Blasted Seating in Borders!

I loveeee barnes & nobles! I was just at my local B&N and they actually ADDED more seats. =] I love it!

It's a shame Borders would get rid of their seating areas though. Now I favor B&N more then ever.

Great - I wear a leg brace - if they don't have a seat for me I will shop elsewhere. (I do anyway, at my local indy bookstore when I can)

I'm a Chapters/Starbucks guy, myself. not on a diet. Sorry to hear they took away your seating. I wonder if they know it will cut their sales? They see people JUST SITTING and they think LESS SALES. What they don't take into consideration is that those just sitting people probably buy their books there when they do actually buy books. They are kind of like the scrooge...only it's not Christmas.

Borders is probably doing this because they're having serious financial issues. They need to stop people from browsing and make them buy. Easy answer...remove seating. Truth of the matter? B&N is 100xs better.

I refuse to shop somewhere where I can't sit down and chill for a few minutes. "Why" you may ask, though I doubt you really care. Thankyou all the same, I will tell you...
I'm lazy....

I like Borders and I see no reason for a bookshop to have seating. It pisses me off no end to see people reading without buying, or getting coffee stains all over books they haven't paid for. Food and books have no business being in the same establishment.

I buy most of my books through Amazon. I have seating here at home, and a closet to lock the children in while I'm shopping.

AnneMarble said:

I'd read an article that said Borders stores were going to get rid of a large percentage of their seating. I had just hoped they wouldn't get rid of the seating area I liked. But of course, they did. Now all the seating is in the coffee shop area. (And I'm on WeightWatchers. )

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I must be the only person who thinks it's weird to sit in a bookstore.

You want to read, go to the library. If you want to buy, buy and go the hell home.

[Expletive deleted to avoid offending sensitive souls]. I agree with Shadow Ferret.

*eyes the horizon for the other three horsemen, thethinker42CanHaveJoaquin, dclaryMakesSense and RllgthunderHasABath*

I like the seats but I did hate that the large non-fic is often very scuffed and read-over.

You have a Borders bookstore?

You have a B&N bookstore that you can alternately go to?

Holy. Crap.


I have a Hastings. Ever heard of those? They stink. They pretend to carry books. Last time we went in, we noticed someone shoplifting. Then a drunk guy started hassling us for money. Then we left in a hurry & saw what looked like a domestic violence situation in the parking lot near the door, with a man trying to pull a screaming woman out of the driver's side of an SUV, and a group of people gathered to watch, one talking to the 911 operator.

Yes, folks, this is the glory of the place where I live, and this is my local bookstore.

You have a B&N and a Borders, within driving distance, and you dare complain to those of us who must suffer in silence in a place that has been giving a culture rating of 7 (scale of 1-100) by certain real estate relocation sites? Awk! For shame!

Get one of those little fold-up fishing stools & take it in with you. No one can steal it while you are getting your coffee or finding a different book, and you can set it up on whatever aisle you want.

I don't blame them in a way. In college, starved for literature that wasn't part of a class, and dead broke, I once read an entire novel, undisturbed, while sitting on the floor of a Barnes & Noble, in the middle of an aisle. It was glorious. But I do understand that they can't make money like that.


wee, bit deprived

See, that's the problem I have with people sitting reading the books without paying. Someone else has got to come along and possibly buy those books. Maybe at a discount because the spine is broken, so the shop loses money. Or maybe it's the last copy and they really need the book, but they end up with a used copy.

When I go to Borders for a new book, I expect it to look new. Particularly if it's a gift!

scarletpeaches said:

See, that's the problem I have with people sitting reading the books without paying. Someone else has got to come along and possibly buy those books. Maybe at a discount because the spine is broken, so the shop loses money. Or maybe it's the last copy and they really need the book, but they end up with a used copy.

When I go to Borders for a new book, I expect it to look new. Particularly if it's a gift!

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The nannies (and some moms) in my neighborhood use the local B&N as an indoor playspace when the weather is cold. There can be 40 toddlers running wild in the children's section on any given day. You should SEE those books -- they get destroyed. I've seen workers there cart boxes of unusable children's books away. I rarely buy children's books there because so many are in bad condition.

Oh god, don't even get me started on the "Let's treat this place like a creche" attitude of some people. Like my local library.

