Borders closings
Feb. 16th, 2011 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessSo, Borders is closing various Florida bookstores.
To no one's surprise, one of those locations is the store currently closest to me, which is sad because it's where we occasionally hang out before or after a movie, but not surprising: it's by a slowly sinking shopping mall that features a merry-go-round, a movie theater, and several shuttered stores. The movie theater, too, would probably be suffering if it weren't for its saving grace: the only other nearby theaters are either very tiny, or, Universal Studios with the parking lot from hell, various theaters on the "what, you want your car to move forward International Drive?" and so on. (There is also a Clermont theater, but not that close to here or Ocoee.) I just hope this isn't another bad sign for the theatre.
I was also saddened to hear of the other non-surprising closure: the Borders near Galleria Mall on Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. I say non-surprising because about the very first thing that anyone out of town said upon seeing this store is, "And how exactly can they afford to be here?" That particular Borders is/was located in a spectacular location – right on a river, within a (long) walk to the beach, accessible by Water Taxi, something I actually took from there once in a touristy sort of mood. Or you could sit on the porch, sipping coffee and nibbling on cookies, watching yachts go by. Or heading to a poetry reading, or small concert, or Harry Potter party, or whatever. Not, um, that I spent entirely too much time at that bookstore or anything like that.*
As I said, awesome location, but I will bet, hands down, that is also the one location where no executive bothered to look at actual in store sales, instead looking with stark horror at actual in store property taxes and/or rent and/or the land values. Prime real estate, certainly, but that doesn't always equate to prime shopping location.
The surprising closure is the local Borders across from the Florida Mall, which is in a prime shopping location, to the point where busloads full of tourists swing by daily dropping people off, but after I took a moment to consider this, I realized that the Borders is actually across a busy street from that mall, so maybe not as convenient to tourists as I thought, plus, there's a Barnes and Noble right around the corner. And the last two times I was there I couldn't help noticing far fewer books and far wider gaps between shelves. Also, a lack of copies of Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF. This is why you should be keeping this book on shelves and selling the heck out of it, booksellers. I'm just saying.
Anyway, it was enough to give me a nostalgic twinge or two. (Also, people arriving for the IAFA conference...the Borders near the Florida Mall is probably about 15 minutes away from your hotel, on Sand Lake Road just off of the Orange Blossom Trail. And then you can all head to the M&M store to either perish in horror at the American consumerism on display or posit some thoughts about folktales and the presentation of the Green M&M and quavering Yellow.)
*Because it's been scientifically proven that no one can ever spend too much time at a bookstore. Scientifically. Spacetime warps to prevent this. Trust me.
To no one's surprise, one of those locations is the store currently closest to me, which is sad because it's where we occasionally hang out before or after a movie, but not surprising: it's by a slowly sinking shopping mall that features a merry-go-round, a movie theater, and several shuttered stores. The movie theater, too, would probably be suffering if it weren't for its saving grace: the only other nearby theaters are either very tiny, or, Universal Studios with the parking lot from hell, various theaters on the "what, you want your car to move forward International Drive?" and so on. (There is also a Clermont theater, but not that close to here or Ocoee.) I just hope this isn't another bad sign for the theatre.
I was also saddened to hear of the other non-surprising closure: the Borders near Galleria Mall on Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. I say non-surprising because about the very first thing that anyone out of town said upon seeing this store is, "And how exactly can they afford to be here?" That particular Borders is/was located in a spectacular location – right on a river, within a (long) walk to the beach, accessible by Water Taxi, something I actually took from there once in a touristy sort of mood. Or you could sit on the porch, sipping coffee and nibbling on cookies, watching yachts go by. Or heading to a poetry reading, or small concert, or Harry Potter party, or whatever. Not, um, that I spent entirely too much time at that bookstore or anything like that.*
As I said, awesome location, but I will bet, hands down, that is also the one location where no executive bothered to look at actual in store sales, instead looking with stark horror at actual in store property taxes and/or rent and/or the land values. Prime real estate, certainly, but that doesn't always equate to prime shopping location.
The surprising closure is the local Borders across from the Florida Mall, which is in a prime shopping location, to the point where busloads full of tourists swing by daily dropping people off, but after I took a moment to consider this, I realized that the Borders is actually across a busy street from that mall, so maybe not as convenient to tourists as I thought, plus, there's a Barnes and Noble right around the corner. And the last two times I was there I couldn't help noticing far fewer books and far wider gaps between shelves. Also, a lack of copies of Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF. This is why you should be keeping this book on shelves and selling the heck out of it, booksellers. I'm just saying.
Anyway, it was enough to give me a nostalgic twinge or two. (Also, people arriving for the IAFA conference...the Borders near the Florida Mall is probably about 15 minutes away from your hotel, on Sand Lake Road just off of the Orange Blossom Trail. And then you can all head to the M&M store to either perish in horror at the American consumerism on display or posit some thoughts about folktales and the presentation of the Green M&M and quavering Yellow.)
*Because it's been scientifically proven that no one can ever spend too much time at a bookstore. Scientifically. Spacetime warps to prevent this. Trust me.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-17 11:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-18 06:59 pm (UTC)Fortunately Barnes and Noble is still around :) As is the wonderful used bookstore where the owner will happily chat about books with me.