Closing the Book?

Big box stores, particularly those that focus on limited product lines, are in trouble these days. Tower Records is gone, CompUSA is closing 128 stores--more than half (though The New York Times's tech blogger, David Pogue, wasn't surprised, calling most of the chain's stores he's been in "been sterile and soulless, and pervaded by a feeling of abandonment"), Circuit City is cutting back, and Tweeter is closing about a third of its stores. Well, it's not just tech stores that are involved. This week Borders announced that it was pulling back, as well. At first they're just closing most of their overseas stores and about half of the Waldenbooks outlets, but that may just be a start. Locally, they're looking to sublet half their Chicago stores (though they're not pulling back at all in the suburbs). The company's CEO stressed that they're looking for their options and just finding out what they can do with the space, so the four Chicago stores aren't necessarily doing anything quickly, but if they can find somebody to take the floorspace, they're not going to waste any time in taking advantage of the out. Borders claims that it's going to put more focus on online sales--they started with an online presence, but a few years back, they jettisoned it in favor of a relationship with Amazon.com. Forbes pointed out today that Barnes & Noble, while doing better than Borders, has problems of its own. Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco have been eating into the book business, and the dedicated bookstores haven't yet come up with a way to compete against discounted best sellers.

We're slowly but surely changing the way we shop. As more and more of our purchases move online, there'll be less and less reason to pay the real estate and maintenance overhead that the big boxes demand.