarification is in order. My wife and I had two backorders between us that have been hanging about since June and May respectively. Each of us called CS separately to check on the status of these ordrs, and we were told in no uncertain terms that backorders were not being fulfilled.

As a former CPA, I have experience in store closings for very large companies, and I can tell you for a fact that, once it is known that you're going under, suppliers will only ship product that they are legally obligated to fulfill, and they usually won't even do that since the retailer usually has little recourse. All kinds of rights of offsets will be invoked.

If you want to pre-order things, good luck.

Mickactual

Okayyyyy... For anyone else this desperately in need of an enema, I'll try to be more specific...
I got an e-mail today announcing the liquidation...currently at up to 40% off.
I haven't been in a Borders since the liquidation started, but from what I'm reading, they're doing 20% off DVD + 40% off Blu at this point.

kyle

I actually got a shipping notice for my pre-order of Stargate Atlantis Complete Series Blu-ray (which was released on Tuesday)!

Aphex Twin

Do Borders stores offer layaway?

greylocke5

I have over ten back orders for compact discs at Borders.com. I am still receiving shipping notices for back orders. I just received one, and another is in the mail to me. I emailed Borders to ask for clarification regarding Borders.com back orders. Here is the reply:

"Thank you for contacting Borders regarding your order.

Please be advised that all orders will still be fulfilled and ship as normal to the ship to address chosen. If the item/order is on back-order or is a pre-order, you will receive an email that your order ship to address will be changed to the bill to address. You will not be charged for shipping in these cases.

You may still choose to cancel the back-order or pre-order item if you wish. Orders placed on Borders.com are not charged to the designated payment method until the order ships. If you paid with a credit card, your card has not been charged. If you used giftcard, I am sorry but we can not send you another giftcard number via mail, we also can not reinstate the amount due to the liquidation process. Giftcards can still be use as a mode of payment for the entire liquidation event sales. Giftcard are not convertible to cash.

We realize this may be an inconvenience, but we hope that this information is helpful and that you will understand our stance on this matter."

I have one order that uses, in part, $5 in Borders Bucks for payment. I assume that after July 31 that order will effectively be cancelled, unless they contact me for new payment details, much as they would if my credit card bounced. I also used coupons and my Borders Rewards Plus membership to get an additional discounts. So far, Borders.com has honored the prices on those orders. They cannot raise a price on the order, but they can cancel the order if they no longer want to honor the price on the order. We'll see.

Why would open orders continue to be fulfilled? I believe that Borders.com uses a "fulfillment partner" located in Indianapolis that fills their Borders.com orders for CDs and DVDs. (Coincidentally, I also order CDs and DVDs from Buy.com, which uses the same fulfillment partner, because the return address is the same.) So if that fulfillment partner is willing to fill orders and continues to receive their cut - it really costs them nothing, because they don't need to carry these pre-ordered or back ordered items in inventory. They just ship them out as soon as they receive them from suppliers. In effect, this is pretty easy money, especially in these times, when CD and DVD sales have been slumping.

Don't be surprised to see someone purchase the Borders.com website and continue to accept orders. That is what happened to Tower.com and CircuitCity.com.

Mickactual

I'll do You one better: I was in a Borders Thursday - and they had a copy of that on the shelf (stickered @ $199.00 minus 40% Blu discount)! So much for no new stock coming in after the liquidation commenced. Tho I'd imagine the store probably had it on order prior to the closing announcement.

kyle

Actually, they had the MSRP listed as like $160 on the web site and I had used a 50% coupon to preorder--was only like $78 something. Also traded in my DVD sets to Amazon for ~$50, so a great, cheap upgrade!

Laser Movies

Received this email today from B&N regarding the Border Bookstore closing. Thought I would post this here as well.

rmw650

Best way to gain customers is start lowering their prices on everything and offer us customers decent deals.

albert_m

what exactly do you want them to do?

Living Deadpan

This looks like a phishing scam. The actual site the first link takes you to is "http://ebm.cheetahmail.com/r/regf2?a=0&aid=266639891&n=100", not "bn.com/borders". I wouldn't enter your email address on this web site.

Laser Movies

A lot of news web sites are quoting the same email like it is real. You can also find and access the same link if you go directly on the Borders or B&N web sites. I could care less about opting out and hope maybe B&N will start sending some emails in the future.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/contai....asp?PID=39742

Living Deadpan

Thanks for the clarification. I guess BN really does use Cheetahmail for their mailing lists. I didn't mean to sound alarmist, it's just that I've seen scams that were very similar-looking. And after my recent bout with identity theft I can get overly suspicious.

I hope you didn't think I was implying that you were complicit in a possible scam! I'd never say that; I'd be a total hypocrite after using the countless coupon codes you've helpfully provided!

Laser Movies

Don't worry about it. No offense taken on your comment. It's good to be cautious about any emails for possible fraud. I admit I was wary about the email when I first got it and immediately searched on Google for any information I could find.

rmw650

Simple Albert...not charge the astronomical prices that Borders was known for doing and offer some coupons like Borders did...maybe going the Amazon.com route or price-matching other retailers...whatever they are able to do to lure in the customers as the holidays are approaching.

jwstl

If you aren't finding deals at B&N then you aren't looking. B&N has lots of coupons and, unlike Borders, the discount is taken off the current price, not the list price. The amount of discount might be lower but when it's taken of the current price-even on sale items, it's a better deal than Borders. With the member discount, all the sales B&N has: 2 Criterion sales, B2G1, 40% off all Blu-rays etc, and that coupons work with the sales, I end up spending as much there as I do at Amazon....maybe more.

rmw650

I have been eyeing a few DVD sets for Christmas and every little bit helps me out in the long run, but here's hoping B&N can do the coupon thing like borders did, ranging from 20% and up and not just for members, since I'm not a member of their store as of yet.

Laser Movies

I would assume if you were a Borders Plus member you would receive an email for this offer, but if not maybe this link I ran across might be of some use to get a free B&N membership.

dan31655

Threw my rewards card away, two weeks ago. It's not taking the number I found on my receipt. Oh well....