*grinds teeth down to stumps*

scarletpeaches said:

I like Borders and I see no reason for a bookshop to have seating. It pisses me off no end to see people reading without buying, or getting coffee stains all over books they haven't paid for. Food and books have no business being in the same establishment.

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Shadow_Ferret said:

I must be the only person who thinks it's weird to sit in a bookstore.

You want to read, go to the library. If you want to buy, buy and go the hell home.

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Personally, I'd rather the coffee rings on the front cover of a book are mine that I put there accidentally.

Look at it this way: how many authors out there just lurve to hear a fan exclaim, "I LOVE YOUR LATEST BOOK! I READ IT AT (bookstore) AND DIDN'T PAY A DIME FOR IT!" (Alison Bechdel, creator of the comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For, swears this happens to her on a regular basis.) So, there's incentive for you to set out comfy chairs.

Look. I'm all for customers lingering. Make them browse. Look around. Savor the experience. And spend your money then leave.

I'm one of those who sits while deciding what books to buy. However, I can remember the days when there was no seating in bookstores, so it won't be the end of my world. That said, I usually go to B&N anyway.

I sit in bookstores all the time. If Borders got rid of their seating, I would likely stop going -- and I'm there weekly, sometimes twice a week. (I agree with others, though, that B&N is the far superior bookstore.)

Has nothing to do with not wanting to buy the product; I buy a hardcover a week, sometimes more. I simply like to sit and read at a place other than the couch sometimes.

When I used to go to Borders, I would get so annoyed at the books stacked up in the coffee shop area of the store. People would bring over big stacks of wedding books, travel books, programming books, etc., and flip the pages with the fingers they'd just used to eat a fudge brownie, and then leave the books on the coffee table. An employee would have to come over once an hour with a cart and clear out all the books left by the coffee shop patrons. I used to write at Borders cafe on some Saturday morning, and it was the same scene every time.

I don't blame them for getting rid of some of their seating. And I do feel kinda guilty about the few books I've read all the way through without leaving the bookstore.

Anyway, now I live within walking distance of the library and a B&N, so it's been a while since I went to a Borders.

Don Allen said:

I refuse to shop somewhere where I can't sit down and chill for a few minutes. "Why" you may ask, though I doubt you really care. Thankyou all the same, I will tell you...
I'm lazy....

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How do you manage a trip to the grocery store?

Interesting. Try the bookshops in Hong Kong. Guaranteed you'll not find seating anywhere -- except in the attached cafe of one them, and I don't think they allow books in there (could be wrong). (^_^)

If they get rid of the seating, does that mean they're putting up more bookshelves?

Azraelsbane said:

Truth of the matter? B&N is 100xs better.

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Hmm. Can't say I agree with you. I like Borders better, strictly b/c they offer more sales. Barnes and Noble almost never does the "buy two get the third free" etc. type of discounts that Borders has. Plus, you don't have to pay a membership fee to get the Borders card and monthly coupons.

That said, the Borders near my house is a dive. It's small, dirty and not very sitting-friendly. So I prefer to browse at Barnes and Noble, but will then either buy my books on amazon, or from Borders. You can slam me all you want, but price is always an issue for me when it comes to books, considering I rarely read them more than once. JMHO. And don't worry, most often I'm a library gal anyway, so I suppose I've just hijacked this thread. Sorry.

ChaosTitan said:

How do you manage a trip to the grocery store?

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Quickly.

Siddow said:

I buy most of my books through Amazon. I have seating here at home, and ******** while I'm shopping.

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Watch out, DFACS might be reading, and they do NOT have a sense of humor!

Birol said:

If they get rid of the seating, does that mean they're putting up more bookshelves?

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I would hope not only that, but also put more books on them, DIFFERENT books rather than more copies of the current best-sellers - the small selection (relative to online sites) is one big thing I don't like about brick-and-mortar bookstores, especially ones that sell only new books. I loved Oxford Too (not a typo, that was the actual name) bookstore, the "used" annex of the Oxford Book Store in Atlanta. Oxford Too closed circa 1997, and I think the other Oxford(s) later closed also.

I should take a week's vacation in Portland someday, with lots of money and a truck. Not only is Powell's (world's largest used bookstore) there, but I recall that that city has more used bookstores than any other area in the world. It sounds like a bookhead's paradise.