There have been on-again off-again rumors about drastic cut backs at Borders for some time now. The suggestions leak out,
get "corrected", and reappear again. It isn't the only issue on which Borders prevaricates. I mean they refused to carry the issue of
Free Inquiry that carried the Mohammad cartoons, but do carry an issue of
Harpers with the same content. They announced over a year ago that they would be replacing their Amazon-powered website and starting their own--and then went very quiet on that issue and the site languished in beta version. Then recently the website popped out of beta with
very little warning or ceremony.
Meanwhile rumors of large scale selling off of their brick and mortar stores are only becoming stronger and more credible. On the back of the ongoing selling off of international stories (franchised under the same brand but no longer part of the company), the rather unheralded, low key roll out of the website (with second hand books available through an Alibris-powered marketplace) does feel, to me at least, like a precursor to retrenchment of the US stores or at least a major re-shuffle. I suppose only time will tell.
My somewhat negative attitude to the chain may, of course, also related to my erotic romance being shelved in the psychology section and my high fantasy under gay fiction. To me love and/or dragons are the most salient features of the stories, not sex scenes and/or the hero being gay.
[Breaking news] Blackfooted ferrets in perilLabels: Borders
