Next month more than 200 Borders Stores will shut their doors forever due to bankruptcy, which include three here in the St. Louis area. One will close in the Chesterfield Mall, one in the Center Plaza in Ballwin, and one in Mid-Rivers Mall. Six stores in total will be closing throughout Missouri.
The specific stores Borders has chosen to close cost the corporation more than $2 million a week in loses, according to their quarter report.
“We are confident that with the support of employees, publishers, suppliers and creditors, and the reading public, a successful reorganization can be achieved enabling Border to emerge from the process as a stronger and more vibrant bookseller.” The company said in their bankruptcy statement.
Students have many different takes on the Borders closing, and mostly negative views on what will happen now.
“I hope [Barnes and Noble] doesn’t raise prices just because Borders is gone,” Logan Trentadue, sophomore, said. “It would make me not want to buy books anymore.”
Other students such as Ryan Blake, sophomore, also agreed that Barnes and Noble may raise their prices now and that it would affect the amount of books he bought, because everything is getting more expensive and he doesn’t want to spend it all in one place, like at the bookstore, Blake said.
Another issue that was caused by the Border’s stores closing was the locations that will be lost. Barnes and Noble has three stores in the St. Louis area and they are spaced farther apart. One is in Chesterfield Oaks on Clarkson in Chesterfield, one store is in the West County Mall in Des Peres, and one on Ladue Road in the cross shopping center.
“I liked how close Borders was to my house and now I have to drive a lot farther to get to a bookstore and a good place to study,” Lisa Keller, sophomore, said.
With all three Borders locations that were much closer to the Marquette school district area than the Barnes and Nobles many students such as Alyssa Lomantini, sophomore, will have to drive farther to get there and it will negatively affect how much she goes.
“I was basically right across the street from one and now I have to go way farther out and unless I really need to go to a bookstore, I doubt I will go as much as I used to,” Lomantini said.