Wednesday, April 17, 2024

'Bankrupt - Borders Book Store' by Bright Sun Films, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse for Wayback Wednesday

Happy Wayback Wednesday! I'm observing today's social media day by sharing Bright Sun Film's latest, Bankrupt - Borders Book Store.

Since the 1970's, Borders Bookstores have been a place of comfort and peace for millions of shoppers. Their unique strategy of offering a cozy place to shop, with tens of thousands of highly trained employees was a winning one that earned the company billions in sales. But, it all came crashing down in 2011 and now, the brand is non existent. Join me today as we find out why.
The two YouTube creators I consider best able to cover this story have now examined it, as Company Man asked "The Decline of Borders...What Happened?" last year. I'm being a good environmentalist by reusing what I wrote then.
I'm revisiting my thoughts about Borders Books from Ten of the companies that went out of business this decade and 9,300+ stores closed this year, two tales of the Retail Apocalypse.
While I didn't realize it at the time, the first Retail Apocalypse story I wrote about on this blog was the demise of Borders Books. I thought it was like the bankruptcies of Jacobson's, whose space in Ann Arbor Borders occupied after Jacobson's moved out to Briarwood Mall, and Montgomery Ward's, which was the first anchor to abandon Northland Mall, the second Retail Apocalypse story I covered here. Both of those were weak companies that went under during a recession, which is when I expect businesses would fail. I thought much the same of Borders at the time, in addition to it being a personal loss. In retrospect, the failure of Borders was much bigger than that and turned out to be a taste of things to come.
At the time, I concentrated on what the store meant to me and outsourced my analysis of why it failed to a LiveJournal account where the analysis is now unavailable...the disappearance of that analysis was a big loss...[it described] a mismatch in corporate culture between the employees, who really believed in the way company had been run, and the top executives, who I think caught something bad when KMart owned the company, the same thing that eventually caught up with both KMart and Sears. Sigh.

All that survives is the Borders.com domain, which Barnes & Noble bought. That's like Toys R Us buying KB Toys — ironic. It's also a sign that the rest of the company's intellectual property wasn't worth saving. Even Hostess had a better fate.
All I have to add to that is that Jake Williams included more of the human story than Company Man Mike and followed up on the fate of the original store number one, although I didn't consider that my store. That was the old Jacobson's location around the corner, the second store number one. When I last visited Ann Arbor for the March for Science during 2017, I saw that it had been partitioned into a bunch of smaller stores. That might have been an even sadder end than the one Jake had.

Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top posts about the Retail Apocalypse during the 13th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.


Steve in Manhattan linked to Company Man asks 'The Decline of Rite Aid...What Happened?' A tale of the Retail Apocalypse for Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day from November 24, 2023 in Mike's Blog Roundup. That earned 458 default and 466 the last week of November 2023 to make it the most read entry of the month. My tweet of it elicited 3 replies each in their own threads, the most reply threads to a tweet during November 2023. I shared this at the Citizen Connect/Coffee Party USA Facebook page during December 2023, earning it another 113 default and 140 raw page views and ranking it 16th overall for the month. The post lost many of its default page views, but raw page views continued to trickle in, earning it 628 raw page views by March 20, 2024 to rank tenth among entries posted during the blogging year and 15th overall. People are still reading it, as the graphic above shows 643 total page views today.


I shared Company Man asks 'The Decline of Barnes & Noble...What Happened?' A tale of the Retail Apocalypse from February 9, 2024 at the Coffee Party USA/Citizen Connect Facebook page, earning 547 default and 561 raw page views during February 2024, ranking it third by all measures for the month. Interest lagged during March 2024, with 546 default and 568 raw page views by March 20, 2024. That was still enough for it to rank ninth according to default page views, eleventh among entries posted during the blogging year, and 16th overall by raw page views.


I shared 'Bankrupt - Ruby Tuesday' by Bright Sun Films, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse from December 4, 2023 at the Citizen Connect/Coffee Party USA Facebook page. That earned 487 default and 511 raw page views, making it the fourth most read entry during December 2023. I also tweeted it, which attracted two profile clicks, the most on any tweet during the month. The post lost many of its default page views, but raw page views continued to trickle in, earning it 544 raw page views by March 20, 2024 to rank 13th among entries posted during the blogging year and 18th overall. It's also still attracting readers, as it currently has 559 raw page views.

I'm recycling two posts from John Oliver examines student loans for Wayback Wednesday that were about the Retail Apocalypse.

'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver' returns after winning two Emmy Awards with 'A History of Chuck E. Cheese,' a tale of the Retail Apocalypse from February 5, 2024 benefited from two shares, mine at the Coffee Party USA/Citizen Connect Facebook page and Steve in Manhattan's in Mike's Blog Roundup at Crooks and Liars. Both combined for 845 default and 866 raw page views during February 2024, ranking it second for the month. Its page views continued to increase, ending the blogging year with 846 default and 880 raw page views, ranking it seventh overall by the first measure and seventh among entries posted during the 2023-2024 blogging year and ninth overall according to the second metric. Watch for this entry to reappear in retrospectives about the Retail Apocalypse and awards shows other than the Saturn Awards.
I told my readers to "Expect me to use this on Wayback Wednesday, when I plan on covering last year's posts about the Retail Apocalypse" in 'Godzilla Minus One' wins two Critics Choice Super Awards plus an entertainment retrospective and I've now followed through, as promised.

I shared John Oliver examines dollar stores, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse from November 29, 2023 at the Coffee Party USA/Citizen Connect Facebook page during December 2023. That helped the entry earn 314 default and 340 raw page views during December 2023 to rank seventh for the month. It tied for the most likes on Instagram during November 2023 with three each. The entry ended the blogging year with 418 raw page views, landing it in 32nd place among entries posted during the blogging year and 41st overall. Watch for this entry to reappear in a retrospective about the Retail Apocalypse.
And I've followed through on this promise, too.

That's a wrap for the top posts about the Retail Apocalypse from last year. I'll see if I can continue this series tomorrow for Throwback Thursday. Stay tuned.

I conclude by recycling It's Wayback 'Wednesday'.

I was working on a post that was going to take too long, so I made this meme instead. I like the idea of Wednesday Addams as a mascot for Wayback Wednesday. I hope my readers do, too.
Previous posts in this series Previous retrospectives about the Retail Apocalypse.
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