borders books nyc

A Decade After Borders Shut Down, Here’s What’s in Its Former Locations

The defunct bookstore chain’s spaces are a tricky size to fill..

It’s been almost exactly ten years since the last Borders bookstore closed, following the company’s February 2011 bankruptcy. Vacating roughly five hundred locations throughout 2011, the erstwhile king of brick-and-mortar book retailing left behind a massive real-estate footprint, millions in unused gift cards, and a lot of memories. (And did you know “Borders” was the last name of two brothers who founded the chain, and not a reference to expanding the borders of your mind?)

It is hard to overstate, yet already difficult to remember, just how popular and big Borders was. More than Barnes & Noble, its similarly sized competitor, Borders was practically synonymous with bookstores during its height in the 1990s and early 2000s. In its heyday it was one of the finest and most successful examples of the category killer or “ medium-box ” store, a now-struggling retail concept that mixes discounting and large selection with curation and attention to quality.

Borders distinguished itself in a number of ways. Most of its stores boasted a café and comfortable interior, and later free wifi, which made them social, multi-use spaces: light breakfast spots, teen hangouts, places to read a story to the kids. The chain also included an unusual number of two-story locations, and many urban or downtown ones as well. Despite its large footprint and rapid expansion, many of its stores were architecturally unique. In a fascinating and detailed post on the chain’s style , architect Marc Lortie notes, “Some Borders stores featured circular turret towers that would jut out of the corner of the façade, physically embodying some of the idyllic romance and innocence of children’s books.”

Borders curated its selection with some attention to local interests , ameliorating some of the concern over the fate of local, idiosyncratic bookstores. And despite the heat it took as a corporate chain, Borders unquestionably increased the quantity and variety of books available to the average consumer at reasonable prices, combining the discounting of Walmart with the browsing ability of the local library. “The big-box store [for books] was a glorious thing while it lasted,” Wharton School professor Dan Raff told NPR in 2011. “To people in many parts of America, they were a kind of Aladdin’s cave.”

But Borders also did damage to itself. One widely noted misstep was the chain’s emphasis on media sales—CDs and DVDs—even as it was becoming increasingly clear that physical media was a dwindling market. (Although if Borders had eked it out, perhaps they’d be selling vinyl today!) Unlike Barnes & Noble, which rolled out its own e-reader in 2009, Borders showed little interest in e-books. And in an early and deeply symbolic misstep, the company outsourced its e-commerce operations in 2001 —to Amazon. It later took back its own web operations in 2008, too late and behind the e-commerce curve.

There were also concerns that the company had overexpanded, a mistake common to a number of defunct retailers. Many Borders locations, intentionally placed near Barnes & Noble stores, faced stiff competition. Many were oversized as well. In a Twitter thread I started about the chain, one former employee recalled being told by his general manager that Borders offered a “third space”—i.e., neither home nor work —“and how that justified huge square footage, multi-levels, and a café even at stores that (unlike ours) didn’t have high foot traffic.” The things that made Borders a pleasant space to lounge also cut into its profitability.

When it went bankrupt, Borders was so big that its failure stranded over $200 million in unused gift cards , triggering a multi-year legal saga that ended in the Supreme Court declining to involve itself in the issue . Who knew a bookstore would help set a precedent that gift-card holders are basically out of luck when a company goes bankrupt?

But along with the memories, the worthless plastic, and a throwback webpage on the Barnes & Noble website welcoming former Borders customers , Borders lives on in the form of its vacated real estate, the afterlife of which is still unfolding. Storefronts in the category-killer segment have proven difficult to fill in recent years—many of the category killers who would otherwise lease them are themselves struggling or defunct , and the spaces tend to be too small for discount department stores and too large for most others. They’re useless to a Walmart or Target, which have fewer competitors than they had even twenty years ago; and they’re too large for things like drugstores, specialty shops, and most small businesses.

For some insight, I asked on Twitter if anybody recalled a local Borders location, and what its status is today. To my surprise, I received nearly 100 responses regarding locations all over the country, representing a considerable share of the chain’s entire portfolio. In addition to those tips, I used Google Maps and its Street View function to look at a number of former Borders sites. The fate of these stores says something about where America’s overbuilt retail is going. Broken down roughly, this is what happened to them.

Of the sizable sample I looked at, only a few have been demolished. About 10 percent have been subdivided into two or more spaces. A small number have become other bookstores—the Books-A-Million chain, for example, took over several Borders locations. A few have become restaurants; the space seems to suit a certain kind of big-scaled eatery . Somewhat larger numbers have become furniture showrooms or medium-sized discount stores like Ross or Home Goods. About 10 percent have become larger clothing or fashion stores, such as H&M, Forever 21, or even Sephora. About 12 percent are currently vacant; some have been other stores in between, such as the now-defunct Pier 1, while a few have been vacant ever since Borders closed. Only about 16 percent are other category killers: everything from Total Wine to Hobby Lobby to Designer Shoe Warehouse.

Perhaps surprisingly, nearly a fifth of the sample I looked at have become small-format or medium-sized supermarkets, from Aldi to Whole Foods to Fresh Market. This may herald a trend towards downsizing in supermarket spaces , which could in turn leave a raft of oversized and vacant former supermarkets to fill.

But even more surprisingly, a little more than a fifth of the former Borders spaces I looked at are no longer retail at all; their uses include studios, gyms, medical clinics or facilities, a daycare, and a coworking space. It’s clear that on the one hand, there are in fact many possibilities for these kinds of retail spaces, but on the other hand, their traditional options are dwindling.

Decades ago, Borders pioneered the new idea of category-specific superstores in the book space, transforming how Americans searched for, bought, and read books. For those who miss the concept, Barnes & Noble remains a surprisingly solid company, likely to hold on for many years to come. But in its own way, Borders remains. First the driver and then the victim of retail innovation, now its old spaces are evolving and giving us a real-time preview of a new era in the American built environment.

Ready for more?

Literary Kicks

The borders bookstore i’ll never forget.

• By Levi Asher aka Marc Eliot Stein
• July 19, 2011
• 48 Comments

I’m very sorry to hear that all the Borders bookstores in the world may close their doors very soon. This is not, apparently, because the book business is slowing down (Barnes and Noble and Amazon are still viable) but because of specific business decisions that turned out badly. I hope there will be a last-minute salvation, and if there’s not I will certainly grieve this loss. Say what you want about massive book super-stores; they are great places to buy books, hang out and hear author readings. And we need the restrooms.

There’s one Borders bookstore I specially remember, my favorite Borders in New York City, though this store closed nearly ten years ago. It was one of the flagship Borders locations in Manhattan, and it was a particularly good one because the vast building that housed it gave it the space of a barn.

This Borders had three floors — a small one, a big one, and a very big one. The lowest, smallest floor let out on a subway/PATH train concourse, and so it held mystery and romance bestsellers, comic books, magazine racks, bubble gum, CDs and playing cards. It was good that all this stuff cluttered up the lower floor, because it freed up the first floor to be something special.

The first, street-level main floor of this Borders was all fiction and literature. Nothing else; the bestsellers were downstairs and the categories were upstairs. The shelves started with Chinua Achebe on one side of the large space, wound around the setbacks and corners like wallpaper, and ended with Louis Zukofsky near the revolving doors. In the middle were flat table displays of paperbacks, new releases, staff picks, remainders. I spent a whole lot of money over several years on this floor.

Escalator up to the third floor, and you’re in a space like an airplane hangar, all well-filled with books of various kinds. To your right is the sports section, then kids (with a play section in the middle), and then if you turn a sharp right for the men’s room you run conveniently into the music and arts section (where I also tended to spend a lot of money). Further into the space is science, philosophy, psychology, religion, New Age in the center, history and World War II/Civil War books (the Father’s Day aisle) to the right, cooking and crafts and automotive to the left. You could walk around and between the shelves of the third floor of this Borders for an hour and never see the same person twice.

The reason this Borders bookstore closed nearly ten years ago was that it was in Building 5 of the World Trade Center . Obviously, it never opened its doors again after September 11, 2001. For a while there was a new Borders in the Financial District, at 100 Broadway right around the corner of Wall Street, so I felt the memory of this great lost bookstore was honored. But the Borders at 100 Broadway closed in February .

Will the rest of these great stores close? I hope not, but it looks like they will. I wonder how many people will someday remember their favorite bookstores forever (in sad past tense) the way I still remember the Borders at 5 WTC.

