Let's face it, Borders bookstore probably isn't going to be around much longer. They've been struggling for years now, and have been barely scraping by. And it makes perfect sense.
Borders, I want to like you, but you make it so damned difficult.
Krissy got a Borders gift card for Christmas, so we decided to look at their books in store and online. We make it a point to visit Borders regularly, because we are unemployed and it is an inexpensive way to have fun and get out of the house.
We found this book:
We like Phaidon. I have one of their books on Platon, the photographer. The pages are high quality, the books are bound well, and the photography is always superb. They are also really well designed.
In the store, the book was priced at just under $40, this just would not do. If there is one thing I know, it's that the price on ta book is not what you pay. I would think that a company that buys as many books as Borders could get a better deal. Of course, that probably won't happen anymore since they can't pay off the publishers for the books they've bought already.
So we tried buying a book from the store directly, and it's the worst price we could have gotten, lest someone charge more than the price on the book. So we decided to go to their website. We figured, the store's website ought to have a better deal, and we figured wrong. The price was the same. Yes, the biggest or second biggest brick-and-mortar bookstore in the country had the book for its MSRP. Oh, and shipping cost like $4 or something.And yes, there's still tax, because there is technically always tax.
So we were at something of a crossroads.I mean, we really wanted this cookbook. We don't have any general, all-purpose cookbooks, most of them are baking related. Okay, all of them are baking related. But $40 is a lot to ask when it's nearly half that price on Amazon. If you are curious, it's a wee bit less than $25 on Amazon. But Borders wants almost $46 for the same book.
I will tell you one thing: if we didn't have a gift card we would not have even considered buying the book from Borders. There is no reason why anyone should want to buy something from Borders when you can get the same thing quicker and cheaper from Amazon, or anywhere else. We didn't even have to spend our own money, and we still had to think over whether or not we should get the book with the gift card or just get it from Amazon, that's how ridiculous and weird we are.
Shipping from Amazon is free. I'm a prime member, so I get free two-day shipping. I order a book and it feels like it's here the very next day. I ordered the book from Borders days ago and it's not here. It feels like we've been waiting forever compared to buying books from Amazon.
I did find a coupon to save 33% on any book, and still we had to pay almost $33, which is still more expensive than Amazon.
I also don't like the Borders website. I felt like I was constantly being upsold on something. They mention free shipping all over their website, and then mention free 2-day shipping in other places. The free 2-day shipping is actually them offering a month free of some third-party program that is similar to Amazon prime (in price, too). So I felt like that was a tiny bit scammy. Members of the Borders Rewards program get free shipping over $25, and any order $40 or more gets free shipping. This is standard shipping, by the way, nothing expedited. Standard shipping apparently takes forever, since it's Fed-Ex Smart Post.
But I'm kind of annoyed that we still didn't qualify for free shipping. We are Borders Rewards members. I entered in the card number, which was required for the coupon anyway. We spent over $25, so shipping should be free, but it wasn't.
There is not a single quality about Borders, and the process of buying a book from them that could be described as either positive or redeeming in any way. Sure, I can go in and look at books before buying them from Amazon, but that's not really that big of a plus. I do like looking at books, though, and now and in the future that's all I will be doing at Borders. They just obviously do not want my business, because they seem to be trying awfully hard to not get it.
For the record, I have no problem buying books for their MSRP. I think the book is worth $40. I think the Platon book I have is easily worth much more than I paid for it (like $5, from an Amazon merchant). But if I am going to pay more for a book than I would at Amazon, I'm not going to be doing it at a giant company like Borders. I'm not going to reward them for doing a horrible job at running their business. No, I'm going to go to a local, independent bookstore and give them the $40. And until I can do that, Borders will get my foot traffic, and Amazon will get my money.
Good luck in the future Borders, because you're going to need it. Besides, we all know Barnes and Noble is just going to buy you anyway.
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