Lou Perry

Tue, Jul 19, 2011 : 2:18 p.m.

Both the Birmingham and Ann Arbor Borders are the former locations of failed Jacobson stores – Maybe demons? The failure of Borders lays directly at the management of the business. The long term executives didn't get it and when they brought in new Chief Executives they left quickly realizing adjusting course with myopic people who kept looking for the population to come back to their stores. For a long time Borders presence on the web was handles by Amazon not Borders. As reported in Home Media, a trade magazine Borders store/website is generally the highest priced merchandiser. An example for a list price video at $27 Target's price is $16.99 and Borders $24.29 – Not competitive in any way. Borders stores are big box stores with lots of space. The keep selling books, but never have gone beyond that. O.K., a few toy areas and selling cheap pens and unique paper. How about high end pens, refills and more. Better margins and repeat sales for refills. Learning Express Toys sells educational toys successfully. Why not that template for Borders beyond kid's books? GameStop is a profitable business with a good stock price. Why not setup a gaming den based on GameStop? Of course there is selling software, but I don't know the margins. Missing the e-reader birth, how 'bout selling e-reader books at more competitive prices? So a big chain, run by incompetence has gone under, but the potential was there if management was more objective and thought with more creative thinking.