48 Responses

I met some of the most I met some of the most important people in my life working at Borders. Had I not haphazardly (and quite begrudgingly) decided to accompany my mother and stepfather out one hot, sunday afternoon in August, 1996, to browse around (and later fill out an application for employment) my world might be very very different…….

Working there, I met my very best friends, some friends for life, the father of my child…. It was also there that I learned to manage a jazz section of music and got introduced to ideas and notions i might NEVER have discovered. I’m partly who I am today for working there…….

Cornball as it sounds, it’s true!

Thank you for sharing your Thank you for sharing your memories – very poignantly put. I’ve never shopped too much at Borders, but I probably would have if I had one as impressive as the one you describe.

I’m with you on this I’m with you on this Levi….massive corporation or whatever these bookstores were a big part of my 90’s life…..i’ve performed and showed my wire sculptures in them and always had positive experiences…I’ve seen amazing poets (Nikki Giovanni….Quincy Troupe…and more….) perform at the now closed Borders at 18th and L Sts. in D.C. It’s a bummer indeed that the end is inevitable….

New York was never really a New York was never really a Borders town, was it? The only one I have any real feeling for is the same as yours, Levi — the one in 5 WTC. I lived in Hoboken from ’96 until 2003, and when I ended up downtown at the end of the day I’d usually kill a few minutes at that Borders before getting on the PATH.

I have one very strong memory of it, which was weirdly enough just a few days before it — closed, OK, I can live with that nomenclature. On Sunday, September 9, a friend and I were heading back to Jersey from a long, sodden brunch party in Brooklyn, and we spent about half an hour there just browsing — I don’t think either of us bought anything, just looked at books and laughed, just trying to extend what had been a fun afternoon a little bit longer. Nothing special, just a nice bookstore interlude, and it probably wouldn’t have stuck with me if not for the week following.

Eventually we got on the train and headed back to Hoboken, and when I came up out of the station I looked back at the Trade Towers and said, with at least a little affection but probably not lots, “Those are a couple of ugly-ass buildings.” I’ll always feel a bit free-floatingly guilty about that.

I was in New York last May I was in New York last May and walked into the Madison Square Garden’s Borders just to see what’s up. It was rather disappointing compared to The Strand or to its Canadian pendant Chapters. It was very small and disorganized. That was after they filed for bankruptcy so I don’t know how it affected them, but it made me appreciate my Canadian bookstores a little more.

I also liked the WTC Borders I also liked the WTC Borders quite a bit. I suppose my real favorite Borders was the one on Lake Grove, Long Island. When it opened, it was a lifeline to real culture and entertainment that just didn’t exist in the strip malls and fairly tiny libraries in the surrounding towns.

The late, great Borders in The late, great Borders in Rockville, MD, a multi-level beast not unlike the one you describe above, is the first bookstore that made me geek out about literature in any way. It opened around when I was in middle school/junior high. I started out as a music-inclined kid and thus gravitated more toward Rockville’s Tower Records (RIP as well). But when I was eleven or twelve, and the local Borders moved from a square, standalone retail outlet to the front of Rockville’s White Flint Mall, I took notice.

It was just so cool. You stepped onto the first floor escalator leading into Borders and were surrounded by books as you rose, viewable through the glass cylinder the escalators crisscrossed on the second and third floors. Magazines, reference books, etc. were found on the lower floor, with literature, children’s books and music on the floor above. The store relied in part on casual browsing while shoppers waited on a dinner reservation on the first floor or the start of their movie on the third, but for me the Borders became the destination instead of a mere diversion.

I went occasionally over the years with my grandmother, a local librarian, who would point out different up-and-coming works of literature she’d heard of or read at her job. This exploration at Borders led to two memorable literary near-misses. I was still a music nerd at this point, so as cool as the whole place seemed in general, my idea of fun wasn’t sitting down and reading something that wasn’t required of me for school. One of the books she pointed out felt like it was five pounds in my hands, an overly complex tome that she hadn’t even read but said I’d have to keep in mind once I was past my mid-teens. The other, which she actually bought me a first American edition of at that store, was a kids/young adults book about a child who discovers he’s a wizard. I gave away that first edition because it just looked like a stupid kid’s book to my undiscerning eye. I’d read The Lord of the Rings years before, when I was ten; this book seemed below me by that time.

The two in question probably aren’t difficult for anyone reading Lit Kicks to guess — they were “Infinite Jest” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”, respectively.

That Borders was one of the first to close under the bankruptcy filing earlier this year, one of the doomed “underperformers”. By then the designation was probably accurate, as the aisles seemed rather empty when I visited in later years. For me it’s a fond memory, now more than ever given my recently increased interest in literature of all forms.

I have fond memories of I have fond memories of Borders. When I lived in Portland, I didn’t frequent borders that much because Powell’s books took most of my attention. But when I moved to California I was impressed by the Borders in Walnut Creek just 15 minutes outside San Francisco. I’ve spent many hours in the small, but decent poetry section. I once read an the entire Langston Hughes book they had on the shelf. I ended up not purchasing it because I was broke, I went back about a week later after I got my pay check and it was gone! RIP borders

Fuck’em! Fuck’em!

I have fond memories of the I have fond memories of the WTC Border’s (and that Border’s *only*), too. I worked at the Border’s in Burlington, VT, where the managers made it clear that they didn’t trust us and that we were idiots. I don’t know if this was true of all Borders stores, but I will admit to chuckling just a bit when I heard they were closing.

But the WTC Border’s was wonderful. I would go there whenever I was visiting my parents on the lower east side from wherever I was living at the time, and I always tried to snag a window seat overlooking the M22 bus stop on Vesey St. Great view, excellent selection of books, perfect location for me (the M22 took me home). Thanks for the post.

I was never a fan of Border’s I was never a fan of Border’s — always loyal to the smaller bookstores — but when my company moved to the World Financial Center, I just had to investigate. A book-lover cannot walk past books. Ever. It sort of took my breathe away — the size, yes, as Levi said, like a barn. It was tall and long and deep. I spent many hours on the floor of that store — so content — always going back to work late.

The Borders at #5 WTC was The Borders at #5 WTC was also my favorite. I worked at the WTC and WFC in the late 90’s, and was in there every chance I could get. I was lucky enough to be there for some great book signings (which later became Christmas presents,) by Joe Torre, Yogi Berra, and a special one from Olympic Gold Medalist Peggy Fleming. Miss Fleming also spoke to the group attending on the third floor and answered questions afterward. The whole store always seemed to me, to give that special feeling of welcome, no matter when I would go in. I was deeply saddened by the events that culminated in its closing.

At the WTC border’s there was At the WTC border’s there was an events guy who would introduce authors. Does anyone know his name?

I spent my lunch breaks at the Borders. Sometime mid to late 90s. Cellphones were kind of new. People were sitting in a circle reading books. A guy had a small pre-interview on his cellphone.(trying to get a VB coding contract or something). He was a bit loud, inconsiderate etc…

Once he got off the phone, a guy sitting opposite me slowly clapped his hands and looked at me and I joined. Soon all the people around joined in. You should have seen the look on the guy’s face. Priceless!!

Maybe Rushkoff, Douglas will show us a way out of the mess we are in. http://www.amazon.com/Life-Inc-World-Became-Corporation/dp/1400066891

…. [email protected]

I worked at the WTC (store I worked at the WTC (store #142) from 9/1996 to 9/2001. I started as a bookseller and moved up to assistant manager and store trainer by ’99. I was in charge of the entire fiction/literature department on the ground floor and had an awesome team working under me in the various subsections. I met lots of great people working there. Unlike a lot of the managers I always ate lunch in the breakroom with everyone else, so I got to really get to know everybody. Just typing this makes a bit sad remembering all those faces I haven’t seen in over a decade. I still have a copy of a schedule I made on Dec. 7, 2000.

I would have missed the events of 9/11 if I had stuck to my usual routine but I had a new hire and a transfer to train that day so I went in early. I arrived 5 minutes after the first plane hit and was standing in front of the Millenium Hilton when the second hit. Obviously a day I’ll never forget.

