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)

Bacon Prices Up, Burger King Sales Down: Bad News!

I was looking over the news today, and this dog is not happy. Most of the news articles were not good from this dog's point of view. Bacon is going up in price which means that a dog will get less bacon for his money--definitely not good news. Burger King sales are down. I plan to have BK for dinner to do my part to help them gain back their sales quota. Borders sales are down. I suspect that their sales would improve if more humans learned to read. Perhaps Borders and the other big book stores should look to the future, and spend some money making sure kids learn to read when they are young. I might add that it probably does not help Borders that most of the humans hang out there and read the books and once they have read the book, they put it back on the shelf and don't bother to buy it--not exactly a smart marketing ploy. When Mommy was a kid, drugstores used to get onto kids for reading comic books in the store. Borders puts in chairs and tables to encourage it. They could learn a few lessons in marketing from the old grouchy pharmacists.

My final comment on the news involves the humans in the tea party---add sugar. I think they would be a lot happier with the addition of sugar. Too many people in my area drink unsweetened tea, and I think it makes them grouchy. With some sugar added to the tea, perhaps they would not have made sure their members knew to avoid "unsafe" areas of Washington DC. Of course, I'm sure that some neighborhoods are safer than others, but I know that their definition of unsafe is that they might meet someone who doesn't agree with them. I think meeting people of different view points is a good thing. I suppose that is why there aren't any dogs in the tea party. We enjoy meeting new humans, and we don't tend to get into silly arguments over anything other than food and toys.

Demon Flash Bandit (News Commentary)