There are only so many people in a given area buying a limited number of books, magazines, or greeting cards. Three shops, all serving that one demographic, was two shops too many.
With Borders stock trading at well under $1.00 per share, it's become obvious that Barnes & Noble won the survival battle.
This doesn't mean that the small independent bookshop around the corner is coming back any time soon. The big box retailers killed off the smallest of their competitors and an extinct species does not return to life.
Neither is the death of Borders good news for B&N. The cost of war is high indeed, and driving a strong adversary into bankruptcy may prove to have been too expensive for B&N's health.
Indeed, their brick and mortar stores may be serving the function that the independents once served: being a showcase for future purchases made on Amazon.com.
The death of Borders is bad news for authors, who will lose yet another venue through which they reach their audience. Amazon's pricing is all well and good for the consumer, but people like to read a bit of a book before laying down a hefty amount of cash that's increasingly hard to come by. One less place to read the flap copy. One less place to read the opening pages, a random section in the middle, the acknowledgment page.
Readers will rely more and more on word of mouth or book reviews to winnow their possible choices down to a financially manageable level. Already publishers are seeking big blockbuster novels from proven authors. Where in there is room for the debut author without a laundry list of awards, fellowships and MFAs? Where will the creative writers go to get published when the cookie-cutter rules of the bean counters guide the industry?
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