The day after Christmas is the New Black (Friday)

[elfs]

In February, Border's Books was trading for about $10 a share. As December rolled around, Border's stock price had collapsed to $1 a share, and as of Christmas the stock had fallen to less than half that, closing Christmas Eve at $0.38 per share.

Ouch.

Some people think Borders will survive until February; there are others expecting a fire sale sometime in the next week or so.

I wonder if now is the time to grab all the Java, Wikimedia, and DHTML books I've been holding off on purchasing.

US News and World Report says that Christmas sales were so bad, post-Christmas sales promise to have the deepest cuts in history. I'm not a big fan of shopping, and I sorta doubt sex toys will be on sale, but maybe I'll brave the weather and head out to see what I can find in the coming week.

Comments

[woggie.livejournal.com]

I'm on their weblist. They announced a sale: 75% off!

So, yes, now would probably be the time for those book purchases. :)

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

Is this online or at their stores?

[woggie.livejournal.com]

Apparently online. I noticed this little line:

use promo code SAD5671A at Borders.com

[mikstera.livejournal.com]

I just tried to use this code, and it gave a 20% discount rather than 75%.

Another IT error that's since been corrected, perhaps?

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

And, in a major screwup, the Borders/Waldenbooks people sent out, to an indeterminate number of people, an email announcing a "store closure in your area" pushing 40% off everything in the store sale... for the store at 4750 Natomas in Sacramento. They also sent another email apologizing for spamming their mailing list and explaining that the email was intended for Sacramento customers only. Sloppy work on the part of the IT department. But if they're offering 75% discounts online, that trumps 40% in the stores.

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately when I went to look through the site, it was broken left and right.

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

Conversely, Amazon has just reported their best year's sales yet. (http://www.247wallst.com/2008/12/holiday-success.html)

Wall, meet writing. Writing, say hi to the wall.

[purly.livejournal.com]

One of the first things I cut out of my budget are the expensive media purchases. Borders sells overpriced items IMO. I buy from Amazon or look for cheaper options.

Besides, I am hesitant to purchase physical media these days. Storage space is expensive and the digital version of everything is cheaper anyways.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree for audio and video, but for books the sensual experience of reading is still bound up in lying in bed or a bathtub and thumbing through the pages. Reading is still a slow enough experience that passive light and turning pages are part of the pleasure.

[purly.livejournal.com]

I've started going to the library a lot more. They know who I am now.

Anyways, I do still buy some books. But I'm looking at buying a Kindle when they release the new one. It's just more convenient for me since I travel for work.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

I wonder if now is the time to grab all the Java, Wikimedia, and DHTML books I've been holding off on purchasing.

Sadly, nobody does proper going-out-of-business sales any more. Borders will keep selling their inventory to end-consumers at standard MSRP-or-10%-below prices for as long as their doors are open, and then once the key turns, anything they can't send back to the distributors for a full refund will get sold at pennies on the dollar to other chains (ie: B&N) or wholesale discounting outfits.

[reynai.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, this seems rather true. There's an outdoor mall near where I live that has had one shop after another closing up shop -- one of the first to go was the rather poorly-stocked bookstore. It did have a 'going out of business sale' -- where they finally increased the discount to 33% (50% on the stuff they -really- wanted to get rid of -- the stuff they had trouble selling in any case). I bought a number of things.. but kept waiting for the discount to go higher before wanting to really clean them out, which never happened.

Ditto for CompUSA when it went out of business.