Disappointed but not surprised.

[uberreiniger]

So today Borders filed for bankruptcy and my local store is on the list of ones that are closing. Not like they ever had any inventory anyway, but still it was someplace to go.

So now I have no record stores and one less bookstore. All the musical instrument stores have closed too. (Having Musician's Friend in their backyard made that a foregone conclusion.) With all those distractions gone I can finally get back to my true mission: saving the world.

Here's how I plan to do it. I am going to get obsessively, passionately interested in carpentry and start shopping at the local lumber supply stores. This will guarantee that they will all close down forever, thereby ending deforestation and saving the ecosystem forever.

I can't believe I didn't think of this before. I'm a genius!

Comments

[cherith.livejournal.com]

For Borders it's only Chapter 11, so the plan is to close a few stores and to keep I think 2/3rds of the stores open? So chances are likely there'll still be some around.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I know they'll be around, but now I'll have to go clear down to Overland Park if I want to shop at one. Which honestly I'm unlikely to do since the chain has never had good inventory, which is why they're in the straits they're in. But still, a bookstore is a bookstore and I'll miss being able to go one on a few minutes notice.

[sravakavarn.livejournal.com]

I predict they go the way of Tower Records. Chapter 11 now, Chapter 14 later.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I get the impression they're hoping some kind venture capitalist will come along with a magic bag of money and whisk all their problems away and that's just not going to happen. Nobody wants to touch them right now and there's not even a reason to.

[cherith.livejournal.com]

Well, you've still got a B&N relatively close by at least.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I do, thankfully, and at least they're not going anywhere any time soon. Borders has always been the K-Mart to B&N's Walmart. (K-Mart even owned Borders for a while.) They've never known how to compete or even made competing with them a serious priority when in reality it was their only priority.

[sravakavarn.livejournal.com]

The age of media is almost all electric, sadly.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I'm getting the impression that the corporate leadership at Borders have been approaching business from a very computer illiterate standpoint. That will kill you no matter what you're selling. Borders has not made their business computer friendly the way B&N has. People want a good shopping experience, even online. B&N.com has always done a good job of that whereas Borders.com has always just kind of been "there."

[redstar826.livejournal.com]

Looks like the stores near me are staying open. Thank god.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I fully expected this one by me to close. Their inventory has suffered hard, probably due to the fact that the company can't pay its publishers so they're not getting new releases or restocking old ones. They seem to have even less rack space than a typical Borders.

[punkyami-chan.livejournal.com]

Seriously there are no music instrument stores? My husband graduated from Paseo H.S. and that's a performing arts High School. Where are these students getting their instruments from? The school doesn't have that many and my husband played four different instruments while he was there and was teaching himself a fifth during his senior year because he had free time.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

There's one independent music store I know of called Big Dude's Music. Mel and I hate it because they run these very annoying commercials where they hire these very untalented local musicians who aren't competent enough to play at a 5 year-old's birthday party to come on, butcher a few bars of music, and then wax poetic about how Big Dude's Music Changed! Their! Life! I think there might be one or two others out on the Kansas side but I'm not sure.

Musician's Friend, the big online retailer, are based here and for many years they had a warehouse outlet where you could go pick up anything off the website. They sell stuff so cheaply there was just no way all the mom-and-pop stores could compete. (I got an $800 bass guitar for $250 just for having a few chips out of the finish.) They closed the warehouse outlet recently for whatever reason. I guess they figured they were losing money not being able to charge locals shipping charges.

There's Antioch Music a few blocks from me but I don't think about them often because they don't have much inventory. They get by mostly on instrument repairs and music lessons.

Guitar Center are a big nationwide chain who've opened up a few stores around the city. Despite the name they do sell all other kinds of instruments too.

That was probably more information than you needed. Sorry! :)

[punkyami-chan.livejournal.com]

LOL. Hey, no worries. I only know what Ryan showed me when we were visiting last March. That was my first visit so I didn't see nearly as much as I wanted to. We did stop by and see Paseo after it was closed for the day. Our schools in OR are nowhere near that large. I was all sorts of overwhelmed. Next time we come I want to go to some of the museums and such.

[para-xylene.livejournal.com]

Over the weekend I think I managed to spend $12 in gas and four hours searching for a reasonably popular CD. I guess I'm resigned to Amazon or moving to Lawrence. :< Lawrence has quite a few independent music and musical instrument stores.

As for Musician's Friend; my brother ended up with over thirty damaged guitars that he got for practically nothing. He fixed them all and would sell them when he needed money.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd known your brother! I'm always looking for a good bargain on a B.C. Rich and Musician's Friend always had a ton of them on the sales floor. All the sharp points and angles make them highly susceptible to damage during shipping. I still need to repair the damage on my bass but it's not as big a priorty as practicing the thing is :)

Also, I spent way too much of my day off today trying to find a cd by Emilie Autumn. Amazon here I come.

[para-xylene.livejournal.com]

Better hurry, because I suspect Amazon's stock of CDs are going the way of physical stores. :<

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Don't be too sure just yet. CD's are quickly moving into the category of Crap Nobody Wants. And if the internet has taught us anything it's that there will always be somebody selling and buying Crap Nobody Wants.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

oh no...!