Borders Books
Borders Bookstore and Group
Borders Bookstore Group is one of several excellent bookstore groups now available in the UK. Although it has many bricks & mortar bookstores across the world, it no longer has an independent online presence. Instead, in the online world, it has joined forces with Amazon.
Borders Group inc. comprises more than 1200 borders bookstores and Waldenbooks stores around the world. It's a Fortune 500 company with $3.4 billion sales. There are 445 borders bookstore superstores in the US and 37 elsewhere, mainly in the UK and the Pacific rim. There are also 36 Books etc stores throughout Great Britain that belong to the Borders bookstore group.
In the US Borders have teamed up with Amazon.com to provide online book selling. Having visited Borders Bookstores from San Francisco to London I can vouch for the great book buying experience they provide. In the UK we have Borders to thank for inspiring many dusty, uncomfortable bookshops mend their ways.
Borders are very much geared to providing a bookshop experience and their websites encourage you to visit one of their stores. They provide an excellent location finder so you easily find out where your nearest Borders Bookstore is located.
Like many American companies, they are not averse to changing local customs, and thinking their ways are best. Quote, "When Borders opened its first international store in Singapore, the local custom was to keep new books shrink-wrapped in plastic. We took the wrappers off and uncovered a new world of exploration for shoppers there." The down-side is you risk finding a coffee stain when you get the book home. Maybe having books for browsing and shrink wrapped duplicates to buy would be a good compromise?
Borders is the only US bookstore to go global and, certainly in the UK, gives some healthy competition to the well established British chains.
Borders Bookstore UK
Borders Bookstores in the UK are spread right across the country, in: Beckton, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Ellesmere Port, Leeds, Leicester, London, Manchester, Oxford, Swansea, and York. Borders also run several Books etc stores in and around London.
Borders Bookstore History
Tom and Louis Borders, two brothers living in Ann Arbor, Michigan opened a used bookshop called Borders Books in 1971 and expanded to include several more stores around Michigan. Borders Bookstore' s success was partly due to tailoring each store's selection to the local community. This speciality, no doubt, made it ripe for its current global expansion.
Borders Bookstore used to have a great affiliate program through the LinkShare Referral Program. But this has been dropped since they joined forces with Amazon.