I expect many book lovers have heard the news by now about the potential closure of book chain Borders - if not, read about it here. Today it was revealed that the retailer is likely to go into administration 'within hours', according to The Telegraph.It was revealed that the chain has not yet found a buyer, and the website has stopped taking orders. Borders had suffered a large drop in sales, mainly due to competition with supermarkets and online bookstores who offer big discounts on the latest titles. Not a good time for the store to potentially close, especially as Christmas is drawing near.
The chain was given until November 20th to provide payment, but no payment emerged.
According to The Bookseller, distributors have now begun placing on shelves books which had been ordered by Borders UK: "Due to a number of our client publisher's requests, we will be commencing the exercise of crediting and placing back to stock the previously picked but not despatched order from last week; we aim to have completed this exercise by this Friday evening (27th). We are also continuing to credit authorised returns received at our Manningtree returns warehouse."
It's going to be sad to see a high street retailer like this go. But with constant price wars between supermarkes and online retailers such as Amazon and Play.com, does this come as a surprise? Leave a comment and let us know.
