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'Borders Group' () is an international bookseller based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Borders is a Fortune 500 company, and is (as of 2005) the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States (after Barnes & Noble), selling a wide variety of books, CDs, DVDs, periodicals, as well as gifts and stationery.
Borders owns a majority stake in Paperchase Products Limited, a leading gifts and stationery retailer in the United Kingdom, and showcases their products in their stores, as well as Books etc., Borders other, mostly London-based bookshop chain. In 2004, Borders reached an agreement with Starbucks subsidiary Seattle's Best Coffee to operate the cafes in its domestic superstores under the Seattle's Best brand name.
As of 2006, there are about 500 Borders stores in the United States, and around 700 Waldenbooks and Borders Express stores in U.S. malls and airports.

Contents

History

Beginnings

Kmart and Waldenbooks

International expansion

Franchise stores

Changes and controversies

Muhammad cartoon controversy

Changes in business plan

Trivia

See also

References

External links

History

Beginnings

The original Borders bookstore is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where it was founded in 1971 by brothers Tom and Louis Borders during their undergraduate and graduate years at the University of Michigan. The Borders brothers' inventory system tailored each store's offerings to its community. A sister company, Book Inventory Systems (1971-1994), was founded at the same time to serve as a wholesaler for, and provide the brothers' custom inventory system to, regional independent bookstores such as John Rollins, Thackeray's, Schuler Books, and Joseph-Beth Booksellers. Until Borders Superstore expansion occurred in the early 1990s, BIS serviced more independent stores than Borders stores. Former Hickory Farms president Robert F. DiRomualdo was hired in 1989 to expand the company.

Kmart and Waldenbooks

Borders was acquired in 1992 by Kmart, which had acquired Borders' rival Waldenbooks eight years earlier in 1984, but a stock buyback in 1995 enabled Borders and Waldenbooks to form its own corporation, the 'Borders-Walden Group', later renamed Borders Group.

International expansion

In 1997, the company established its first international store in Singapore, occupying 32,000 square feet in Wheelock Place, Orchard Road, which was then the largest bookstore there. It has since opened another 40 stores in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, and 35 Books etc. stores throughout Britain. However, due to the fierce competition in the UK marketplace, a number of these Books etc. stores will be closed and will be replaced by larger Borders stores in retail parks on the edge of town. In Q3 2006, the Singapore store emerged as the best performing amongst the entire group's 559 outlets, with the highest revenue generated per Square feet^[1]. The highest grossing store in US territory is located in Puerto Rico which was recently remodeled and expanded.

Franchise stores

In April, 2005, Borders Group opened its first franchise store with Malaysia's Berjaya Books Sdn. Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. It is located in Berjaya Times Square, which is the world's biggest mall built in a single phase, with 7,500,000 square feet (700,000 m²). Incidentally, the store in Berjaya Times Square was advertised as being the world's biggest Borders at 60,000 square feet (5,600 m²). After Berjaya Times Square, Borders opened their second store in Malaysia. It was located in The Curve, Mutiara Damansara. The 3rd Borders store opened in Queensbay Mall, Penang on 7 December 2006. Borders opened a franchise store in Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, UAE in October 2006.

Changes and controversies

Muhammad cartoon controversy

On March 29, 2006, in response to the controversy over cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, Borders Group announced that Waldenbooks and Borders bookstores would not carry the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine that contained the controversial cartoons.[1]
Borders Group did carry an issue of Harper's the next month which also featured the cartoons.

Changes in business plan

In March 2007, Borders Group announced it would scale down the number of Waldenbooks outlets it had by half, to about 300, in the next year.
The company also announced that its marketing alliance with Amazon.com would end. (Amazon had been essentially acting as Borders' online component.) Borders will launch its own web sales site in 2008. [2]
In March 2007 Borders Group also announced the disposal of its UK and Ireland Businesses including its Books Etc Business in the UK, with the aim of revitalizing the core US business, however it was also announced that Borders Group would retain the Paperchase Stationery Business. However international expansion would be likely to continue via franchising. [3]

Trivia

★ The essayist Sven Birkerts worked at the original Borders store on State Street in Ann Arbor during the 1970s and wrote about his experiences in ''The Gutenberg Elegies.'' Writer Benjamin Cheever also wrote about his brief tenure as a Borders employee in ''Selling Ben Cheever''.

See also

★ List of bookstore chains

References

1. ''"S'pore store is Borders' No. 1"'', The Straits Times (Life!), 15 November 2006, p. 10

External links

★ Official Borders site powered by Amazon

★ BordersStores.com.
''(While both of the above sites bear the Borders name, the first one is run entirely by Amazon, while the second one includes information and ordering capabilities specific to Borders stores.)''

★ Official Waldenbooks and Borders Express site powered by Amazon

★ History of Borders

★ Borders Group stock information

★ Borders engages in self-censorship

★ Paperchase, a Borders Group company