1) As it stands now with the partnership with Amazon, it is Amazon and not borders that controls their presence in cyberspace. If you think in terms of branding when a loyal Borders customer tries to purchase a book online what is getting reinforced is the idea that Amazon is the place to buy books. And if Amazon messes up by misrepresenting what Borders has in stock it is Borders that gets blamed and not Amazon.

2) As it stands now Borders has a very limited selection of books in their database because they work with a very limited number of suppliers (especially used books) and their distributors frequently do not carry enough of particular books in stock. These words should never be uttered by a bookseller’s lips “We don’t carry _______. You might want to try Amazon.”

3) Currently Amazon offers free second day home shipping if you pay a yearly fee of $75. The best Borders can do is in store shipping in (if it is still in print) 7 days or less. If it is out of print 2-3 weeks. Nor can a bookseller tell when or where or how many more days the ordered book will take to get here. When I go to Amazon I can with a few clicks know that my book was in a warehouse in south Chicago at 5:23 am was put on a truck at 5:47 am. Was in south Illinois at 7:15 am etc… online.

4) Currently the coupon system barely works. I don’t mean that they don’t draw in customers, what I mean is that when a cashier scans a coupon, most of the time it scans alright but… say a customer is buying two items and has a 30% coupon. One item is $50 book the other is a $0.40 lindor ball. Every once in a while the discount will go on the lindor ball. I don’t know if this is a programming error or if it is an intentional attempt to deceive the customer, but it sucks.

5) The zunes were really half-assed. I mean anybody with any kind of tech-savy could have seen that they would be a failure. If they want to do it right they should enter into an agreement with Microsoft. Get rid of the whole Multimedia department and install computers. The customer goes in with a Zune (purchased through Borders) goes to the computer has access to an entire itunes like music library, and for a fee can either legally burn a disk or (with their zune) for even less of a fee legally add music. I mean there is a whole level of details that would need to be worked out regarding downloading music off of whatever Microsoft’s proprietary website would be, but considering they have been using third parties anyway, there is no reason that Borders couldn’t be at least a face of that chain. Let’s face facts, compact disks will be obsolete in a few years anyway, so why wait for the inevitable do drag Borders down with them. With a digital library you could have the selection you once had without the inventory. Furthermore there is no reason why I should pay $18.99 (what Borders charges) for a disk I can buy on i-tunes for $9.99 when even buying it in the first place is an ethical decision when I could (in theory) get it for free on a file share site.

6) I have worked either as a programmer or an analyst for several fortune 500 companies and major public institutions and without a doubt TLU is the single worst database system I have ever seen. There is no reason why it should, for example, take three days for inventory to be updated. There is no reason why it should have to contact Ann Arbor to discover what a local store has in its own inventory.

Anyway that is my two cents. I assume that there are of course a combination of factors as to why the computers at Borders sucks. I once spent a few years working for one of the bigger museums in the world and for the longest time I would log on to our website and see this really amateurish web page. I half jokingly offered to build a better one and found out that over the years quite a few people had either made the same offer, or had suggested rightly that we should hire the Advertising Agency we dealt with to make us something splashy and exciting. The reason that this kept getting shot down was that a Senior Vice President in the IT department had made the web site and it was he who was blocking change.

I assume that the same kind of politics is going on at Borders. Either that, or the assumption is that costs will be too high and that they can’t justify that to shareholders. Which makes sense. Borders is in a mature market, I assume that Borders shareholders are after dividends and not used to thinking in terms of spending on growth.

However this really is backwards thinking. Borders really, I mean really, really, really needs to drastically update their computer systems, and in order to do that they will need to spend. People go into Borders because they can get the book they want immediately. But between Borders and Barnes & Noble when you consider Amazon’s distribution, resources and selection, there really is only need for one instant gratification retailer.

Anyway, sorry this was so long.

Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Actually…I do have his email address!

To interested person, the exact structure is still under wraps I believe, so I won’t be too explicit. However, do to sales volumes everywhere, the corporate sales program still exists but is being collected into fewer sales persons in each market. Corporate Sales rep is right however, the shipping and receiving tasks will be absorbed by the inventory team. Certain stores with high enough volume may still retain a dedicated staff person.

The Corporate Sales division is profitable, and does bring in business, unfortunately for us, the distribution does not reflect the cost. Hence smaller numbers of salespersons per market.

I second the best of luck, I’m not quite sure where all these jobs are that the drop in unemployment reflects.

I love Borders, even before I started working there. I know that the Rewards program has been fluctuating, but I have to note that a free program can’t screw anyone over. I miss some of the earlier features, but as my paycheck is based on how much money we don’t loose, I can’t say I miss them too much. The whole industry, as previously stated, is reacting rather than planning.

My disappearing role is based on trying to get the best price for customers on each book they buy. It’s damn hard. The publishers undercut us on a lot of non-commercial product. As an aspiring author, I certainly hope that this improves in the future. It’s just unfortunate that Borders is not as foresighted as we might hope. Above all, I believe in supporting retail, even if it means saving $5.00. I try not to use online unless I have to, or unless the product is entirely online. My food has more often than not come from people willing to spend that extra $5.00, and I appreciate it.

Finally to the Wicked Witch, that was an awesome article.

I can’t imagine that you will have trouble finding another field sales role, especially if you have been making plan successfully each month. I wish you luck and really would like to hear further on how your negotiations go with the organisation.

What is happening to the other Corporate Sales Reps? What state are you in?

“First off, for those of you who live in the greater Oregon area and would like some cheap books, the Clackamas Town Center Borders Express is being closed as part of Borders 200 store closing initiative. As of Friday all of their stock will go to 40% off.

Now, I can tell you from experience (and the fact that I had a long talk with the manager) that it will go no lower than this, but 40% is a damn good deal. They have a lot of stock left and it looks like they were still receiving shipments up until last week. Here’s a chance to go pick up some new books (or old books that you really wanted to read) at a very deep discount, so go spend your money.”

Walmart is not a pleasant shopping experience but when you can save the price of a couple of gallons of gas by enduring the Walmart “experience” it makes sense to shop at Walmart. Borders should exploit this flaw in Walmart and go after the quantity it sells because the shopping experience at Borders is 1000% better than Walmart.

I won’t shop at Borders anymore because they basically screwed the customers when then replaced Borders Rewards with Borders Bucks.

Big Corporations have to realize that just because the CEO is making millions does not mean he has more common sense than the average Joe pulling in $20,000 a year. These are the common folks that usually bring these companies to their knees when they realize they are being taken advantage of or taken for granted.

Price, Quality, Inventory, Courtesy!!!!!! Borders has the last three nailed but if the price is to high the last three really don’t matter do they? If I want to buy the Godfather on DVD I’m going to Walmart and buying it for around $9.44. Borders would be around $14.99. For the difference I can pick up an extra item for $5.00. Sorry but 5 bucks is 5 bucks.