Once one of the UK’s biggest booksellers, Borders (UK) is closing its doors for good today after administrators MCR failed to find any buyers for the newspaper, book, magazine, DVD and CD retailer.
Both Borders and partner company Books Etc (which it owns) will disappear from High Streets forever, with the company blaming their demise on increased competition from online sales and supermarkets, compounded by a struggling retail market.
Several Borders stores closed earlier this year, including our favourite branch on Oxford Street, with another major central London store on Charing Cross Road following this month.
In November, the stores stopped taking new book orders online, and the closure of the remaining 45 stores will see 1,150 jobs being lost in the days leading up to Christmas.
Administrators MCR commented:
The joint administrators have been pursuing a sale of the business. However, it has not been possible to agree a sale of any part of the business as a going concern.
That’s a great photo!
Shame to see Borders go. I used to spend hours in there having a free read of the magazines!
Sorry to see Borders go, they really shook up book retailing when they arrived in the UK.
The one on Oxford Street used to have a great variety of magazines as well, lots that were difficult to find in other UK outlets.
Borders UK never really had a terribly significant online presence, so suffered more from Internet sales than the big US book retailers like B&N.