Borders In White Flint Slated To Close
Feb 16, 2011 14:13 - 6 Comments
Borders, the bookstore chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Manhattan today and will be closing almost 1/3 of its stores including the Borders Books and Music in White Flint Mall. Although White Flint is slightly out of our coverage area, the mall is a local shopping destination. Over the years, I’m sure most of us have shopped at the multi-level store down the Pike.
The news is filled with stories about how Borders and Barnes & Noble are struggling financially. At one point last year Barnes & Noble was seeking a buyer and a possible financial deal with Borders was floated.
Last year I attempted to purchase a book as a present at Borders and they had no selection. On the way home I found several books on the subject in Barnes & Noble. Telling? Perhaps.
Do you still buy books in a store? Or on Amazon? Or only electronically for your reader?
Times change. We no longer have Tower Records in Rockville either.
The big thing I would buy in store at Borders was board games. Unfortunately they decided to go the Ameritrash party game route instead of bringing in more titles like Settlers of Catan and Dominion.
It was kind of obvious that Borders was going under because they’ve been floating so many discount coupons lately, likely in an attempt to grab cash however they could. I’m not too surprised that the White Flint location will be closing, and I suspect this will have an impact on the rest of the non-dining businesses in the mall.
I feel a little bad because I plan to go to the White Flint Borders tonight and get a drink at the cafe… and then pay with a coupon for a free drink. I hope I don’t make the cashier cry…
Does anyone still buy books anymore from these places? Apparently not enough for them to turn a profit anymore.
Same goes for Tower Records. Who actually buys CDs anymore? I mean, makes a decision that they want a new album and then goes and buys a CD at a physical store?
Now, speaking of White Flint…everytime I go there its quiet and almost empty inside, not sure how that place survives. I guess the markup on a $300 kitchen pot at Sonoma pays the lease pretty well.
I swear White Flint survives on the 60-90 minutes it takes to be seated at its restaurants.
“An hour wait to get into Cheesecake Factory? Better go look at the stores…”
I always liked Borders, and I like the White Flint store well enough. I just don’t like going to White Flint enough to go to Borders. It’s a long drive, the North Bethesda traffic is the pits, and parking is a pain, and I don’t have the time or money to spend waiting to eat an expensive meal at CF (tasty as the food is
). I guess it’s time to go burn those 3-year-old Borders cards while we still have them, or use them online.
Oh, and we still buy the odd CD now and again, and certainly books. Paper ones.
Maybe the smaller booksellers can come back. I do not believe books are dead. I also still buy CD’s. A compressed lossy MP3 is not how I want to listen to music.
I feel a bit guilty about not having bought anything at Borders for several years now, but then when I consider the fact that the last time I drove from Town Center to White Flint it took me 30 minutes just to get there in traffic, and then another 20 minutes to park and walk into the mall, that’s a significant investment of time and effort. (Yes, I’m a bit slow, but lots of older people like me have arthritis and other mobility issues). I’m so old that I can remember when White Flint was first built, and they wondered whether people would even venture that far “off the beaten track” to shop there.
Taking public transportation is almost as bad. The Ride-On requires a transfer at Twinbook, and the last time I tried to get to White Flint that way, it was over an hour before the second bus showed up; bad luck, and it probably doesn’t usually take quite that long, but I’ve been burned enough times that I’m not willing to take the chance that I’m going to be sitting at the bus stop for that long. The Metro’s not got the time-transfer problem, but it’s pretty expensive to go two stops, and then the walk from the White Flint stop to the actual mall itself is at least 10 minutes. Bottom line, it’s easier to buy all my books and music from Amazon or iTunes.
My favorite bookstore was the used-book store on Shady Grove Rd., but even then I haven’t been there for at least a couple of years, since before they changed management. I think the only reason that one lasted for decades was because it was family-owned by people who loved books.