After 9/11, I was able to transfer to #51 in White Plains along with a few coworkers, including my SciFi clerk’s girlfriend who had been in Special Orders at WTC. However, “Area 51” as the White Plains store was known, made a bad experience worse and I left the company. After some time as a teacher in East Harlem, I went back to school myself and started working PT at the new Wall Street store, #566. My general manager, Melissa Glowski, was in charge and had assembled a good number of folk from the WTC store, so it was a reunion of sorts, although by then the company had already begun its slide on the corporate level so the trickle-down to us was a work experience that was pretty dull. Hell, we weren’t even required to maintain shelving standards anymore as long as we got merch out on the shelves.

And now it’s all gone and all I have are my memories of a good, solid five years working in the greatest city in the world at the greatest location in the world. During those five years I got to shake hands with Gary Sinise, tell a joke that went over Robert Jordan’s head, insult fans of Neil Gaiman, fetch some chai for Pamela Anderson, stand next to a man with a death sentence on his head (Salman Rushdie), smell alcohol on Eric Bogosian’s breath, talk to Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo of Sonic Youth about death metal and such, and meet Ray Bradbury. Not doing much of that here out in Bumfuck, GA, where I live now. It is what it is.

I’ve only managed to keep contact with a few people from WTC but wouldn’t mind hearing from anyone else who just wants to say “Hi”. I know some of you stayed with Borders a long time; hope you’re making it in the real world.

I have deep nostalgia for I have deep nostalgia for that WTC Borders, as I started working there before it was open. We had a staff of great people, and I think of them often – Shell, I remember you from those days

My dad worked in Tower 2, and My dad worked in Tower 2, and every time I’d go in to visit him, we’d always exit the Towers through Borders. Having the Borders downstairs from his office was his version of having a bar in his lobby. He’d always stop for “just one” book, but would probably walk out with two of three. It was such a lively place, and I’ll miss it dearly. Dad never made it out on 9/11, but if he had, I’m sure he’d miss it even more.

Damn, Michael … that sure Damn, Michael … that sure hits hard.

Some pictures of this store Some pictures of this store post 9-11.

http://s904.photobucket.com/user/Scardybat/media/9-11/Post%209-11/4431036.png.html

http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/ac249/Scardybat/9-11/Post%209-11/fig-4-15.jpg

Hope you don’t mind, but I dl Hope you don’t mind, but I dl’ed some of the pics to use in my 9/11 presentation I give to the students at my local high school. Other than some interior pics I took during closing one evening, I have very few pics of the Borders and only one exterior shot my mother-in-law took a few days after the event.

I was a full-time student at I was a full-time student at nearby Pace University, and worked briefly as the classical music mgr (OK, not manager, but I was the one who stocked all the stuff) on the second floor. I worked there for most of 2000, I think.

While I was very part-time, I vividly remember working with so many neat, diverse, and friendly people. We would sit in the stock room and insert new CDs into cases, and I had so many great conversations. I think the music manager was a taller guy in glasses who usually wore black. Sadly, I don’t remember anyone’s name except a nice older guy named Hiro.

Shortly after 9/11 when I was applying for various after-school jobs, the application would always ask for the contact information of your past employers. I thought it very sad and sobering to have to write “DESTROYED” for my time at 5 WTC.

A great store with great people that is dearly missed more than 12 years later.

I worked at that Borders from I worked at that Borders from before it opened until I started teaching. It was the most enjoyable job I have ever had. We had what makes any great bookstore great – a knowledgeable staff with a deep love of books. We knew what was likely to cause a buzz before reviews.

The following is a true story: A woman walked in looking for a particular self help book, but she couldn’t remember the author or the title. She remembered that it was blue. A coworker and I asked her to wait where she was, walked to the section and grabbed the right book. I remembered the author, the coworker the title.

I was working in the cafe at I was working in the cafe at the time 9/11 happened. I, too, remember it being such a fun place to work. I loved making coffee and seeing familiar faces. We weren’t writing names on cups…lol. But we need learn people’s names and said “Hey Mike!” Sometimes I wonder if our many customers were all okay after 9/11. 🙁 I do know that everyone in Borders had been accounted for. I had closed the night before and was due at work at 1pm on 9/11/01. Thank you so much for writing this post.

Do you remember Max he was a Do you remember Max he was a good friend I would like to reconnect with.

Hi Shell! Hi Shell!

Rememeber me? I transferred in to WTC in 1997 as a bookseller, then music, then became a trainer ( that was a blast!) then took a music manager position up at Kips Bay in 1999. I left Borders in 4/2000 since I had gotten into PA school ( I’ve been a PA for 13 yrs now!) but heart always stayed and I still have some of my best friends from those days!

Thank you for the stroll down memory lane! I loved reading your post!

I remember your name but can I remember your name but can’t place your face, unfortunately. I’ve actually had some luck tracking people down through LinkedIn but I have lost touch with the majority of folks. Of course, leaving NYC didn’t help.

On 9/11 I was 19 and I worked On 9/11 I was 19 and I worked at Strawberry in the mall across from the Disney Store (I forgot the exact name) and I had been told by management that we had to close the store before leaving. When Two World Trade Center came down unexpectedly, it crushed a large portion of the mall, and sent debris and dust everywhere. It had such force that the ceiling in the hallway outside the store weakened and a bunch of the tiles came down. We then got told what happened by officers who fled into the mall during the collapse. We all sat in Strawberry with the doors closed until one world trade center had come down. When that tower came down, it pretty much sealed the malls fate. The force of the tower crushed another large portion of the mall and shattered every window you could see. Additionally, several water pipes broke and the mall started to flood really bad. We evacuated out of Borders into what was left of 5WTC (Which was actually just starting to burn as we escaped) and left the area. My cousin Arby worked for the clean up crew and he snuck some photos of the mall around 9/20/01 and it was a complete disaster. Concrete and Steel everywhere, about a foot of water covering almost all of the floor near Strawberry, etc. It was very bad. There was no saving anything.

I was in charge of Security I was in charge of Security on 9/11/01. I met some very interesting people at Borders Books 5 WTC.On 9/11/01 i was on the concourse level when I heard a loud BOOM, the rest was HISTORY I was like family, having being employed there in 1999. I met GM Melissa G , EUGENE , Randy, Shelley, Shell, Nicole M.Events Coordinator Darryl.I have good memories. I would like to get in touch with Melissa G or EUGENE. If anyone knows of their wareabout’s I will appreciate it very much. Thanks in advance..

I just saw your comment. I I just saw your comment. I think of you and Eugene every Sept 11.

I worked in the Borders at I worked in the Borders at the World Trade Center starting sometime in October, 1997 until Feb of 1998. It didn’t pay much, but it was a great place to work. When you started work there, they found out what kind of things you knew a lot about and chose the section you would stock and straighten accordingly. It seemed like everyone who worked there had some kind of graduate degree, and we were all looking for an opportunity to move onward to our dream. Often, the time spent in our assigned sections led to our meeting customers who had useful information to help us with that. Everyone I knew who worked there during that time and left moved on to that desired area they wanted a “real job” in, including me.

Hi Herman, I work overnights Hi Herman, I work overnights as a doorman now and somehow found this page while killing time. I have many fond memories of you and the gang at WTC. I hope this little greeting finds you well, all of these years later!

Hi Shell, just dropping a Hi Shell, just dropping a line to say Hi (and high) after all these years. Some things never change!

Hi Lars! Hope you are doing Hi Lars! Hope you are doing very well!

Hello Shell, I do not know Hello Shell, I do not know you nor do you know me – What interest me about your comment is the fact you say you have some interior pictures of the borders bookstore you took one evening. Could I ask if you still have these images and if you are comfortable with sharing them? I would love to relive some memories of that wonderful place. Thanks!

I too was an employee at I too was an employee at Store

Hey Eugene. I haven’t been to Hey Eugene. I haven’t been to this page in a few years I guess as I missed a lot of these replies. Glad you still kicking around up there, although you posted in February so as long as you weren’t a doorman at a nursing home you should still be okay. I’m a SPED teacher at an online high school down in Georgia now. But I still miss that store HARD AF and hanging out with all of you guys. Teachers are kinda lame.

Herman, if you ever swing by Herman, if you ever swing by this way again I wanted to say hi.

Hey, Lars! It’s been so long Hey, Lars! It’s been so long I have a daughter in college…and she was born a week after 9/11. JFC it has been a long time.

Hope all is well considering current circumstances.

