Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio. This week, Bennett asks where the Borders liquidations take us one step closer to the tipping point.
Somehow I ended up at the cinema a half hour early for my Sunday matinée of Drive Angry 3-D (yes, I was the one who saw it) rather than my traditional fifteen minutes so I decided to stop and browse at the nearby Borders. I haven't done that in a while. I know this because the last time I did I wrote about it in an early 2010 column (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--On A Series of Unrelated Notes") where I wrote "I went into a Borders and given the foot traffic I could have easily taken a nap right in the middle of the discount book selections without inconveniencing anyone."
I got a bad feeling when I spotted the banners hanging from the side of the building advertising a massive sale and when I parked in front I saw an even larger sign announcing "Store Closing Soon." My Borders was going to be one of the 200 stores that were closing. I went in and, boy, were they ever busy. I realize this is just anecdotal evidence, I can't tell you how the going out of business sales are doing nation-wide but on that day at that Borders they were doing land office business; there were always at least ten customers waiting in the check-out line the entire fifteen minutes I was there. The place was packed which was understandable; the economy being what it is a sale, especially one where as the signage everywhere constantly told me, everything was up to seventy percent off.
I made a full lap of the store but naturally spent most of my time going through their extensive graphic novel section and checking out the sale prices, which admittedly was kind of difficult as someone had decided to turn off half of the store's interior lights (whether this was to create ambiance or to save on electricity I couldn't say). And I found quite a number of bargains; I'm not making a lot of impulse purchases these days but they were pretty hard to resist at 70% off. But ultimately resist I did and left the store empty handed and feeling empty. And more than a little sad.
It’s one thing to read about 200 Borders closing (see "Borders Store Liquidations Underway") and entirely another to have the evidence stuck in my face. It's always more than a little sad seeing any store close, especially a bookstore (take it from someone who had to close a comic shop), and I know I've made more than my share of 'Barnes & Borders' jokes and have written how Borders was (and wasn't) competition for the direct sales market. But I was going to miss the convenience of having a Borders nearby. Obviously I hadn't shopped at lot there lately but it was always nice knowing that I was close to a place that most likely had just about everything I was interested in when it came to entertainment.
And I'm more than a little afraid that these closings may herald the end of an era. I know it's a hackneyed and overused phrase but it's pretty clear that we continue to inch our way perilously closer towards the tipping point, that moment when everything that can be transmitted electronically (newspapers, books, movies, television, music, comics, etc.) will be transmitted electronically, eliminating a lot of middlemen in the process. New middlemen will rise up to replace them, I mean, there will have to be some kind of brick and mortar outlet where customers can upload impulse purchase entertainment into their iPads and Kindles while shopping at Krogers or the Mall.
And as always, not knowing what that future is going to look like, let alone what it will mean to us, is a very uncomfortable place to be.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
