Just got an email that Borders will sadly be closing all remaining stores in Australia and clearing out stock at 20%-40% off the original price, will probably go higher in discount closer to the store's closing date.
Remaining closing stores are:
- Carlton
- Chadstone
- Knox
- Melbourne
- Perth
- Bondi Junction
- Canberra
- Chermside
- Robina
Added to the description. I'd still like to go have a look though, nothing beats flicking through a book in real life sadly…
At least you'll be able to tell the grandkids what it was like to walk into a 'real' bookstore… :(
And the grandkids ask… "what's a book?"
And What is a store!
And who are you?
I have grandkids?
so sad… ;)
By that time, I'm sure there'd be an app out for that on their nth generation iPhone.
Since the original prices were about double that of Amazon.com (including air mail), I wouldn't get too excited about picking over the left overs at 20% off. Borders killed itself through incompetence and its deadly private equity deal.
These Borders sales only get really good when you start seeing handwritten signs sticky taped to the shelves reading, "This piece of furniture: $75."
I went to the Parramatta one weeks ago, and there was only crap left, and it was still doulbe the price you can buy it for online.
Congratulations Australian Publishing, charging us $25 for $5 paperbacks for decades, you've finally bitten off the last of the hands feeding you.
That's so sad. I love bookstores, even though Borders is highly overppriced. It does have good sales once in a while though.
I'll miss having a nice coffee, flicking through a pile of books, and then logging on to booko to order the ones i want… :(
yeh. I feel bad for reading comics without purchasing now :-P….
not really.
Where did you find a Borders with nice coffee? I only know of ones with Gloria Jean's coffee.
It's better than Starbucks…
…also Gloria Jeans do a great chai latte… (probably instant lol)
Actually GJ's chai latte were anything but instant, they had to be cured overnight, every night.
LOL i logged on just to + this comment
Like their really good sale now? :P
Well it'll become a better sale in the future at the rate they're going!
going… going… gone !!! :(
Sad.
I think even with a 40% off, Amazon is way cheaper.
Thats not to say I didn't have all these childhood memories of Angus & Robertson reading.
Borders Macquarie Park closed last weekend. Saturday, any 10 books for $10, and whatver was left on Sunday was 10 for $5!!
According to the price labels, I bought $450 (RRP) worth of books and gear for a total of $24.50. But the mark-up at borders is so ridiculous.
I say wait a week or two and it will only get cheaper.
totally agree…with Borders on Chapel Street the books were selling for 50c-$2 each in the last week. I didn't get to see them on the last day, but I'd imagine that the reductions would (maybe) be even better by then?!
Also they sold fixtures and some of them (eg the cube like shelves) had some ridiculously cheap prices marked on them eg $25 I saw on one! (Unfortunately it also had a sold sticker on it)
My Son went to the Borders at Doncaster Vic on the last day and they were selling $100- books for $1 and all the fittings for next to nothing.
My friend bought 11 of their LG LCD screens for $100 each. Bargain!
I went to the perth store on Sunday. It appeared to be trading as normal butloads of stock most marked at full price. There were only a few tables/areas with clearance stock on and the discounted price on those was about the same as BDep or Amazon sells for. It looked to me like they would be trading for a long time yet
The advert says ALL LOCATIONS
Easy JV, knowledge takes longer to get to the West. Its all those customs stations along the Nullabor, that slow down the Ponies. Hey the stores still trading, where our local one closed weeks ago
Finding out you are getting the sack through ozbargain would be amusing.
Yes realise the staff are well aware of whats happening.
Adelaide's has been closing for the past 2-3 months. got some good Dilbert sets.
still more expensive then online stores + postage!
They're finally competing with bookdepository… now they just need to deliver the books to my house…
On the last day of our local Borders store, we bought a Borders shopping basket for $1. Best buy!
Great collector's item!
in 100 years, it will be an antique…
ooo, that would go well with my coles, kmart, woolies and bunnings basket collection.
Sad but inevitable, this is not a good thing for Australia's economy. These days I do most of my shopping online except for food and groceries, purchasing at least 50% of the goods from overseas sellers. However, it does make me wonder, with the retail industry being one of the cornerstones of Australia's economy, if we don't support it will that have a ripple effect on the rest of the economy?
Why should be support overpriced goods? The faster the big retailers get that they need to compete internationally the better. Don't feel obliged to buy "Australian" when you can get much better deals overseas.
not to mention much better service. I'm happy to spend a little more locally for good service - but it's few and far between.
