Just a quickie post. I took the boys over to one of our two local Borders Books yesterday to check out their liquidation sale. In the last few years, Borders developed a really nice selection of educational and semi-educational toys, and my kids were always finding various items they would beg me for. Since these were generally items costing over $15, I’d tell them, “Wait for Hanukkah or your birthday.” So yesterday we went to see what sort of discounts Borders was offering in the Children’s section, so that I could possibly stock up for those upcoming holidays and birthdays (as Borders will no longer be in existence come this fall).
Currently the markdown in the Children’s section is 10%. Not enough to make me jump, especially not when the store had gotten me used to receiving 40% off coupons in my email inbox every couple of weeks or so. More interestingly, the majority of the books in the store were marked either 10% off or 20% off. Following Act One of the Borders bankruptcy, when they closed 400 of their stores earlier this year, their new online policy was to offer all paperbacks at 20% off list and all hardbacks at 30% off list. So their initial “Going Out of Business Liquidation Sale” prices were a good bit higher than what they’d been hawking on their own website very recently.
Yet the store was packed. The crowds were tearing the place apart; stock was scattered all over the floor, particularly in the Children’s section. The line at the cash registers was easy thirty people deep. I found a Solomon Burke CD from Rhino Records I was interested in, but I took one look at the line and put it back where I found it.
Never underestimate the psychological pull of those magical words, “Going Out of Business Liquidation Sale.” If only Borders would have figured some way to pull this sort of stunt every month at their stores, they’d still be a going concern.
