The Fine Print at Borders Bookstore

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I only occasionally go now to the mega-bookstores.  I buy books second hand at used book sources, I check them out of the library, or I seek them online, but when I receive a coupon via email from the big two (Borders and Barnes and Noble) I carry it with me in case I have time to kill. 

Last Friday night, I had time to kill while I waited for my wife to get off work, so I stopped at Borders to look at the periodicals.  I had a coupon with me that I had printed from email: 25% off.  I choose a quarterly literature journal from the periodical stacks that interested me.  It was printed in Brooklyn and had an edge that many of the other offerings lacked.  $12 was more than I wanted to pay for some contemporary reading (I tend toward the Classics), but I figured that my $8 splurge wouldn’t dent my wallet too much and might show some love to the struggling writers who put this thing together. 

When I presented my book to the woman behind the counter, with my coupon, she feigned confusion and, holding her glasses tight to her eyes, bent over my paper coupon to read it better.  Her finger pointed to the minute clauses: “Ah, yes, you see here, you can’t use this on periodicals, magazines, or throw-aways.  I’m sorry.”

I said, “But this costs more than alot of the books in the store”.  I was annoyed at having Brooklyn Lit called throw-away; I keep all literary periodicals that I buy.   

She went into an explanation of how Borders can’t afford to give discounts on periodicals since the mark-up is so low already and how it might not matter for one purchase but imagine if 500 people used that coupon then Borders would be losing money…

And all I heard was a nice old lady trained to love the corporate entity that employs her because she needs a job and the money or she wouldn’t be here late on a weekend evening, but I had to reject the notion that it would hurt Borders too much to let me buy this journal for 25% off.   I told her that I didn’t want to buy it anymore.  She said, “I know, it’s expensive…”

“It’s not the money”, I told her, but to make her feel better, I said that I would look through it a bit more and then decide.  Five minutes later, I left without the book. 

Borders will lose money on that non-purchase.  I am not the type to complain about a meal, but I rarely return to a restaurant at which I had a bad experience.  Likewise, Borders has left a bad taste in my mouth. I will go back there eventually, but not for a while.  If I need a mega-bookstore fix, I’ll go to Barnes and Noble, maybe.  There are plenty of used bookstores around and it is easy enough to buy books online.