It's a free market…. mang.
On a serious note, the more money going overseas -> increase in oversea's supply of aussie dollar -> drop in aussie dollar -> increase in exports (since they are cheaper relative to overseas buyers) -> net increase in australian economy
Either way, its win-win for australia.
I got a $15 book hand truck/trolley (its a funny looking right angled thing) from the Charlestown Square close down, perfect for me to drag my BBQ gas bottle to the servo!
anyone know exact date of closing? so we can go to it closer to the date and get cheaper deals?
they've been closing for months
this is like the 4th time it's been posted
better hurry up and get down there, or you'll have to wait till they close again next weekend like the Rug store.
Does anyone know if the one in Macquarie centre North Ryde has closed already?
Closed. Gone.
Sadly? They went out of business after years of cheating customers. Good riddance.
Now I know why the Gloria Jeans Cafe in the Borders Bookshop in Perth is for sell…How the hell the broker going to sell this business…Never TRUST BROKER…imagine one of you, are in process of buying this business or any of your friends or families, please pass on this message….
There's nothing sad about it. This is a company that sold books above the already-daylight-robbery Australian RRP. Thankfully, Australians are no longer bending over and taking it. The market has, and should, drum out any business so flagrant in its price discrimination against Australians (ever compared Borders Australian prices to Borders U.S. prices?)
I no longer buy clothes or shoes or books or CDs or DVDs or Blu-Rays or games in Australia (unless, in the 1% of cases, it happens to be cheaper here). Before widespread internet adoption, Australians were locked by geography into gross price discrimination, and there was next to nothing that we could do about it. Price discrimination is still here, but the days where we could do nothing about it are gone.
Now hopefully other Australian book stores will go under and Australian publishers will have to lower their costs.
If they don't, good riddance.
In actual fact the government is just as much to blame as the retailers they should have abolished the parrallel import rules for books when they did it for cds. If they had then perhaps the retailers would of had a chance at being more competitive. Of course the retailers should of fought harder against those laws they had their chance and didn't take it.
You're correct - the Australian Government is certainly not blameless either, given how it caved to the publishing industry. Banning parallel imports is nothing but a government handout that transfers money to Australian publishers, from everyone else.
Metaphor,
Just wondering where/how you buy clothes online? Your help and ideas would be greatly appreciated. We haven't been able to work it out yet.
Cheers
OMG how stupid are they!!! WHy would you close Chadstone???!!! Even if they just kept one, they should have left Chadstone out of that list. That stores a good money maker
Knox always seemed busy when I was in there browsing titles before ordering online. Thing is, everyone else was probably doing the same!
Did they make money or just generate traffic? Borders is notorious for having a lot of unpaying "customers" come in, flip through books and leave without buying anything.
Yeah I think if anything, the stores surrounding Borders are gonna lose big time. Loss of traffic etc.
Sound like places like Chadstone need a 'Library' instead :P
Your avatar is perfect for this post.
Boarders in parramatta closed down recently. What they do is, around 3 weeks before close down, everything 50% off, then 2 weeks out, 60% off, 1 week out 70% off, and a couple of days till the close down 80% off. Not sure the last day, coz I couldnt' go there. But i heard the last day of Augus & Robertson close down was like 2 bucks a book. So be patient! But some goods books do get bought out. So your decision when is the best timing.
At the previous clearances I saw little that was worthwhile even for free. They wouldn't have got any new stock so the selection would be even worse now. Still if you have um, interesting tastes, like How to turn your ex-boyfriend into a toad, coauthored by Athena Starwoman, you might get lucky.
I think my ex-girlfriend bought that! Ribbet!
its 35% off at Canberra Centre. My mum rushed to the shops when I told her about Borders closing down but before I got the email. Needless to say, She was disappointed with the ripoff prices.
If only the staff would tell me the exact day of closing then that would be awesome.
Might get some of their LCDs as well. I call dibs
I think 80%-90% off will make it a good memory for all of us.
Dymocks should be happy.
i can't wait to see all these greedy cheaters gone!!! Who is next? Harvey Norman? Dick Smith? JB Hi Fi?You name it.
Then we'd have no stores in Australia and then bye bye to the economy. :D
dymocks.
Still expensive. 60% off rrp would be my buying point.
anyone know of the graphic novel stock in stores?
