BORDERS BOOKS DECLARES BANKRUPTCY, FOLDS EL CAJON STORE

February 17, 2011 (El Cajon) – Closing a chapter for local book lovers, the Borders Group has announced plans to close 200 Borders bookstores nationwide, including stores at Parkway Plaza in El Cajon and in the Gaslamp district downtown.

The company filed for bankruptcy reorganization after running up over a billion dollars in debt. Three San Diego County stores will remain at Mission Valley, Carmel Mountain Ranch and National City.

Craig Maxwell, owner of Maxwell House of Books in La Mesa, observed that books are more available than ever before in both physical and digital formats, Yet he wrote in an e-mail to ECM, “Ironically, the popularity of reading (real literature) is at an all time low. I would suggest that the causes of this decline consist primarily of cultural (i.e., religious, moral and educational) factors that run beneath--deeper--than economic explanations.”
 

Others have cited the rise in electronic media as a factor in the younger generation’s declining interest in books amid an era where information on revolutions is texted and Twittered, while video games and surfing the Internet fill those idle hours once occupied by reading books.
 

CEO Scott Henry has said the company's strategy going forward will include enhancing its customer loyalty program, aggressively expanding Borders.com and its e-book market share, offering more non-book items, cutting costs and improving customer service. Another 75 stores may need to be closed, he said, according to the Associated Press.
 

Although Borders was a competitor in the book-vending business, Maxwell laments the demise. “I don't see how the loss of a bookstore can be interpreted as anything but a sad commentary on society,” he said, “especially one that purports to be self-governing. How can a democracy run by illiterates work?”