Why Borders Books Failed and Barnes & Noble Didn’t

Annie Lowrey at Slate wrote a decent summary of how a series of bad top-level decisions laid the course for Borders Books closing.  In a nutshell: The internet didn’t do it.

Granted, in today’s bookselling world, that’s like saying, “No.  Really.  It wasn’t the butler.”  Which is basically what Lowrey says, at least for the most part.  She compares the Borders strategy to the much more successful Barnes and Noble business model, and then slips in later that, well…Barnes and Nobles’ brick-and-mortar stores aren’t exactly tearing up the marketplace, either, thanks to e-readers and e-commerce.

Ironically, the e-book revolution that’s killing Barnes and Nobles’ big-box stores is saving its profit margins, thanks to the Nook.

So the butler put the maid up to it.

But Lowrey does make a number of interesting points.  Among them:

“…Borders neglected e-books, fast becoming as popular as their paper cousins. The Amazon Kindle came out in November 2007. Barnes & Noble debuted its Nook, now sold in Walmart and Best Buy as well, in November 2009. Apple’s iPad came out in April 2010. Borders’ Kobo (ever heard of it?) came out last, just a year ago.”

Which brings us to a little something that hit inboxes of Borders Rewards members on July 19th.  Remember, Borders announced its closing on July 18th.

Borders email promotion

Beyond the obvious, “Can I move my Kobo books to a Nook, iPad, or Kindle” question, the weird timing of this message leaves me scratching my head.  Can you even still buy Kobo books?  Once Borders is gone, will Kobo owners get tech support?  Can they buy any more books for their e-readers?  And will Kobo owners be able to get in on the liquidation specials, or are they stuck paying full price?