Borders Group announced this afternoon that it would shut down the 40-year-old bookseller, news that is unsurprising, slightly exciting (liquidation sales!), but mostly sad.
Unable to find a buyer willing to keep it alive, the country's second-largest bookstore chain will liquidate all 399 remaining stores around the nation, including the five in Orange County. Locations will close as early as Friday and as late as September.
“We are saddened by this development,” Mike Edwards, president of the Ann Arbor-based company, said in a statement. “We were all working hard toward a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now.”
]
In the next few days, prepare to find Borders' nearly 11,000 employees perusing the shelves for books on résumés and cover letters. Sigh.
