Borders also has the most chintzy "deals" in the book sales business.
You buy a B&N card and it's a flat 10% off on everything you buy thereafter, until the card runs out of gas, which is either six months or a year.
Anybody who knows their own purchase habits and isn't afraid of elementary math can figure out whether this makes sense or not.
OTOH, Borders sales are a crap shoot crossed with a fan dance. Completely pointless to even bother to save the tear-off coupon at the bottom of your receipt.
But try finding something that isn't mainstream and you're going to be stuck even if you go to B&N.
I can pretty much expect that neither store is going to have the military history in stock that I'm reading these days. I have three choices: University Bookstore, Amazon, or Powell's.
And the only place I can find recent infosec titles is either the University Bookstore, or the B&N in downtown Bellevue.
Better watch out for that place, Jesse.
The last time I was there was incident to a job interview, since up until my last employer blew a gasket, my commute carried me to downtown Seattle every day.
I spent entirely too much money that day.
Borders has high prices on everything and has nothing to make up for it. Even Barnes and Noble has a big Bargain Books section. Borders has bargain nothing.
Shopping online for books or DVDs is always the best bet these days unless you need it right away. I have a Borders convenient to me and I even have a 10 dollar gift card for months and months. I don't really even expect to use it.
Two words, Powell's Books.
I'm spoiled.
B & N has a thomas table, borders dose not...kids are entertaind so my wife and i can rotate on looking for books (one of us stays with the kids while the other borwses)...B & N wins.
and don't cry to me about small book stores, unless you live in a large city, the indipendents only carry romance novles.
Let's not just blame better bookstores and the iTunes Store for this. Much of my reading time, and info gathering, is done right here in good internet sites.
For example- Gilly's "Colonial Warfare" series took many tomes of history and gave me a great basic education, with historical examples, of this arcane (to BushCo) topic. I'm not ever going to run out and read 10 books on the topic, but I got what I needed here on my laptop.
PS- Oh no, the Free Market is at work again! Maybe the Fed will buy these guys out. /snark
This is exactly right. I have a Borders within walking distance. I'm in there every couple of weeks, just because it's a good walking destination. I'm always disappointed with the selection, and the prices are flat-out horrible. Even with their online discount coupons, the prices are high. B&N offers more value and a more reader-friendly shopping experience, and of course Powell's and the local independents are treasures.
Jesse, you will never be Steve.
XOXOX
Shame on anybody who patronizes anti-union amazon.com. There are many more options out there, like bookfinder.com, which puts you in direct touch with the indies, and the wonderful (unionized) Powell's.
and the wonderful (unionized) Powell's.
The worker did have fight for it though.
I will make a point on Amazon, and other online vendors: They are subsidized by the states not pursuing buyers for their sales taxes.
I'm still waiting for the first state to go after online purchasers for sales tax evasion.
The way state budgets are imploding, it will happen before the end of 2009.
I have to agree with those complaining about Border's. Why buy a book for $26.95 at Border's when I can get it at B&N or Powell's or an independent bookstore for nearly $10-12 cheaper?
Border's pretty much priced themselves right out of the market. Also, as others have said, the selection (at least the Border's by me) is atrocious and the way the books are shelved/grouped is nutty.
Even though I have a Rewards card there, I rarely use it. You really don't save much money through there. I got a $25 gift card for Christmas and was only able to buy one thing from there. With a B&N or other bookstore gift cards I can get at least 2 or 3 items for $25. It's not worth it.
Borders said yesterday that it was suffering a funding crisis as credit became "prohibitively expensive or entirely unavailable".
Borders' suckiness aside, that's just scary.
I'm sorry, but the last time I went into a Barnes and Noble and perused the science section I found all kinds of bullshit stocked on the science shelves, including blatant religious books purporting to be science, and a ton of new age wussy shit. When I pointed this out to the sales droid, she shrugged and said that what was there was "corporate policy."
I said, "It's my policy to shop at stores where religious tracts are in religion and science books aren't diluted by BS creationist drivel."
And i walked out. I refuse to patronize the place and will search independent stores or shop online at Powell's or Amazon.
Now will someone please point me to Gilly's "Colonial Warfare" series? That sounds like a must read.
Thank you.
Ask and you shall receive.
Here is the index, from dKos to my bookmarks file to you.
Steve Gilliard's "Colonial Warfare" Series - Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Thanks Stormcrow.
I'm probably the only person on this thread that likes Borders. The ones I've been to, at least, have a larger-than-average selection of 1) foreign-language magazines and 2) comic novels about Serious Subjects by British actors. B&N's always struck me as kind of "eh".
Just think, in Ann Arbor there are those who remember when Borders was one of those cool independent bookstores. Even after the brothers sold the store and it became a national chain, it was some years before the original store started to feel like the glorified Waldenbooks it has all but become.
Barnes & Noble? In NYC it used to be a place where you went for textbooks when the uptown college shop had run out, when I was there. Their general reading sections were kind of an afterthought, which is how the whole store that's out here in AA feels now.
Gone are the days of bookstores you could cruise for literates!
In my area, the situation is almost exactly 180 degrees from what most here experience.
The B&N has a confusing layout, poor selection, customer service that would be horrible if it even existed, and prices that make me blanch.
The Borders has a more open layout, better sales and prices, a local music section that's really helping to drive people to the local scene, and customer service that's aces.
Maybe that's because I live near a small/medium-sized market instead of a major metro area.
Of course the independent bookstores would be preferable, provided they are truly literate. The best I've ever been to in the U.S. is Tattered Cover in Denver, Colorado.
In NYC, there's the Strand... oh my, the Strand...
Annie C, here you go
Whenever I visit relatives in Tempe (near Phoenix), I always go to a wonder locally-owned independent bookstore called Changing Hands. If I wasn't an out-of-towner I would joing their discount club because the selections are truly awesome. I've found books there that I have never found in either Borders or Barnes & Noble.
>OTOH, Borders sales are a crap shoot crossed with a fan dance. Completely pointless to even bother to save the tear-off coupon at the bottom of your receipt.<
...which can _only_ be used for in-store stock. Which means, more often than not, if you want anything but an author's most recent book (which is the majority of most folks' book-buying,) you 1) have to order it, which means you better not need said book any time soon; 2) are ineligible for the coupon discount. And I won't even get into how many thousands of other things Borders' coupons can't be used for--and the arbitrary petty limitations the chain invokes that ensure that for every 20% you save, you'll lose that much or more on some other Borders' purchase. And did I mention that their wireless is not free? I'll fourth (fifth?) the votes for Powell's here. And I'd also suggest that getting a B&N gift card and using it to order used books from their booksellers online is a good way to go, as well.
Anonymous at 6:02 a.m., go bleep yourself.
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