Avoid the Borders Liquidation at All Costs
Out of morbid curiosity I swung by Borders Saturday afternoon to witness the bookseller's death throes. The crappiness of Borders liquidation 'sales' has been well documented, but the bookstore nonetheless now has the ability to attract far more customers in its near-death state than it every did in its heyday.
Despite real deals being essentially nonexistant, the checkout line snaked all the way to the rear of the store. With most books just 10% off list (despite the big "40% OFF" signs in the window), the prices remain significantly higher than what you'd pay at Amazon, or even what you used to pay at Borders itself. The new releases and best sellers are in many cases MORE expensive than they were last week, when they were sold at a greater discount.
With that said, has anyone managed to find an actual deal at Borders over the past few days?
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11 comments:
Magazines were 40% off -- I got a few that I like but for which I won't pay the normal $4 or $5 price. In general, though, I had the same reaction you did -- I couldn't understand why people were buying stacks of books when they were only getting $0.70-$2.00 off each one. If I don't want to buy a book at $14, I'm probably not going to want to buy it at $12.60.
I've never been able to find anything during liquidation sales -- the "deals" are always worse than what you could have gotten if you shopped at the store when it wasn't being liquidated.
With that said, maybe people have gift cards to use? I know I have one that has less than $20 on it, but I'm waiting for deeper discounts.
I went Saturday around 6:30 PM. The line wasn't so crazy at that time. 10% off deals were lame. Even 20% off DVDs & CDs wasn't a bargain. (Do people buy CDs?) I did stock up on greeting cards, which were 40% off. I did see that certain sections of books were marked for a greater discount - i.e., business/financial section at 30% off.
Are the discounts in addition to those "40 percent off" coupons that have been popping up from time to time?
Found the Band of Brothers (Blu-Ray) box set for $99. @40% off = $60
Amazon.com price = $40
Staying away = Priceless
I agree that Borders can't compete with Amazon, but that's why they are going out of business and DTSS is loosing a good anchor tenant. Does anyone know who might replace Borders?
I was one of those bozos. after waiting in line, I managed to save about $10 on the travel books I needed immediately, sale or not.
a few months ago, I hit the closing sale at the Kensington location and saved a bundle on some decent computer books, but that sale was late enough into the process that I think they fixtures were for sale. I also recently hit a Waldens in New Jersey -- one where I used to jockey a register -- and got about 20 new books for a buck each.
one idea is to wait until they're almost selling the carpets and the lightbulbs, but by then, a lot of the good stuff is already gone.
You guys need to hit Daedalus Books in Columbia, MD if you really want bargains on a great selection of books, without the scammy 'liquidation' sales, real or otherwise.
http://www.daedalusbooks.com/Main/Stores/Col/WareHouseOutlet.asp
I second the Daedalus recommendation (disclaimer: I also work there in the call center). They have good deals on new books and really good deals on older ones; they also sell music and DVDs.
Yeah - We stopped by pretty early. Lots to choose from, but at 20% off, everything was still cheaper at Amazon. The 2-3 impulse buys we were considering were quickly discarded when we realized there were about 60 people in line.
Come to think of it - that pretty much sums up my history with Borders. Nice selection. Way over-priced. Leave empty-handed.
I went with the idea to get some good Christmas deals. I found some things to get that I wouldn't have bought at full price. The day I went, the employees had clearly given up. I saw one kid there, an employee, try to get some guidance from a co-worker. She fobbed him off. Perhaps she couldn't hear him with her iPod on. I couldn't blame her. For some reason the overhead music was stuck on the same snippet from a song sung by the Coast Guard. That played for 40 minutes and just as I was starting to enjoy it, they switched to video game music. At least that's what it sounded like. Maybe they had an Xbox hooked up in the back and wanted the customers to know what they were missing. What I was missing was where the deals were. Seemed like business as usual.
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