I'll Miss Borders

I was just listening to the news and there was a business commentator who was explaining some of the reasons for Borders having to go out of business. He cited competition from Amazon.com, among other things. Evidently, Borders, according to this commentator, did not embrace innovation and was outdone by their competitors. Although I'm no expert on these matters, I think there is a more fundamental reason they went out of business. My guess would be the primary reason is that no one really needed to BUY books there. They provided comfortable chairs and the "customers" could sit and read the books while there very much like they were at a library except that many libraries aren't as nice. I've been to the store in Ann Arbor, MI where they had tables and chairs so that the local college students could do their research more comfortably. Ann Arbor has several colleges including the University of Michigan in the area. When Mommy was young, drug stores used to carry comic books, and if a kid decided to hang around the comic book area and read the comics, they were told to buy the book or put it down. I'm not saying that letting people look through a book to see if it is what they want to read is a bad idea nor am I saying that it is bad to make your customers feel comfortable--all are good things. However, when someone sits there for hours reading and then walks out of the store without buying anything, that person is technically not a customer. I'm sorry to see Borders close, and I will miss their stores. This dog likes to read, and I enjoy being able to go to a nice store and enjoy the shopping experience. However, I do think that Borders could still be in business if they just quit letting all the humans read the books without paying for them. Perhaps they would have went under anyway, and that commentator may have been right about what he said, but I still don't think letting so many of the humans use their product without paying helped their bottom line. It also proves my point that companies should be run by dogs. A dog would have walked over and growled at a human who is reading the entire book without paying for it.

Demon Flash Bandit (Dog Business Commentator)