I Might grab the absolute watchmen collection if it gets cheaper than $100
Just don't forget that we probably don't print this here in aus so have to pay to import it. And a store has to pay rent (exorbitant), electricity, staff consumables, franchise fees etc. It all kinda adds up to the inflated price. So it may not be the stores fault they have to charge what they do to survive. Unfortunatly it becomes a vicious cycle of increasing prices due to lower demand and it doesnt take long for someone to capitalize on this via the Internet.
I think shops are going to evolve in the near future based on weather you actually need to handle the product to buy it or not. For instance why cant I just buy a brand new car on the net and have it delivered. I've seen the brochure lets talk price and deliver it to me. Not having a glitzy showroom with a dozen bored sales people would make you quite competitive I think.
You'd buy a car without test-driving it or checking out the interior first?
I hope retail shops never disappear. Where else can we check out gadgets in person first, before buying them online from overseas?
cough
I recently bought a washing machine online. I bought an air con from them a while back. I'm satisfied with the goods. These things are all identical anyway and if something is wrong, that's what the warranty is there for. What can looking at the machine tell you that a whole bunch of reviews from the Internet can't?
Now a car is more personal but it's not so safe from the Internet. Already organisations (NRMA is one I think) offer a service where you name the model and options you want and they go haggle for the best deal for you. You can imagine people might go to the showroom, sit on the seats, kick the tyres, politely say no thanks to the pesky salesman then go home and order it online.
This might have been the downfall of Borders. People went in, picked up a book, flipped through its pages while having a coffee in a comfy chair, then went home and ordered it online.
So in a way, Myers' decision to concentrate on things like wearables does make sense.
Well after posting this I noticed this news story…
http://www.news.com.au/business/aami-closes-all-24-branches-…
And yes I would buy a NEW car online especially since the car you test drive isnt the one you get anyway. Perhaps someone can drop by to give you a test drive if you really insist but there is no need for showrooms anymore.
Exactly. A lot of people have a go at Australian retailers charging a high price but these businesses have to factor in expensive rent and staff wages (which are very high on a global scale). These high minimum wage rates are why so many Australians enjoy a good quality of life.
If everyone buys overseas and sends the bricks and mortar stores out of business, where will the retail jobs in Australia come from? Looks like a lot more people will be on Centrelink to me.
The problem with asking consumers to support local retailers at a higher price is it comes at a cost. The money that they would have to pay could have been spent to support other local jobs. Of course that won't happen, people won't pay for it.
There are jobs that can never go overseas. You can't get your haircut done overseas (not regularly anyway), have your coffee brewed by a barista overseas, or have your Internet goods delivered to your door by an overseas person. The service sector is less vulnerable to being exported.
Occupations come and go. Don't know why people worry if a major poorly run bookstore goes under (here) any more than we have to worry about the lack of chimney sweeps, milk delivered to homes or night cartmen. If there's a need/customers they will exist, great. If there isn't, so be it. Presumably this same discussion has been going on for centuries for plenty of other stores/occupations… Things change for a reason, (smart) people adapt for a reason. Life goes on. No need to prop up unviable businesses or we'll all be taxed/priced into oblivion and still riding horse and carts.
Borders is a multinational. They have an online arm at the core of their business. They buy in bulk and had lots of stores here. Poor management decisions were the reason for their downfall, that is all. They are the last ones who can pass off an excuse of blaming the internet - Their internet prices are crap too! No one forced them to put coffee & couches in their stores either - They thought they would sell more books that way. Who knows the impact except for them. The fact that smaller local bookstores can run and make a profitable living selling a smaller range of books for the same price or less than Borders says it all.
Pls post again when it's 70+% off then I'll go. Thanks
only one store left in NSW?
Update from Perth. Everything 40-50% off now. Most of the good stuff is gone already but still some good finds.
Does anyone know when the stores are expected to increase the discount? I was in Chermside yesterday with 50-60% off storewide (60% off CDs and DVDs, I think), but there was a book I was after that was (IMO) still overpriced with the 50% discount.
I gather the schedule of discounts is relatively unknown, but thought I'd give it a try.
Borders closing down tomorrow in Perth. Sweet FA left but all remaining books $4 each or 80% off, whichever is cheaper.
I went to Borders Bondi on Saturday - all remaining books were 80% off, or $4 each for 5, whichever was lower.
I walked past Borders Bondi yesterday - it is now closed.
yeah, i saw that email…
it does say though
20%-40% off everything OFF ORIGINAL PRICES
so most likely, you could still get them cheaper online elsewhere…