Hi Shell, glad to hear you Hi Shell, glad to hear you and your family are safe and sound! Yeah, save for possible retirement in Florida, I can’t see leaving the city anytime soon. One thing I was very happy to see while I was still on Facebook was how many former employees went on to find success in their true passions, from working in nature to writing a published book, and everything in between. The great Bob Johnson had lines on “The Blacklist!” These days, it’s quite a difference working solo as an overnight doorman compared to the days of WTC, with its staff of well over 100 and mad crushes of lunchtime and holiday humanity, (and bustling movie and tv sets as well, for that matter). I’m lucky, though. As a residential building worker, I was deemed “essential” from the start, and there’s worse places to work than the UWS near the park. I love this gig and could easily see myself riding it into retirement!

Hi. You had asked if anyone Hi. You had asked if anyone knew the name of the person who used to introduce authors at the WTC Borders. I think his name is Daryl Mattson.

I only got to go to this Borders ONE time!! Two weeks before 9/11. I was only 10 but I absolutely fell in love with it. It made a huge impression on me because I’ve thought about every now and again over the years. Here I am trying to find information on it 20 years later. Thank you for the lovely walkthrough.

I stumbled onto this page thinking about that store. 20 plus years ago, I was a computer consultant. In between contracts, I use to take the E train to the last stop and hang out at Borders. I overslept on 9/11 and missed the attack. Not sure if anyone from the bookstore died, but I always think about that.

I worked at the Borders in Tallahassee. We had an employee transfer to WTC Borders named JJ. On 9/11 it was crazy. The store manager closed the store and locked the doors after the first plane. Corporate office was trying to call all the employees to see if everyone was okay and we would get email updates.

Turns out everyone was okay. JJ was supposed to start on 9/12.

Anyway I got promoted at Borders and moved to the treasure coast of Florida. My daughter grew up here because of that. I’ll always love Borders and my time there

It’s really moving how this page gets more comments from more former Borders employees every year on September 11.

Illmatical, I can verify that nobody died inside the bookstore – as you know, it was an entirely different building on the World Trade Center complex, which included a large subway station and an entire shopping concourse. They all had plenty of time to evacuate.

I was working in NY for the summer in 2001 (from Ireland – working visa for the summer) and spent a lot of time browsing and buying books in the WTC Borders and reading them on a bench outside. Really great to read these comments

I was part of the crew that opened the WTC store. Working there was a great experience. I met so many interesting people, both co-workers and customers. I didn’t know who Dashiell Hammett was until I met Shell. I was living out of state on 9/11 and obviously very anxious about the staff in the store, even though I knew that everyone would have made it out ok because the store was at street level. I emailed the corporate office that day to ask if they could confirm that none of the staff was injured and some kind soul took a minute to respond. I was always grateful for that small kindness on a difficult day. Some more fun memories were eating lunch with Keb’ Mo’ in the break room and selling a copy of The Rules to Tyra Banks. I remember being so stunned that I asked her “You want this book?”

Used to frequent one in Novi, Mi … coffee samples, Dr Stewarts vespers tea and checking out CDs on the (found Jeffrey Foucault there) headphones … occasional live music I think … coupled with a trip to compusa before hand … anachronisms now

I worked at the WTC Borders from Sep 1996 to Oct 2001.

I was in charge of the Metaphysics section.

It was quite an experience working there! I lost touch with several people after I left. I’d really like to say “Hi” to Shuba, Ron Johnson (aka “RoJo”), Mike Charzuk, and Patty, whom I haven’t talked with in a long time.

Working there came in handy when I went back to college because I was able to buy some of my books for class at a discount, and I could take a few to the back room and take notes from them to use as term paper sources.

Remembering Borders 5 WTC today…

I spent as many days as I could sitting there from late 1999 until the Summer of 2000. I could not afford the books, so I bought a lemonade and sandwich in the cafe and read… I started taking notes and reading the books over and over. By Summer 2000, I passed my Cisco CCNA Certification and got a job nearby. By then, I could afford the books and still stopped in several times per week. Thank you to the staff for letting people find their favorite books and read them in the middle of downtown.

I found this receipt in an old copy of 2600 magazine today.

https://ibb.co/JqVpZCB

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From Local, to Global, to Gone: On the Rise and Fall of Borders Books

Tom borders reflects on lessons learned in the world of bookselling.

The following essay by Tom Borders is excerpted from Among Friends: An Illustrated Oral  History  of American  Book Publishing & Bookselling in the 20th Century , edited by Buz Teacher and Janet Bukovinsky Teacher (Two Trees Press).

In 1970, Louis Borders was working in a bookstore in Boston while attending M.I.T. He suggested two start-up business ideas to his older brother, Tom, who had taught English in a small college and was on a sabbatical trying to write the Great American Novel. Tom dismissed Louis’s scheme to computerize the Daily Racing Form’s statistics so they could make an easy living playing the horses. Louis suggested their next best opportunity was to open a small used bookshop in Boston.

During the time they were drawing up business plans for the bookstore, a neighbor in Louis’s apartment building on Boylston Street was burglarized in the middle of the night. The brothers decided Boston was too fast for them—they needed a more manageable city for their little enterprise. Louisville, Kentucky, their hometown, was out of the question because they had never seen much of a bookstore there. Both had degrees from the University of Michigan, and loved the smart, hip, intellectual atmosphere of Ann Arbor.

After discussing the enterprise name for many long weeks, they decided to launch “Borders Book Shop” on a very modest scale, quietly and out of the limelight, in Ann Arbor. No employees. Not a corporate venture. Barely a business. They would keep it very simple. Originally, they thought they would both work half-time and have time to read and write, and become intellectuals.

That same week, Tom and Louis heard about a major estate auction to be held in Boston, with thousands of books as part of the sale. They planned to commit a good part of their capital, up to $3,000, to buy inventory there. At the auction house they spent hours going through the marvelous collection of a man who had been in the Massachusetts Senate in the early 1900s and whose estate had been in litigation for years: hundreds of leather bindings, fine illustrated editions, but best of all a well curated reader’s library.

On auction day, the last items to be sold from the massive estate were the books. The auctioneer apologized because the original intent had been to divide the books into a dozen smaller lots, but since time was so short “we will auction the books in a single lot. Do I have an opening bid of $3,000 dollars?” A dozen people raised their hands including the nonplussed brothers.

Deflated, the Borders’ bookshop fantasy had seemingly vanished. After the auction they met the renowned antiquarian dealer Richard Mills, who had purchased the books for $8,000. A Harvard graduate and World War II Navy submarine vet, he lived in Exeter, New Hampshire. Mills had a photographic memory; he was a true genius and a gentle soul. Somewhat unkempt, he had a bottle of Maalox leaning out of his wrinkled sport coat pocket. Tom asked him if he needed help moving the books, and was hired. Without much further discussion, Richard Mills walked out of the auction house with a small box of rare pamphlets under his arm. The pamphlets were worth the price of the entire lot.

Tom rented a truck and moved the books to Exeter, lured by the excitement of the antiquarian business. Richard Mills’ house was his warehouse, showroom and office. His kitchen table was his service counter and conference table. One day, Tom picked up a collection of about 100 antique duck decoys, which Mr. Mills sold in the next few days to other dealers. Another day, Mr. Mills sold the antique desk in his living room for $16,000.

Later, an 18th-century house full of antiques and collectables came to market. Tom followed Mr. Mills as he strolled through the house, opening a drawer here and there, looking closely at a map. After about 45 minutes of looking through a dozen rooms of antiques, three appraisers quizzed Mr. Mills about the value of the items in the estate. At one point, talking about a mahogany desk where he had opened a drawer during his stroll, Mr. Mills told the appraisers “that is not an antique but a very nicely done 1950’s fake.” All three wrote that in their notes.

After six weeks, Tom had finished sorting and cataloging the books. He was stunned when Mr. Mills gave the Borders brothers his entire garage full of books—a truck load of very good reading copies. They drove their precious first inventory to Ann Arbor, laughing at their good fortune and babbling about their future plans. That day Mr. Mills helped launch Borders Book Shop. It would have been wonderful if he could have lived long enough to see their bookstore ten years later.

In Ann Arbor, they leased part of the second floor of a retail building at 211 South State Street in the campus commercial district near the University of Michigan’s main quad. The former residence had been converted to commercial use. On the same floor were Suwanee Spring Leather Shop, where Tom bought a pair of handmade sandals, and Herb David’s Guitar Studio. Louis and Tom were shaggy-haired hippies who fit right in to the Ann Arbor scene in the early 1970’s. They built bookcases and display tables in the space for a month. They opened their second floor used bookstore in February, 1971, with the books from Mr. Mills and others that they had accumulated. It was tiny—two small rooms with a half bath. Hot tea was made every morning for the customers. The final floor plan included a service counter with the commode tucked behind it. The store had to close for a while if the commode was needed.

