Coming soon to a bookstore near you: a going-out-of-business sale. After it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, Borders Books announced that it’s closing at least 15 locations in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino Counties.
Some of the stores, like the ones at Howard Hughes Center in LA and The Block at Orange, anchor shopping malls.
Other locations – think South Lake Avenue in Pasadena or Old Canal Road in Yorba Linda – stand along pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares.
What they all have in common is their association with a bookseller that set industry trends: comfy chairs, coffee and pastries, lots of non-book items for sale.
For awhile, Ann Arbor-based Borders claimed major market share by enticing book buyers away from their neighborhood stores. But the chain fell behind when online retailers, e-readers and brick-and-mortar competitors figured out how to appeal to book lovers. The company will maintain its website and many of its stores, but it plans to shut down what executives call “underperforming” locations within weeks.
Borders has retained a commercial realty group to help dispose of dozens of properties it occupied in California and 34 other states, plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico.
