Borders tries again

In Ann Arbor, where the national headquarters for Borders is, they're trying something new. According to USA Today:

"Borders, the nation's second-largest bookstore chain, hopes to reverse years of sluggish sales by reinventing itself as a hub for knowledge, entertainment and digital downloading. Exhibit A is the new store that will open to the public here Thursday — the first of 14 that Borders plans to unveil this year. Borders' plans underscore the anxiety in the bookstore industry, which has been hurt by the growing footprint of online-only sellers.

Can it work? CEO George Jones thinks so. 'We had to build something that would cause the consumer to drive five or 10 minutes past the competitor's store to come here,' says Jones, who joined the company 1½ years ago from Saks."

Faithful readers will remember that I scoffed eighteen months ago when the struggling book behemoth hired a CEO from the fashion world. Maybe I'll have to suck that back--ooh, nasty taste, retracted words--but I don't think so.

AOL quoted this article extensively, with the headline "No One Reads Anymore." And on NPR this morning I heard a study that estimates a growing percentage of the public who never--and they mean NEVER--reads a book, fiction or nonfiction. As I recall, the number has grown substantially in the past forty years, and was over twenty per cent in a study completed in 2002. If that's true, does selling people digital downloads make any difference?

I have said before, and I must say it again, I don't think Borders needs gimmicks. They need BOOKSELLERS. Barnes & Noble, big box behemoth that they are, too, has booksellers. And they have Community Relations Managers who actually talk to the community. Borders has clerks--and stationery, and candy, and a sort of lame coffee shop--but it can be damned hard to find a particular book at Borders.

Yes, there are exceptions. As my dad (a physician) used to say, everybody hates doctors except their own. And there's a really cool woman at my local Borders who cares about our genre, actually reads it, and is willing to stick her neck out to keep my books in stock. Bless her. But ol' George Jones should go out and hire more like her.