Since few customers came into that second-floor space, the brothers had time to learn and love the antiquarian book business in the coming months. Several collectors found them and the books from Mr. Mills’ garage quickly went to new homes in Ann Arbor. Nevertheless, Rookie Mistake #1: they realized that, with their wives in school, two families could not make a living from such a small, off-the-beaten-track, second-floor retail space. They realized that the store could never be very exciting given the space limitations.

Six months later, Tom and Louis moved to a first-floor location on Williams Street: 800 square feet. The additional space was an improvement, but it wasn’t a good location for retailing. They wanted more. They moved for the third time in two years to a prime location at 316 South State St. where Wahr’s University Bookstore had been located “since 1892.” That building was three times larger with a full basement for storage and overstock and an office on the second floor. Neither Tom nor Louis were morning people, but their first employee, Doris Becker, was and she opened the store most mornings. Doris was motherly and very protective of the boys.

Rookie Mistake #2: they ordered some new books and mixed them with used books on the same shelves. Customers were confused, not knowing if a slightly worn new book was “used,” or if a gently used book was “new.”

Rookie Mistake #3: They finally understood that Ann Arbor was a readers’ town and that antiquarian books were of marginal interest to the local avid readers. All the used books were culled from the shelves. After surviving three moves in two years, Borders Book Shop was in a good location with enough space to make a splash, and selling the kind of books people wanted. Their ambitions were rekindled.

That year, Joe Gable, fresh from Madison, Wisconsin, swaggered into Borders Book Shop. During a stand-up job interview in front of the fiction section Tom asked him “What do you know about books?” Sounding a bit like Marlon Brando, looking straight into Tom’s eyes, Joe said humbly: “I know more about books than anyone in this store.” Tom was momentarily stunned by the hubris of the comment. But he took the insult like a man, and after a few pointed questions, he hired Joe on the spot. In fact, Joe did know more about books than anyone in the store. And he proved it over the next quarter century.

The auto industry and the Michigan economy were tanking badly in one of their periodic nose dives in 1974. Several commercial stores were vacant in the campus area. In that down economy, the Borders brothers were able to secure a very favorable lease for a large prime space at 303 S. State Street where Wagner Men’s Clothing had recently closed—10,000 square feet on two levels with an escalator and a full basement!! All new inventory would be ordered for the new store. In preparation for the move, Tom started organizing a clearance sale of everything in the old space.

Louis was mumbling something about “developing a system”—he took several yellow legal pads and went to the basement. Tom was immersed in running a frantic three-month long clearance sale to generate the cash needed for the move; he tried to get Louis to leave the basement to help on the busy sales floor. Louis refused—he was working on designing a “system” for inventory. Glancing at the legal pad, Tom scoffed at a 6-page list which included RANC, RANP, RANM. Tom admits that he did not understand the scope and importance of the momentous project Louis was undertaking. In the next months, Louis designed what was one of the first and likely the best computer system for a retail bookstore in the country. To get the computer system written, tested and running, computer time was rented at night on an IBM System 3 computer in the portable trailer of a massive auto junk yard, with howling guard dogs. The junk yard’s system kept track of auto parts (mostly still on the cars); the Borders’ system would keep track of books.

The store’s book buyers ordered an ambitious selection of books for the 10,000 square foot store. It was a chaotic time, with a clearance sale to the bones going on in the old store while Rudy Fink and his carpentry crew built and varnished solid hardwood bookshelves in the new space. All the while Louis and his buyers were placing huge orders, and he was frantically trying to get the computer system ready to receive a tsunami of books. Occasionally they needed to phone Rudy to get him out of bed in the mornings to manage his bookcase-making crew. In a panic, they hustled to open the store in November, 1974, a few days before Thanksgiving. Two days later, it snowed eight inches which virtually shut down retailing in Ann Arbor. Cash was very tight and Tom was often on the phone with publishers wanting payment.

What seemed like a disaster was averted when, during a booming December, their dream came true—they had a vibrant, exciting bookstore. Joe Gable trained and managed a young, smart staff to provide a specific “Borders Brand” of service: never pushy, cool, friendly, casual, bright. Joe’s crew knew their books, the customers quickly came to rely on the staff and everyone enjoyed the interaction.

They were in their fourth location in three years!! When space became available in an adjacent building, the new space was absorbed. Book titles were added to improve every category throughout the store. They created new categories: Women’s Studies, Gay Studies, and Ecology. Every time they improved a book subject area, such as linguistics, sales in all subjects tended to increase: a customer comes in because she heard about an exceptional selection of linguistic books and she buys a science fiction novel as well. Customers were voracious, and most had never seen such a collection of books. The number of titles in the store increased towards 150,000.

Borders was then larger than most bookstores in the country. Though the brothers had not planned a superstore, their original tiny second floor space had grown in size by a factor of 50, and the quality of the store (selection and service) had increased proportionately. Though a well-run, small, quaint bookstore could still find a place, the high-traffic, high-volume Borders Book Shop in Ann Arbor with its vast selection helped redefine what a bookstore could be in the United States. By adding to the store space piecemeal, the brothers had drifted into the “superstore” concept quite by accident. Mathematically, the formula they discovered was astounding (and over simplified): as their bookstore became larger with better selection, it drew from a larger radius, and it became more exciting, and the sales per square foot increased!

Rookie Mistake #4: Louis and Tom realized that operating a full-blown computer system and employing the specialized subject book buyers and programmers required to maintain a built-from-scratch, one-of-a-kind, stand-alone, sophisticated buying system for over 150,000 book titles was not affordable for a single bookstore. So, in 1976 they started a new company called Book Inventory Systems. The Borders brothers helped individuals open their own stores using their own store name in their own cities and supplied them with a central buying and consolidated shipping. With two shipments a week from Book Inventory’s central warehouse in Ann Arbor, those independent stores often became the best bookstore in their market. Within a few years, in addition the Borders Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Book Inventory System had helped locate, design, and supply stores in East Lansing, Kalamazoo, Toledo, Louisville, Lexington, Cincinnati, Nashville, Memphis, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, and Lexington.

The second Borders Book Shop opened in Birmingham, Michigan in 1985. Joe Gable’s brother, Tim, moved from Montana to Michigan to manage the Birmingham store. Tim, like Joe, was a natural in a bookstore. Borders Book Shop in Birmingham was an instantaneous cultural center in that remarkably literary Detroit suburb. The level and sophistication of sales in the store were a tribute to the affluent community and its education level and value systems. Within two years, sales caught up with the 14-year-old Ann Arbor store. Traveling publishers’ sales reps remarked that both Borders stores were certainly among the top 10 bookstores in the country.

In keeping with Ann Arbor’s egalitarian environment, the Borders brothers installed a company-wide profit-sharing system. While modest at first, good years yielded significant additional pay for the young staff at the stores, which also helped create an esprit de corps, and a sense that this team was doing something important and different.

As they developed the inventory control and distribution systems further, their goal was to have all stores on the system be the best bookstore in their respective markets: best in selection and in service. Inspired by a seminar given by Edward Deming, they strove for continuous improvement.

Potential staff in the stores were given a test to assess their literary acumen, to find out if a potential staff member was a “book person” who could help customers and who could contribute to the delicate literary atmosphere. If he didn’t know who Norman Mailer, Frank Lloyd Wright, Julia Child, and Andy Warhol were, should he be working in a bookstore? The staff needed to be well read, communicative, and bright. They needed to offer a high level of service to the customers to compliment the complicated selection of books, without showing too much ego. Often the staff were specialists in certain subjects, such as art, science, literature, or history, allowing them to be more helpful to the customer. Those specialized staffs brought more to the table than typical retail clerks: they were smart, eager to learn and eager to share their knowledge. Furthermore, they helped the buyers improve the selections by adding titles for the system to their assigned subject area. A good bookstore is a glorious business with terrific people.

Borders Book Shops and its affiliated stores were well stocked and well-staffed, and created a refreshing, almost intellectual atmosphere—like a library but with classical music playing in the background, and with the stimulating excitement of discovering and buying a stack of books. The newer stores had coffee shops, and sold CDs and DVDs as an integral part of a very energetic environment.

