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Amazon is the best thing for readers since the invention of movable type. Almost every book in print in English is available. Sadly, this is not nearly the case for their French and German divisions. I've found that the prices are generally the best; there's no sales tax, and shipping is free with only a twenty-five dollar order. Some of the reviewers are excellent; I have often searched out other books my favorites have reviewed.
There aren't too many older used books; but there are scarcely any bookstores that handle them either. The days of the huge used bookstores are long gone. The only one I've visited in recent years is John K. King in downtown Detroit. They can stay only because real estate is so cheap there.
What amazon doesn't have, ebay often does; and I can save a search. I can also do an internet search. The days of the physical bookstores are ending. That's fine; we have somehting better. Capitalism is often called creative destruction; the buggy whip factories are gone as well.
As someone who spent over three thousand dollars for books last year, I'll stick with the most efficient in both time and money.
I was sad to hear that Borders will be closing that many stores. We do not have ANY bookstores within less than 25 miles of us. So that means about a 45 minute trip, which is resulting in me ordering a lot from Amazon, which further hurts the brick and mortar bookstores.... If we had one closer, I would shop there.
We've got one within 30 mins and it's slated to close according to the list.
http://media.bordersstores.com/pdf/Borders_Reorganization_Closure_List.pdf (broken link)
At least there's another one 30 mins in the opposite direction, but no telling how much longer that might be. I like the selection of items in the cafe, ie - stuffed pretzels, that you can't get at the Books-A-Million [BAM] cafe near us. I've asked them but all they seem to want to carry is their cookies. Someone needs to learn how to bake them, bleech. The 1st few times we went there they weren't too bad but they've steadily gone down hill. I like more of Border's specialty drinks too that can't get at BAM. I hope they can make something of this reorganization and that maybe, if our economy ever improves to the point that Border's will re-home and think more strategic locations. I wish them luck anyways.
People keep blaming Amazon and e-books for the demise of Borders. While they most certainly were contributing factors, the plain truth is that Borders has been horribly mismanaged for about 10 years now. They made bad decision after bad decision after bad decision, all the while bringing in new brass with six-figure salaries --- and six-figure severance packages when they finally kicked them out. It's really tragic.
There is a hope that Borders will emerge from Chapter 11 as a stronger, leaner company, and I sure hope they do, since I prefer an actual bookstore to online, and I'm not a fan of B&N.
I notice from that list that quite a number are situated in malls. That may be one reason for closing down underoperating stores in those type of locations as often B&N also have stores in the malls.
The Borders closest to me is in a strip mall type location and isn't on the list.
I went to my local Borders at the mall today. Fortunately it's staying open and is one of their most profitable stores. I heard that high rents are one of the reasons for the closures of certain stores.
Although Amazon is fine if you know you want a certain title or a work by a specific author, it's a pain to browse.
The closest Borders to me is in Yakima, 50 miles from the house and in the opposite direction from my normal work commute. I do try to make it to Yakima 1 or 2 X per month, several stores there I like. But, Richland, the town where I work, is a pretty geeky, nerdy, intellectual town, and has several decent indy bookstores. I like Borders OK although honestly they are as similar to Barnes & Noble as Pepsi is to Coke - perhaps someone who really likes one or the other can tell the difference, but to me, preferring an indy store to either, they are more alike than different.
Besides that I prefer a used book store - you occasionally come onto an out of print or first edition gem (usually the store knows when they have a first edition and it's market priced, but occasionally they miss one) and within reason books don't wear out.
People keep blaming Amazon and e-books for the demise of Borders. While they most certainly were contributing factors, the plain truth is that Borders has been horribly mismanaged for about 10 years now. They made bad decision after bad decision after bad decision, all the while bringing in new brass with six-figure salaries --- and six-figure severance packages when they finally kicked them out. It's really tragic.
There is a hope that Borders will emerge from Chapter 11 as a stronger, leaner company, and I sure hope they do, since I prefer an actual bookstore to online, and I'm not a fan of B&N.
Why do you prefer Borders to B&N? To me they are pretty similar.
I do this, too. I might look at Amazon for reference, but then I go to a local independent bookstore. If they don't have it, they're order it for free, and you get the recommendations of the bookseller, which is cool.
Huh? You mean you reference Amazon to see much more money you'll be spending at your local bookstore? As far as I can tell the great majority of them sell alot of their books at full retail.
Borders is having a "buy four romances; get the fifth free" sale. I decided to go to my local store this evening one last time before the liquidation sale begins and the hordes of vultures being descending. I spent $64.96, including the scary California and L.A. County sales tax of 9.75% ($5.77), and this is without any coupons. The equivalent books on Amazon would have cost $74.68 even with free shipping and no sales tax. (It helps that I bought "100 Ways to Cook Chicken" that was marked down to $5.99 from $8.95; this was full price at Amazon.)
Among other things, I bought four Harlequin Presents. Amazon's full price for a physical book is $4.75; for Kindle the price drops to $3.40. Even if I had bought those books on my Kindle, the Amazon bill still would have been $69.28.
What an interesting comparison! If Borders hadn't had their romance sale, Amazon probably would have come out ahead. However, then I'd still have to wait for the shipment, and I wouldn't save that much - partially because of the "agency pricing" that the publishers have placed on e-books, even the older titles that have been out for a while. I, for one, refuse to pay full price for an e-book, especially one that was released a few years ago!
Amazon doesn't always save its customers money; my experience this evening has proven that. It's too bad that I'll now have to drive twelve miles to prove that in the future.
I -- and people like me -- are to blame, though. It's so much easier to log in to Amazon, select your books, and wait for the mailman to bring them to your door.
I patronize the local used bookstore, which is a very eclectic collection of books and antuques run by a woman who does it simply because she loves books. I came home with 6 books, five of them hardbacks for a little over ten dollars last trip. She was going to close and has been doing well since changing her mind and selling off a lot of books. The selection is usually better but I found a good haul anyway.
I also buy from Amazon. My taste is in things like non-fiction background stories of a time. I read the potato peal society book about the occupation of Guernsey Island by the Nazi's and have been going nuts trying to find non-fiction material. I ordered one book on the occupation from the UK and even on Amazon there was a very few to be found. I would go through regular book stores for hours but rarely buy since most of what I buy is the memiour of some specific time I'm reading about or most especially diaries. Can't wait for the one which is the actural published journal of a pow in Stalag IXb, at the end of the war considered the worse pow camp of stalag system. I have read so much else of that time, and all three books about the pow's shipped to a sub camp of Buchenwald at the very end of the war from there, and the Amazon peak and search features made it necessary for me to have this one.
If your tastes in reading are for the less available or older books, stores often don't have many and you have much better luck in trift shops, used book stores and especially online. I think if the chains carried a wider variety of books they might have been doing better since they let Amazon pull away a lot of potential customers due to the selection.
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It's too bad that I'll now have to drive twelve miles to prove that in the future. 
