I killed borders

[Mars_ax]

The Borders bookstore and record store chain will close all it's stores it announced yesterday.

I'm the reason. For six or seven years I spent $5000-$6000 annually at the Borders here on Maui.

With the rise of Itunes and the IPOD my music purchases fell to zero very quickly three years ago. That was probably 15% of my spending there.

I purchased my first Kindle, almost reluctantly, early in 2009 thinking it couldn't be all it was cracked up to be. And it wasn't. Reference books were clumsy, it didn't deal with maps and photos very well, and if you wanted serious books the selection was only OK. But within a week it had become my go to source for my mindless beach reading, Spy stuff, detective stuff etc. That took another 25% of my Border's spending.

Last spring I sprung for an IPAD and that ended the game for Borders. By now overall selection was expanding, the IPAD handled maps and photos and drawings in books very well. This allowed me to now download serious works of history, biographies etc in a useful way. It also makes reading books about music or art really fun as it is easy to jump between programs and listen to a song you don't know while reading etc. That wiped out my Borders spending entirely.

Now Amazon fills whatever need I have for tangible books or unavailable CD's.

I've always loved bookstores and idea of the printed word. But not enough to forego the immediate gratification and convenience the new technology provides. I suspect it is folks like me, book and music junkies, who are deserting these bookstores and killing them.

The Internet has changed everything, I can't remember the last time I read a book, unless it had something to do with business. I get all my information from either Cable TV or the Internet, it works for me, I look at it like having the world's largest Library at your fingertips.

R.I.P. Borders

[meehaja]

See, I used to love going to Borders, flicking through the magazines, sitting down with a nice arty picture book or some big expensive reference book. Sometimes I'd just go in to get out of the rain. Thats why Borders shut, 'cos no one ever bought anything!

[killersheep]

Kinda strange isn't it the amount of jobs the internet revolution will cost the retail sector. I know, I know it's the governments fault the unemployment is rising. Seriously though, where are the jobs in the future going to be? UPS and FedEx look pretty solid and that's about it.

[CFH]

Kinda strange isn't it the amount of jobs the internet revolution will cost the retail sector. I know, I know it's the governments fault the unemployment is rising. Seriously though, where are the jobs in the future going to be? UPS and FedEx look pretty solid and that's about it.

Healthcare.

The aging baby-boomer generation combined with ever-increasing lifespans means that the healthcare sector is going to grow massively in the coming years.

Edit: Not to mention all the problems that are going to be created by us younger people becoming increasingly fat and unhealthy.

[generalbulldog]

Kinda strange isn't it the amount of jobs the internet revolution will cost the retail sector. I know, I know it's the governments fault the unemployment is rising. Seriously though, where are the jobs in the future going to be? UPS and FedEx look pretty solid and that's about it.

Healthcare.

The aging baby-boomer generation combined with ever-increasing lifespans means that the healthcare sector is going to grow massively in the coming years.

And PC related.

[marbleheadmaui]

Kinda strange isn't it the amount of jobs the internet revolution will cost the retail sector. I know, I know it's the governments fault the unemployment is rising. Seriously though, where are the jobs in the future going to be? UPS and FedEx look pretty solid and that's about it.

Jobs will come from where they always come from. The unexpected and revolutionary technologies.

Who would have guessed 25 years ago just how large the PC industries would be?

[killersheep]

Kinda strange isn't it the amount of jobs the internet revolution will cost the retail sector. I know, I know it's the governments fault the unemployment is rising. Seriously though, where are the jobs in the future going to be? UPS and FedEx look pretty solid and that's about it.

Jobs will come from where they always come from. The unexpected and revolutionary technologies.

Who would have guessed 25 years ago just how large the PC industries would be?

This is where I disagree, where are the American jobs from the PC industry now? Show me any PC industry company that is creating jobs in US now. How's Dell doing? Does Microsoft have more or fewer people employed than 10 years ago? What percentage of Apple products are manufactured in the US? What percentage of operating system software is written in the US?

So that leads to where you were going with your statement, "unexpected and revolutionary technologies" even if they do occur, the software will be written in India and the hardware will be manufactured in Singapore or Malaysia now that Chinese workers are asking for benefits.

I fully expect Microsoft to announce a massive layoff this August.

[GOAT]

Kinda strange isn't it the amount of jobs the internet revolution will cost the retail sector. I know, I know it's the governments fault the unemployment is rising. Seriously though, where are the jobs in the future going to be? UPS and FedEx look pretty solid and that's about it.

Jobs will come from where they always come from. The unexpected and revolutionary technologies.

Who would have guessed 25 years ago just how large the PC industries would be?

This is where I disagree, where are the American jobs from the PC industry now? Show me any PC industry company that is creating jobs in US now. How's Dell doing? Does Microsoft have more or fewer people employed than 10 years ago? What percentage of Apple products are manufactured in the US? What percentage of operating system software is written in the US?

So that leads to where you were going with your statement, "unexpected and revolutionary technologies" even if they do occur, the software will be written in India and the hardware will be manufactured in Singapore or Malaysia now that Chinese workers are asking for benefits.

I fully expect Microsoft to announce a massive layoff this August.

Oh yeah, hard work at the titan-booth.