Comments | iworkatborders: Judge approves B&N purchase of Borders customer list; Borders gift cards expire shortly

ron_newman in iworkatborders

Judge approves B&N purchase of Borders customer list; Borders gift cards expire shortly

Sep 26, 2011 23:34

It's official: Borders to Sell Intellectual Property to Barnes & Noble

with some conditions:All former Borders’ customers will be told by e-mail that they can choose not to have personally identifiable information transferred with the sale, Borders’ lawyer Andrew Glenn, said in court today. Otherwise, all data, regardless of when it was collected ( Read more... )

Comments 23

about the USA today remark... anonymous September 27 2011, 04:33:45 UTC

It would seem strange to publicize it there, but USA today has a very broad readership across most every public demographic, from the well-heeled to the penniless, from the well-educated to the dim-witted, from the long-in-the-tooth to the babes in the woods. It's in supermarkets and corner stores and newsstands everywhere.

To the contrary of employees' inside opinion, B&N's customers have higher IQs and are more avid readers than Borders' customers, which is why Borders' games, toys and novelties sections had higher margins among these product categories, compared to B&N.

Re: about the USA today remark... anonymous September 27 2011, 15:20:22 UTC

And how do you know this about the IQs of B&N and Borders customers???

(The comment has been removed)

Re: about the USA today remark... denardo September 27 2011, 20:13:49 UTC

Pointers to the supposed studies, please.

Thread 13

Borders and "intellectual property" anonymous September 27 2011, 20:41:29 UTC

LOL. I am amazed that anyone could use "Borders" and "intellectual property" together in one sentence. Borders was one of the most brain dead corporations that I ever worked at --- least since Grocery Store Joe hit the bricks.

Re: Borders and "intellectual property" ron_newman September 27 2011, 20:56:42 UTC

In this case, 'intellectual property' refers to the trademarks (Borders, Brentano's, Waldenbooks), the Borders.com website and the code behind it, any copyrighted artwork that Borders may own (such as their logo), and the like.

denardo September 27 2011, 20:45:11 UTC

If you're only going to choose one newspaper, it's the best choice. It's available inexpensively everywhere in the US. Picking, say, the NYTimes, Wall Street Journal, or the like might have been classier, but they went for nreadth rather than depth.

I sold a lot of USA Today at each of the Borders stores at which I worked.

USA Today is not so peculiar a choice booksatborders September 28 2011, 04:16:36 UTC

Decisions are based on objectives. I don't really think the Judge, Borders or B&N give two hoots as to who reads the ad making the public aware of the opt-out procedures. The judge's objective is to move the case through the process in a manner the creates a "clean result" without credible challenges. The two companies just want to close the deal. So, with that objective in mind, USA today is quick, cheap, and will probably result in few-opt outs. Between that and the email notice, it's the cheapest solution they could find ( ... )

Re: USA Today is not so peculiar a choice booksatborders September 28 2011, 15:10:17 UTC

When I lived in the south I used to patrionize the local BAM and B&N. Found BAM to have a selection at least as good as B&N for the stuff I read--history, biography, economics, etc along with a good backlist. Their selection of cheesy science fiction was better than B&N. What I did note about BAM, however, was that their merchandising was incredibly weak. They seemed to immediately bury almost all books on the shelves as soon as they received them--very little in the way of displays, end caps, etc to draw attention to new releases, best sellers, books reviewed in the NYT/USAToday. Also, BAM didn't have any booksellers. They had clerks who operated the register who really couldn't help you find anything, even if you came in knowing title and author--couldn't tell you if it was in the store or if it was where it would be at (I found their classification/sectioning to be a bit quirky to put it politely.)

Re: USA Today is not so peculiar a choice booksatborders September 29 2011, 13:51:11 UTC

[quote]Also, BAM didn't have any booksellers. They had clerks who operated the register who really couldn't help you find anything, even if you came in knowing title and author

How long ago was this?! Back in the 90s when I worked for Waldenbooks I visited a new BAM in town and was shocked that all they had in the way of inventory management was microfiche.

Flash forward 15 years: BAM now has the best POS inventory management software in the book retail industry. Don't get me wrong, I worked for them briefly after my BSR closed last year, and I hate them for being all Jesus-y, but the one thing that impressed me was how modern and accurate their IT is.

Re: USA Today is not so peculiar a choice booksatborders September 30 2011, 02:53:41 UTC

yeah, their IT is advanced and they're Jesus-y because all their corporate shareholders and managers are facilitators of the fascist neo-con infiltration who will stop at nothing to rewrite our constitution!

borders.com = barnesandnoble.com anonymous September 28 2011, 15:25:59 UTC

Shopping on Borders.com now takes you to B&N to complete your purchase. It looks like Borders will completely disappear:

"Borders.com Closing

What is going to happen to Borders.com?
Borders.com has partnered with BarnesandNoble.com. You can still browse our site through October 14th. Once you find what you want, you will be redirected to BarnesandNoble.com to make your purchase."

Re: borders.com = barnesandnoble.com ron_newman September 28 2011, 15:31:50 UTC

I saw that. They changed it some time around 11:30 last night. Probably worth a separate new post.

Re: borders.com = barnesandnoble.com anonymous October 1 2011, 02:36:46 UTC

It now looks like BR plus members will get a free B&N membership. It doesn't say for how long -- they'll have the expiration date, of course. You can read the letter from B&N here:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/container/stores.asp?PID=39742

Re: borders.com = barnesandnoble.com ron_newman October 1 2011, 05:55:48 UTC

Through 12/31/2011 according to http://www.borders.com/online/store/CustomerServiceView_faqcustomercare