Thursday, September 2, 2010

Borders

The latest news from Borders books, headquartered in Ann Arbor.

My recollection is that the "let's have more non-book products" strategy was also the strategy before last, while the most recent strategy was "let's go back to our core business" which seemed in practice to mean big reductions in the number of non-book products, as well as a less dramatic reduction in the number of books to create more open space in the store. They also got rid of the "university press" shelves near the door of the store in Ann Arbor, which struck me as less than clever.

I was surprised to read that their customer base is mainly female.

I hope they stick around but my sense is that they are flailing and that their management, which has been turning over pretty rapidly the past couple of years, does not really know what to do.

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