I lost my job to a Kindle…

Today, the well-known bookstore, Borders announced bankruptcy, accounting for over 6,000 employees to lose their jobs. Borders is now closing 30 percent of their businesses nation wide, including 16 more closings in Illinois, most of which are supercenters. Last month also marked the closing of Border’s giant two-story building on Michigan Avenue. Who’s the culprit capable of such a monstrous thing? Is the bookstore’s competitor, Barnes and Noble, reliable for this disastrous mess? It could very well be possible. I, by chance, have a different perspective on the matter. It’s called E-Readers: Kindles, iPads, and Nooks. E-Readers are starting the book wars, and companies like Border’s are found at the bottom of the marketing barrel because of this.

I wonder if at this moment the CEO’s and cooperate leaders of Border’s are just kicking themselves about the lack of effort to support an e-reader with a better, faster, and quicker approach? If you think about it, how far is this going to go before all books are converted into tablet readers? Border’s Kobo, is probably one of the least familiar tablet readers on the market, and a reason for this would have to be that they waited so long to endorse this sort of project. Who would have thought a machine would make a paper book obsolete? The idea sounds cool at first, but I don’t ever want to see a world without paper books…this sort of feels like Fahrenheit 451. Ok, not really. It does seem rather menacing though how people are losing their jobs, and one of my favorite hangouts is in jeopardy on account of this trendy piece of machinery. The fight is on for E-Readers, who will win the war? Or will Amazon’s online approach amount to the non-existence of actual bookstores? For the sake of Border’s, as well as Barnes and Noble, I hope this trend dies out before it wipes out everything an old school book nerd stands for! 

Borders files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

by Reuters

http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2011/02/borders-files-for-chapter-11.html