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Aug. 20th, 2007
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Aug. 20th, 2007 09:15 pmI'm old and change bothers me (apparently).
Let me preface this by saying that I recently changed credit cards. I switched from a "Borders Rewards" card to an "Amazon" card. (Interesting note, both Borders and Amazon are part of the same megacorp, and Chase runs both cards.) As such, I no longer visit Borders on a monthly basis. My last visit was probably back in June, maybe May.
Anyway.
Today I go to Borders, looking for three books. Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, and White Wolf have all released new books, and I had a bright shiny discount coupon with which to play. My first surprise was that they moved all the sections around. My second surprise was that they reduced stock again. I was most upset a few years ago when Border's lowered their shelves to around five feet or so. They used to tower over you, so that it felt like browsing was a deeply personal experience and felt like exploring numerous little worlds. Now it feels like shopping for shoes. (No, actually, shoe shopping is more enjoyable, as the last time I did it, the store got hit by lightning. That's a different story.)
Now, it's not surprising that with a store moving sections, that I had trouble finding what I wanted. I couldn't even find the computer that told me where to look. Turns out, they just flipped the staff computers around and crippled the lookup software so that clueless shoppers can use them. I eventually looked up what I needed, and found that everything I wanted was available... for order. I went browsing to find something to spend my pretty little discount coupon on.
Surprise the third: I couldn't find much that seriously interested me.
Yep, they've reduced stock so much that if it's not a big-ol-famous book, they don't carry it. The Borders store now consists of (in order of emphasis):
* Blank Books / Journals
* Coffee (Complete with depressed barista)
* CDs (We're over priced!)
* DVDs (And you thought that the CDs were over priced)
* Calendars (The only section that stocks subjects with motorcycles, puppies, naked supermodels, and barns)
* Games (More fun than a barrel of monkeys... that just landed on you.)
* Magazines (They're the books that you throw away when you're done)
* Top Ten Books (With Oprah Section!)
* These Books Were Famous And Are Now Half Price Because They Sucked When They Were New
* These Are The Books That You Already Have Because They're Actually Worth Owning
* Bait And Switch (This is the section with the "Brand New" Jane Austen Books* (*Not by Jane Austen. (She's dead, you know. (Dead people don't write books. (Unless they're V.C. Andrews.)))))
They've also put up displays such that you can't actually get to the cash registers. Made it hard for my to buy the one book I found.
How a physical store can expect to compete against on-line shopping by annoying their customers and reducing what they carry utterly baffles me.
I think it's time for me to stop shopping at Borders.
Let me preface this by saying that I recently changed credit cards. I switched from a "Borders Rewards" card to an "Amazon" card. (Interesting note, both Borders and Amazon are part of the same megacorp, and Chase runs both cards.) As such, I no longer visit Borders on a monthly basis. My last visit was probably back in June, maybe May.
Anyway.
Today I go to Borders, looking for three books. Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, and White Wolf have all released new books, and I had a bright shiny discount coupon with which to play. My first surprise was that they moved all the sections around. My second surprise was that they reduced stock again. I was most upset a few years ago when Border's lowered their shelves to around five feet or so. They used to tower over you, so that it felt like browsing was a deeply personal experience and felt like exploring numerous little worlds. Now it feels like shopping for shoes. (No, actually, shoe shopping is more enjoyable, as the last time I did it, the store got hit by lightning. That's a different story.)
Now, it's not surprising that with a store moving sections, that I had trouble finding what I wanted. I couldn't even find the computer that told me where to look. Turns out, they just flipped the staff computers around and crippled the lookup software so that clueless shoppers can use them. I eventually looked up what I needed, and found that everything I wanted was available... for order. I went browsing to find something to spend my pretty little discount coupon on.
Surprise the third: I couldn't find much that seriously interested me.
Yep, they've reduced stock so much that if it's not a big-ol-famous book, they don't carry it. The Borders store now consists of (in order of emphasis):
* Blank Books / Journals
* Coffee (Complete with depressed barista)
* CDs (We're over priced!)
* DVDs (And you thought that the CDs were over priced)
* Calendars (The only section that stocks subjects with motorcycles, puppies, naked supermodels, and barns)
* Games (More fun than a barrel of monkeys... that just landed on you.)
* Magazines (They're the books that you throw away when you're done)
* Top Ten Books (With Oprah Section!)
* These Books Were Famous And Are Now Half Price Because They Sucked When They Were New
* These Are The Books That You Already Have Because They're Actually Worth Owning
* Bait And Switch (This is the section with the "Brand New" Jane Austen Books* (*Not by Jane Austen. (She's dead, you know. (Dead people don't write books. (Unless they're V.C. Andrews.)))))
They've also put up displays such that you can't actually get to the cash registers. Made it hard for my to buy the one book I found.
How a physical store can expect to compete against on-line shopping by annoying their customers and reducing what they carry utterly baffles me.
I think it's time for me to stop shopping at Borders.