Book buyers extraordinaire Phyllis Lambert and Robin Wagner, each ran Book Inventory System as interim president for several years. In 1988, Robert DiRomualdo, an Air Force veteran with a degree from Harvard and a strong marketing background, joined Borders as its first outside CEO. DiRomualdo brought enormous energy to the company, and under his leadership, store openings increased rapidly.

In 1992, after 21 years in the business, the Borders Brothers sold Borders Book Shops and Book Inventory Systems, Inc. At that time, the central buying and distribution system supplied about 20 Borders Book Shops and a dozen affiliated independent stores. They sold the businesses to K-Mart, which owned the Waldenbooks chain of bookstores, most located in enclosed malls. Waldenbooks was an asset on Kmart’s books, but was not sexy or profitable. K-Mart was looking for a way to dress up and bundle the Waldenbooks operation to make it saleable.

Borders Book Shops and Waldenbooks were quickly spun off as a single public company on the New York Stock Exchange as “Borders Group Inc.” (BGP) in 1995, with Goldman Sachs as the lead banker. It is curious and significant that combining 1,000 Waldenbooks with a handful of Borders Book Shops and Book Inventory Systems into a public company would be called “Borders Group, Inc.”

At the time they sold, the company had developed a powerful inventory and distribution system, highly effective in allowing the stores to carry more titles and to replenish them more efficiently than most other stores. The “system” had some early characteristics of artificial intelligence to help the book buyers manage the periodic replenishment of the thousands of titles in inventory.

When it became a public company, Borders Group, Inc. continued to be led by Bob DiRomualdo. The Borders brothers were not on the board and had no further input into the operations of the company. Bob had stimulated and managed much of the growth from 1988 to the time of the sale. He retired in 1998 and a bizarre succession of CEOs took over to head up Borders Group, Inc: Phil Pfeffer (1 year); Greg Josefowicz (7 years); Ray Marshall (1 year); Mike Edwards (1 year), and Bennett LeBow (1 year).

In 2011, nineteen years after the Borders brothers sold the business and sixteen years after becoming a public company, Borders Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy. All of the stores were closed. Thousands of booksellers lost their jobs. It was a very sad day in America when over 1,000 bookstores, each a mini-cultural center, a source of wisdom and good, healthy information and entertainment, shuttered their doors. And the closings felt like a kick in the stomach to the brothers.

There are many theories about what went wrong. But a series of non-Rookie Mistakes occurred: a far too rapid expansion in United States (40+ superstores were opened in 1998 alone, the year DiRomualdo left the company); a confusing international expansion (London, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia) and lack of control of the supply chain; changing leadership too often as each new CEO jerked the fast changing company in a different direction; poor financing machinations; poor real estate decisions; lack of understanding of the delicate nature and required quality of a great bookstore: the company forgot that selling books is not the same as selling sausage or socks.

At its peak, Borders Book Shop was a beautiful exhibition of the great freedoms Americans enjoy, with a broad selection of American publishers’ offerings, without a single government comment. It was also a bold experience in aggressive capitalism mixed with a strong dose of intellectual endeavor to create a unique setting for the American public.

Though gone, Borders Book Shops are still remembered by some. Their absence has left a hole in the fabric of society in many American cities.

__________________________________

This is one of more than 100 essays by prominent industry figures in Among Friends: An Illustrated Oral  History  of American  Book Publishing & Bookselling in the 20th Century , edited by Buz Teacher and Janet Bukovinsky Teacher (Two Trees Press). Illustrated with vint age  book jackets and period graphics from Publishers Weekly, Among Friends is a deluxe limited edition that pays homage to the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of the  book business during a time of great change in American culture.

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Borders' rise and fall: a timeline of the bookstore chain's 40-year history

This timeline provides a historical perspective of the rise and fall of Ann Arbor-based Borders Group Inc. from its inception in 1971 to its liquidation announcement this afternoon. It is based on AnnArbor.com research, interviews, Securities and Exchange Commission documents, archived news reports and information from Borders.

1971 : Brothers Tom and Louis Borders open an 800-square-foot used bookstore called Borders Book Shop at 211 S. South State St . in Ann Arbor.

The first Borders store at 211 S. State, now the site of a CVS store under construction.

Ann Arbor District Library

1988 : In an effort to import business leadership, Borders recruits Robert DiRomualdo to lead the company's expansion. DiRomualdo is later credited with leading the company's rise to national prominence in the 1990s.

1991 : Borders starts integrating music and movies into some of its stores.

1992 : Kmart Corp., which bought Waldenbooks in 1984, acquires Borders and creates the Borders-Walden Group. At the time, Borders had 21 large stores and had valued itself at about $190 million, the New York Times reported at the time.

1994 : Borders' flagship store moves from 303 S. State to the ex-Jacobson's department store on East Liberty. The bookseller is the largest retailer in downtown Ann Arbor.

1995 : The book store chain, renamed Borders Group Inc., spins off from Kmart and goes public on the New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: BGP) under CEO Robert DiRomualdo. At the time, Borders' innovative inventory management system was considered " the envy of the industry ," as one publisher put it, and was a catalyst in the forthcoming boom in the company's superstore footprint.

1995 : The company's Waldenbooks division moves to Ann Arbor after receiving a $7.7 million tax credit from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.'s Michigan Economic Growth Authority board.

1995 : Borders headquarters moves to a renovated, abandoned downtown retail destination on Washington Street called Tally Hall. A few years later, the company moves to its current headquarters on Phoenix Drive on the city's south side.

Feb. 4, 1997 : Shares close at an all-time high of $44.88.

March 11, 1997 : Borders executes a 2-for-1 split on its stock.

January 1998 to January 1999 : Borders expands its store footprint by 25.5 percent, adding 52 superstores in the biggest one-year expansion in its history. By January 1999, the company has 256 superstores averaging $256 in sales per square foot.

May 1998 : Borders launches an online retail presence for the first time at Borders.com.

Nov. 12, 1998 : Philip Pfeffer is hired to replace DiRomualdo.

Greg Josefowicz was CEO of Borders Group from 1999 to 2006.

Photo courtesy of Borders

November 1999 : Greg Josefowicz becomes Borders permanent CEO. August 2001 : Borders contracts with online retailer Amazon to sell products online -- a relationship later blamed for making Borders late to the emerging web retail segment.

July 2004 : Borders buys United Kingdom-based Paperchase Products Ltd. The company also starts branding some Waldenbooks stores as Borders Express.

August 2004 : Borders signs deal with Starbucks Corp. to run Seattle’s Best Coffee cafe operations in its stores.

2005 : Borders posts its most recent annual profit: $101.0 million.

February 2006 : The company launches a loyalty program called Borders Rewards.

July 2006 : George Jones replaces Josefowicz, who had led Borders since November 1999. At the time, Borders had nearly 36,000 employees worldwide and more than 1,200 in Ann Arbor.

September 2007 : Borders sells its U.K. and Ireland subsidiaries.

September 2007 : Stock hits then-six-year-low $12.28 a share.

The Borders store on Lohr Road in Pittsfield Township was created as the chain's new "concept" store when it opened in 2008.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

March 28, 2008 : Stock closes down 28.5 percent to $5.07 after Borders says it lost $157.4 million in 2007.

March 2008 : Borders puts itself up for sale and accepts $42.5 million loan from New York hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management to boost financial position.

May 2008 : Severing ties with Amazon, the company launches a new Borders.com.

June 3, 2008 : Borders’ shrinking Ann Arbor personnel count hits 1,000 after 156 job cuts are announced as part of a $120 million cost-cutting plan . At this point, the company still has 30,000 employees overall.

June 10, 2008 : Borders sells off its business based in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Former Borders Group CEO George Jones speaks to employees in February 2008. He was fired less than a year later.

File photo | AnnArbor.com

Jan. 5, 2009 : CEO George Jones is fired and replaced with Ron Marshall as global financial crisis raises questions about Borders' viability.

March 2009 : Borders cuts costs, conserves cash in effort to avoid bankruptcy in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

March 30, 2009 : Borders, despite posting a $187 million loss in 2008, gets some breathing room after receiving a one-year extension on a loan from Pershing Square Capital Management.

Nov. 5, 2009 : Borders announces plans to close 200 of its small stores and cut 1,500 jobs. By February 2011, the number of small-format stores is about 170, down from more than 1,100 in 1995.

