Borders - Bankruptcy Imminent?

[GuaranteedUnity]

Interesting article on Bleeding Cool this morning that casts doubts on the future of Borders following an announcement they made yesterday about delaying payments to publishers.

To read the full WSJ article they link to, access it from Google.

Hopefully, things won't get as bad for the chain as they did in UK, but I'm not sure how/if they can turn things around when Amazon routinely beats their prices even with that amazing 50% off coupon they offered around Thanksgiving.

:(

[legitimatealex]

They're going belly up and close to foreclosing apparently. They can't even make payments to publishers that they owe. I think we're going to be losing those 33/50% off coupons for BnM Borders stores soon.

Is anyone going to miss them that much though? The one by me never had much of a selection anyways and the stuff they did have was always overpriced.

[GuaranteedUnity]

I mentioned this possibility a few weeks ago, pointing out that Borders shut down their UK arm entirely in 2009.

From what I've seen so far, I don't think things will be quite so dramatic for them in the US, but do expect to see a lot more of their B&M stores closed down (especially the Expresses and Waldenbooks).

I'm hoping mine won't be one of them because, yes, I would miss it as there's no other bookseller remotely nearby and I've actually been using most of the coupons to actually buy -gasp- books! (What? No way! :o)

Still, being able to pick up discount LEGO was an added perk, but it seems -- having visiting quite a few other branches -- that my store is one of the few to carry a decent selection of sets. If anything, my complaint would be that they rotated through stock TOO quickly!

[koromo]

I enjoyed borders. Much better than BN and was around in my area before BN hit the scene. Had much better promotions including those for students/educators.

However post BN entry alot of smaller chains and even private operations have folded, been gobbled up or reduced in size.

I get many books from Amazon, its rare I get anything at real store unless I am on the road and need something to read.

Borders will be missed.

[atmail35]

Use up any gift cards you might have!

I hope they don't close, I prefer them to Barnes & Noble.

[Mantisking]

I prefer them to B&N, especially the free discount membership. If they do fold I'll be sad to see them go.

[Brick & Blue]

There are rumours they will do what KMart did. That was to go bankrupt, reorganize and then end up buying Sears.

This time Borders will go bankrupt, reorganize (bankrupt doesn't mean closing down) and then buy B&N. I'm not sure how that is legal, but this is the USA.

[legitimatealex]

It doesn't mean closing down I know, but when you can't pay your suppliers the money you owe them for their books, what the heck else are you going to do?

[koromo]

It doesn't mean closing down I know, but when you can't pay your suppliers the money you owe them for their books, what the heck else are you going to do?

Circuit city bought their inventory on credit and when they folded they owed quite a bit.

[GuaranteedUnity]

It doesn't mean closing down I know, but when you can't pay your suppliers the money you owe them for their books, what the heck else are you going to do?

What they're attempting to do is restructure debts to suppliers and secure additional refinancing, along with general belt-tightening (closing down their Nashville distribution center and under-performing stores, with more stores likely), and selling off non-core assets like their Day By Day Calendar kiosk chain.

[GuaranteedUnity]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-0 ... -week.html

For the tl;dr crowd...

Borders may file for Chapter 11 next week (Feb 7-11), and likely follow by closing 150 of their 650 stores.

[Mantisking]

For the tl;dr crowd...

Borders may file for Chapter 11 next week (Feb 7-11), and likely follow by closing 150 of their 650 stores.

That's only 23% or so, which isn't bad. They already closed the nearest one to me, so hopefully they don't close any others.

[legitimatealex]

Even if they manage to float by after their Ch 11 filing they're going to have to do a lot more to stay in business. They can only be protected for so long before they eventually just disband.

[sweener]

This may all be coming to an end very soon.... Borders Nearing Bankruptcy Filing

[Mantisking]

This may all be coming to an end very soon.... Borders Nearing Bankruptcy Filing

It's Chapter 11 bankruptcy, not Chaper 13.

[lukeskywalker]

They declared bankruptcy today. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-1 ... -debt.html

[legitimatealex]

Oh you beat me to it. Even had the same news article.

Anyway, the highlights are pretty much these: They're in 1.29 billion dollars of debt, have only 1.28 billion dollars in assets. They're going to shut down 'under-performing stores,' no specifications of how many this is. They're planning on staying in business, and hopefully they keep sending out cool 40-50% off coupons : )

[slacker]

The store in NJ Paramus does pretty well. So I was pretty shocked to see that they were going to file for chapter 11. This is why I waited so long about getting the borders plus card. I'm still thinking about it since the coupons come out almost every week.

[ImmortalShark]

Border's may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. No surprise. They've been foreshadowing it since Chapter 3.

[GuaranteedUnity]

Border's may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. No surprise. They've been foreshadowing it since Chapter 3.