Borders is filing for bankruptcy protection and closing 1/3 of their stores.
This post is near and dear to me because I used to work for the Reader's Market/Waldenbooks/Borders chain many, many years ago.
The funny thing is, I saw this coming many years ago and knew that Borders would stick their head in the sand.
Inc. Magazine has a great piece on why Borders is tone-deaf.
Summarized, it comes down to six reasons:
- No future strategy.
- No real use of customer data.
- Antiquated operations and supply chain.
- Carrying the wrong products.
- In-store experience is bad.
- Management churn.
Just one can kill a business. Borders had all six. Well . . . that's the marketplace!
Did you see this coming? What is happening in your business?