November 2009 : Investors criticize Borders' sluggish approach to the emerging electronic books market.

Borders started selling the Kobo e-reader in its stores in summer 2010.

Jan. 18, 2010 : Executives say they're “ disappointed ” with 13.7 percent decline in holiday sales.

Jan. 26, 2010 : CEO Ron Marshall resigns to become CEO of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., which files for bankruptcy later in the year after Marshall’s departure. Borders executive Mike Edwards is named interim CEO of Borders Group.

Jan. 28, 2010 : Layoffs hit 10 percent of the Ann Arbor corporate staff.

Feb. 3, 2010 : Hedge fund investor and Borders shareholder Bill Ackman says bankruptcy is unlikely .

March 31, 2010 : Borders pays off $42.5 million loan to Ackman, renegotiates credit agreement with lenders.

April 1, 2010 : Executives describe strategy of " transforming the Borders brand ."

May 21, 2010 : Tobacco executive and activist investor Bennett LeBow invests $25 million and is named chairman.

Borders liquidating

• Borders plans to liquidate, ending 40-year-old bookstore chain
• Column: Borders' expansion hastened its implosion
• Borders' rise and fall: a timeline of the bookstore chain's 40-year history
• What's next for downtown Ann Arbor Borders store after chain closes?
• Downtown store closure also means a loss of arts and music venue
• Expected closure of Borders superstore in Pittsfield Township leaves shopping center with vacancy
• Disappearing act: Borders brothers nowhere to be found
• Residents express disappointment and sense of inevitability at closing of flagship Borders store
• Read Borders CEO Mike Edwards' letter to employees announcing liquidation
• Media watch: What other news sites are reporting on the Borders liquidation 
• Share your memories of Borders' 40-year heritage in Ann Arbor

July 2010 : Borders launches e-book store, starts selling e-readers, sets strategy to get 17 percent market share in e-books within a year.

July 31, 2010 : Borders sells Paperchase unit for $31 million.

Aug. 11, 2010 : Borders lays off more Ann Arbor workers. About 600 workers left.

Sept. 1, 2010 : Borders posts $46.7 million loss in second quarter, eyes " non-book products " like games and toys.

Nov. 15, 2010 : Borders launches redesigned website.

Dec. 6, 2010 : Ackman says he’d be willing to finance a Borders bid to acquire Barnes & Noble and merge the retailers.

Dec. 9, 2010 : Borders posts $74.4 million loss for third quarter, acknowledges possible cash crunch in early 2011.

Dec. 30, 2010 : Borders confirms that it’s delaying payments to some publishers in hopes of reworking vendor financing arrangements.

Dec. 31, 2010 : Stock plunges 22 percent to $0.90 a share.

Early January 2011 : Publishers weigh whether to agree to short-term debt in exchange for giving up immediate cash payments for book shipments.

Jan. 6, 2011 : University of Michigan expert says Borders likely headed toward bankruptcy or merger.

Jan. 12, 2011 : Borders announces plans to cut 300-person Tennessee distribution center .

Jan. 17, 2011 : Borders lays off another 40 employees at its corporate headquarters, leaving about 550 workers there.

Jan. 24, 2011 : Company sells off Day By Day Calendar unit in bid to raise cash.

Jan. 27, 2011 : Borders announces tentative financing deal with GE Capital but acknowledges possibility of "in-court restructuring."

Jan. 30, 2011 : Borders announces decision to delay payments to more partners, including some landlords.

Feb. 1, 2011 : Reports indicate bankruptcy filing may come with weeks.

Feb. 3, 2011 : New York Stock Exchange warns Borders that its stock could face delisting if it doesn't rise above an average monthly price of $1 within six months.

Feb. 11, 2011 : Ackman acknowledges $125 million loss on Borders investment.

Feb. 16, 2011 : Borders files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with plans to close 30 percent of its stores.

March 25, 2011 : Borders asks court to approve executive bonus plan contingent upon a successful exit from bankruptcy.

April 6, 2011 : Executives reveal plans to move Borders out of its corporate headquarters building on Phoenix Drive on Ann Arbor's south side, saying they would consider the metro Detroit region. Later, the company identifies the former Visteon Village complex in Van Buren Township as one possible destination.

April 22, 2011 : Judge approves bonus plan with several strings attached.

May 5, 2011 : In an interview , Borders CEO Mike Edwards says the company could emerge from bankruptcy by September if it gets support from publishers. He also says the company has fewer than 400 workers left at its headquarters.

May 19, 2011 : In a filing, Borders asks the court to approve the severance of its deal with Seattle's Best Coffee , a subsidiary of Starbucks Corp.

June 1, 2011 : A Los Angeles-based private equity firm named Gores Group , which is led by the brother of the billionaire who recently bought the Detroit Pistons, is reported to be considering an acquisition of Borders .

June 7, 2011 : Phoenix-based private equity firm Najafi Companies is reported to be considering a bid to buy Borders. Najafi owns Direct Brands , which operates the Book of the Month Club and the Doubleday Book Club .

June 30, 2011 : Najafi submits a tentative bid to buy Borders for $215.1 million in cash and the assumption of $220 million in liabilities. Borders asks the court to establish Najafi as the "stalking-horse bidder" and to approve a $6.45 million breakup fee for Najafi if Borders chooses another buyer against Najafi's will.

July 13, 2011 : A committee of unsecured creditors — namely, publishers that ship books to Borders — file an objection to the proposed sale, saying that nothing would prevent Najafi from liquidating Borders on its own and pocketing valuable intellectual property. The creditors said that if Borders was to be liquidated, it wanted the Borders-approved liquidators to handle the process.

July 13, 2011 : Najafi says it cannot proceed with an acquisition of Borders under the terms it previously laid out — a development believed to be related to the publishers' objection.

July 14, 2011 : A bid by a team of liquidators is established as the top bid in an auction tentatively scheduled to take place July 19. Without another bid, the company would have to start liquidation sales as soon as July 22.

July 17, 2011 : Deadline for bids passes without any new possible acquirers emerging.

July 18, 2011 : Borders announces plans to liquidate . Some 10,700 people will lose their jobs, including 400 in Ann Arbor.

Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or [email protected] . You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.

Tue, Jul 19, 2011 : 6:02 p.m.

A few more dates to bear in mind, when Border's downtown store added music in 1991, Schoolkids, SKR Classical and Discount Records each closed. Capitalism and legacy don't have a lot to do with each other. Pay attention to your customers and innovate or die. I do mourn the early days of Borders when I could walk into the computer book section on State St. and have the buyer steer me to just the book I needed. My career benefited markedly by that guidance. But its hard to pity serial bad management decisions and repeatedly turning their back on the roots.

Joe Bavonese

Tue, Jul 19, 2011 : 12:30 p.m.

I was disappointed that the original Borders store on State St was not given more space in this timeline. To those of us who remember it, it was like going to a shrine - the first bookstore where you could sit down, relax, not feel pressured - and measure your time in dollars per minute. It was a destination and part of what made the Ann Arbor book scene unique.

Tue, Jul 19, 2011 : 10:24 a.m.

This should be a warning to the bookstore business. Borders reckless expansion caused much of its problems, but online innovation could also be the next knockout blow. Barnes and Noble should be cautious in their approach. While they are much better managed than Borders and wisely did not purchase the latter company; they are not immune to the online onslaught.

Tue, Jul 19, 2011 : 12:10 a.m.

A couple of important milestones that would be interesting (and relevant) to include would be: Beginning sales of eReaders (such as Kindle) Arrival of Napster Launch of iPod and iTunes Launch of Netflix Launch of Amazon All of those events helped to act as killer technologies for all of Borders sales channels.

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Queens bookstore offers over a hundred books in Mandarin

QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) — Nestled on a quiet street in Woodside, Volcano Books is not the ordinary bookstore.

Opened at the end of March, the bookstore features 200 books -almost all of them written in Mandarin.

Yan Li, a 30-year-old Chinese immigrant who moved to the United States in 2015 is an avid reader and calls the store his passion project. “Living here for many years I realized I read fewer books because of the language barrier,” said Li.

“I realized there’s a big group of people living in New York that have this need too. They want to read Mandarin language books.”

Li says he was inspired to open the store because of a gap in the market. While there are other Chinese bookstores in the city, as well as a Chinese section at the library, Li says his store appeals to younger readers who are looking for the newest selections.

