It's a gloomy time for Borders. The landmark Aventura branch of the chain, which locals will tell you always seems crowded, is closing next month. That proves you can't judge a bookstore by its cover.
"I think it's kind of disappointing and a sign of where we're at as far as the economy that stores like this are going out of business," said Sean Gavin, a Borders customer who was at the store snapping up some of the going-out-of-business bargains.
A Borders spokesperson told us on the phone from the company's headquarters in Michigan that the Aventura store just wasn't making enough money to justify keeping it open, especially with rents for such a large space as high as they are for a prime location on Biscayne Boulevard. The question is, why did the store fail?
"I think they have probably no choice, with the economy, and people are cutting back and I guess I hate to think a book is a luxury, but probably it is sometimes," said Zoe Masterson, another Borders bargain hunter.
Those factors are part of it, but the book industry is feeling other pressures, especially from on-line retailers like Amazon.com and from e-readers like the Kindle. Bookstores are trying to adapt, turn a new page, by offering their own downloads for e-readers and setting up their own on-line retail operations.
"You can't put the brakes on technology, it's always gonna be here," says Mitchell Kaplan, owner and founder of South Florida's three Books and Books locations. "It's a very precarious marketplace right now for all bookstores and for publishers as well."
Kaplan's stores have survived by tailoring their merchandise to their customers, realizing they can't carry everything a reader can find on Amazon. They just don't have the space. Once upon a time, stores like Books and Books, independent, locally-owned book shops, were being forced out of business by the giant retailers like Borders. Now the tables may have turned. As a business model, Kaplan says the big box stores may be out of date.
Local
"I think that like all of us have to do in business, they're gonna have to remake themselves, sort of figure out who exactly they are and what community they're serving," Kaplan says.
So the big chains are in the process of reinventing themselves. Their next chapter is still unwritten.
