Comments on: Lois McMaster Bujold’s Book Not Stocked In Borders Stores

By: jmc

jmc — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:10:18 +0000

According to a post/note on Bujold’s MySpace, the Borders stocking snafu has now been resolved.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=164952151&blogID=470469738

By: SonomaLass

SonomaLass — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:51:27 +0000

I’ve been a regular Borders customer since I got back into reading romance, because the local chain I want to patronize doesn’t carry romance. I prefer it to the local B&N due to the better layout, easier access & parking, and larger inventory of the genres I read. Then there’s the free rewards program; I’m all about that. But a lot of this discussion reflects my recent experiences with Borders — out of stock on books that they really should have, lots of gaps on shelves, and a computer inventory that isn’t much help. Our last trip there, all the books we wanted were listed as “likely in store,” but none of them were. The signs are not good, I’m afraid.

By: GrowlyCub

GrowlyCub — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:01:27 +0000

Ehm, okay so my brain’s been playing tricks on me.

Make that ‘getting onto’ and ‘put stock in’.

By: GrowlyCub

GrowlyCub — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:40:32 +0000

Nikki,

wow, that’s bad news indeed and it’s going to hurt Bujold chances of getting into the bestseller lists which publishers seem to put so much stock on. :(

By: Nikki

Nikki — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:38:26 +0000

The B&Ns had received the books and had not sold any copies. They were not able to find them however. The guy at the first one did an exhaustive search going through the backrooms and could not find it. I went through the other sections hoping it was misplaced but no luck. The second B&N reported they had ordered it but also could not find it. Finally before I drove more, we called from the second and the third store knew they had copies but could not find them.

By: JaimeK

JaimeK — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:30:26 +0000

I live in a small town and our only bookstore is Borders. I used to loooove them. Our store remodeled and with the remodel fewer books were on the shelves. A lot of current titles not on the shelves and it didn’t make sense. I used to be able to special order or spo a book – if I didn’t think I would read it they would send it back. They have now made it a requirement for all “spos” that you have to pay for it before they will order it. I thought this was a real sign of their economic woes. Bujold not being on the shelf is just another indication.

I think it is too bad. If they don’t figure it out we won’t have a “local” bookstore at all. People will spend more and more online instead of dealing with the book seller.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:38:37 +0000

The thing that relaly irks me is that my local stores are delving ever deeper into non-book areas (board games, toys, toiletries, bags, etc.). Even worse is the appearance of those new digital music stations despite the predominace of ipods/itunes & mp3 integration with many cell phones. The cafe at the Stonestown store continues to open 2 hours prior to the rest of the store despite mcdonald’s and starbucks garnering most of the prospective customers. I feel sorry for the store employees, but horrible stewardship of the business could only lead to the worst outcome.

The ultimate irony in all of this is that Amazon has lost its first big sales tax battle, but there’ll be few brick and mortars to shop at even if Amazon starts losing its tax free advantage nationwide.

By: Kalen Hughes

Kalen Hughes — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:16:46 +0000

According to my source Borders did place an order for Horizon, but there’s some snafu with the distributor . . . I’m going to guess they weren’t too pleased to be the one bearing the burden of Borders’ plan to return books and place new orders for the same titles in order to stay afloat.

This certainly does suck for Bujold and her readers (and all the other authors who I’m sure are caught in the same “snafu”).

By: Twila Price

Twila Price — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:05:29 +0000

I nearly did call Nicola’s, Sandy D., but since we were at the Arborland Borders I went with B&N. I *have* bought about ten books at Nicola’s due to the stupid non-carrying of midlist sf/ya of Borders in the last six months (E. Bear’s new hardcover, several YA novels, etc.).

By: Sandy D.

Sandy D. — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:00:01 +0000

Twila, I’m just outside Ann Arbor now, and I’ve always gone to Border’s (if not always the big one downtown recently) by preference over BN. I’m still just gobsmacked that even the A2 Border’s isn’t carrying Horizon. And not only did they lose the $$ that I would have spent there yesterday, in the future I’m less likely to even check there. I guess I’ll just call Nicola’s, while sadly remembering the Border’s of the 80’s.