“They don’t have the latest, newest books coming into the store. In our store we import books twice a month. They’re all new books just published last year and early this year.”

The store also features a small section of Chinese books that are translated into English to promote cultural exchange. 

Li also uses the space to host community events, like art shows and movie nights. “People get together because they have the same cultural background they have the same hobbies or they just love books so a higher common understanding.”

Li adds while the books are the heart of the space, his main goal is to provide the next generation of Chinese children or immigrants a place where they can find a sense of belonging.

“Without a Chinese bookstore or community, those kids they have to go to a Chinese school to learn the language but they don’t know where to use it except speaking in their home//people can get together and speak mandarin in this store.” 

This weekend at Volcano Books, there will be a movie night on Friday, an art workshop on Saturday, and a comedy show on Sunday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.

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Borders Books, Music and Movies

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When Borders Book Shop (as it was once known) opened in Ann Arbor circa 1971, selling both new and used books, it was far from the behemoth it is today. Since then, however, they’ve sold out to Kmart, merged with Waldenbooks, bought themselves back from Kmart, and now have stores in Singapore, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. In its current manifestation, Borders can special order out-of-stock titles in about a week, and unlike its even bigger brother, Barnes & Noble, it will special order out-of-print titles. They have thousands of CDs and DVDs, and everything is organized on shelves; no tubs or stacks on the floor here. The coffee in their cafés is provided by a Starbucks subsidiary, and their stationary company is a leading brand in the U.K. But this slightly-upscale motif is more appearance than anything—while a Borders manager may tell you that the store’s employees are more knowledgeable and bookish than those of other big chains, a Borders employee will just as soon tell you that it only looks that way because of the stringent dress code. — Ben Perkins

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Read Your Way Through Montreal

Montreal is a city as appealing for its beauty as for its shadows. Here, the novelist Mona Awad recommends books that are “both dreamy and uncompromising.”

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By Mona Awad

Read Your Way Around the World is a series exploring the globe through books.

Montreal is an island unto itself. An architect’s paradise. A foodie’s dream, where a pastry will make you weep. It’s a city of extremes. The grandiose maximalism of Cirque du Soleil and Arcade Fire. The gritty punk scene and the thriving diner (casse-croûte) culture. Hot bacchanalian summers that never sleep, and cold brooding winters that draw you underground and inward. Perhaps that’s why it’s also a city of great style.

It’s where I grew up and when we had to move I never thought I would get over leaving. In many ways, I haven’t. It’s still, after all these years, the city of my heart. Playful, sexy, strangely celebratory and, above all, beautiful. Strolling through the city’s iconic neighborhoods — the Plateau, Mile End or Old Montreal to name a few — you see it everywhere you look: the impulse toward aesthetic pleasures, visual harmony. That desire to make everything, be it a bagel or a bookstore, a celebration of itself.

But there is, of course, a dark side to every great city. The literature of Montreal is both dreamy and uncompromising in its depths. It aspires to beauty, but it never forgets its shadows. There, the Wildean axiom “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars” is viscerally felt — and it’s a sentiment that pulses through the cultural blood of the city.

What should I read before I pack my bags?

Many classics of Montreal literature evoke place through a multitude of colorful local characters. “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” by Mordecai Richler, is a quintessential comic Montreal novel of the late 1950s (also try his last novel, “Barney’s Version” ). “The Favorite Game,” by Leonard Cohen, is his autofictional exploration of growing up as a young Jewish boy (try also his collection of poems “The Spice-Box of Earth” ). Short story master Mavis Gallant’s “Varieties of Exile” was originally titled “Montreal Stories ” in Canada for good reason. Consider also Gabrielle Roy’s “The Tin Flute” and Michel Tremblay’s “The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant,” both empathetic portrayals of working class life among French speakers. “How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired,” by Dany Laferrière, is another ground breaking exploration of Montreal life from the perspective of a Haitian immigrant.

For a little mystery, try Louise Penny’s popular “Three Pines” detective series . Though set in a fictional town in Quebec, her novels often feature Montreal (“ Glass Houses ” in particular.) Kathy Reichs unearths the bones of the city in her thriller “Déjà Dead.” And Montreal’s rich queer culture is captured in the coming-of-age novels “The Geography of Pluto,” by Christopher DiRaddo, and “Bottle Rocket Hearts,” by Zoe Whittall.

Perhaps nothing will get you more excited to travel to Montreal than the dazzling work of Heather O’Neill. In novels like “Lullabies for Little Criminals” and “The Lonely Hearts Hotel,” O’Neill captures both the darkness and the dreaminess of the city in shimmering colors. O’Neill’s latest, “When We Lost Our Heads,” is a dizzying confection, offering a 19th-century glimpse of Montreal’s Golden Square Mile neighborhood with a sharp eye.

What stories provide a glimpse into modern Montreal?

Among more contemporary books, there is an abundance of literary gems: “Our Lady of Mile End,” by Sarah Gilbert, a collection of short stories set in the neighborhood of the same name; “Ru,” by Kim Thúy, a gorgeous Vietnamese immigrant story woven out of poignant vignettes; and “The Wagers, ” by Sean Michaels, which evokes both the quotidian and magical elements of the city.

What books will take me behind closed doors?

A host of brilliant Montreal novels both evoke place and showcase the underbelly experiences of those who, for any number of reasons, live in the margins. In the vitriolic symphony that is “Cockroach,” by Rawi Hage, a struggling Lebanese immigrant imagines himself to be a literal cockroach. “Bone and Bread,” by Saleema Nawaz, explores the tumultuous lives of two orphaned sisters who grew up in a Hasidic community in Mile End. For a dark depiction of the working life (and Montreal loves a dark depiction of the working life), consider “The Dishwasher,” by Stéphane Larue, which was adapted into a film, or the fiery and incantatory “Whore,” by Nelly Arcan.

What literary landmarks and bookstores should I visit?

Librairie Drawn & Quarterly is a beautiful independent bookshop in the heart of Montreal’s Plateau area. It’s also an internationally renowned publisher of comics, including work by Kate Beaton, Adrian Tomine, Lynda Barry and Chester Brown, among many others. The bookstore’s idiosyncratically curated selection of titles and its gorgeous and singular interior make this a must-see. Other lovely English-language bookshops to visit along the way: Librairie Saint-Henri Books , Argo Bookshop (Montreal’s oldest indie), The Word .

Any restaurants I should visit?

In a gastronome’s playground like Montreal, it would be remiss of me not to mention some food stops. As the daughter of a woman who worked in Montreal delis for nearly all of the ’80s, I’m perhaps biased in putting forth that a smoked meat sandwich is its own quintessential experience of the city. I’d recommend Schwartz’s Deli , an institution unto itself that is approaching its centennial. There’s also Moishes Steakhouse , an institution frequented, in its heyday, by none other than Leonard Cohen (presumably before he became a vegetarian).

And nothing evokes Montreal for me (and many other Montrealers) quite like a bagel fresh from the fire. St-Viateur Bagel , located in the historic Mile End neighborhood (and featured in “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” ), has been “defining the art of bagel making since 1957,” according to its website. To eat one of their bagels just out of the wood-burning oven is to taste my childhood. But even if it’s not a Proust’s madeleine for you, the baked good — like Montreal itself — is well worth the voyage.

Mona Awad’s Montreal Reading List

“The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” and “Barney’s Version,” Mordecai Richler

“The Favorite Game” and “The Spice-Box of Earth,” Leonard Cohen

“Varieties of Exile,” Mavis Gallant

“The Tin Flute,” Gabrielle Roy

“The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant,” Michel Tremblay

“How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired,” Dany Laferrière

“Three Pines” series (including “Glass Houses” ), Louise Penny

“Déjà Dead,” Kathy Reichs

“The Geography of Pluto,” Christopher DiRaddo

“Bottle Rocket Hearts,” Zoe Whittall

“Lullabies for Little Criminals,” “The Lonely Hearts Hotel” and “When We Lost Our Heads,” Heather O’Neill

“Our Lady of Mile End,” Sarah Gilbert

“Ru,” Kim Thúy

“The Wagers,” Sean Michaels

“Cockroach,” Rawi Hage

“Bone and Bread,” Saleema Nawaz

“The Dishwasher,” Stéphane Larue

“Whore,” Nelly Arcan

Mona Awad is the author of several novels, including “ Bunny ” and, most recently, “ Rouge ,” which is set partially in Montreal.

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