Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:49:14 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <mjw at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Borders: What Went Wrong
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

re: the Borders loyalty card... from PW Daily for today reporting on the =
news from the bankruptcy court:

"Borders Rewards Plus program, a customer loyalty program that has 42 =
million members, 12 million of which were enrolled in the last two years;"

<http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/arti=
cle/46182-publishers-want-to-hear-more-from-borders.html>

mjw
top posting from Boston

>>> "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net> 02/16/11 9:00 PM >>>
"Michael Walsh" <mjw at press.jhu.edu> wrote:
> First article is fairly straight forward reporting, the second is
> more of = "editorial":
> http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=1390

I think the two main things were:

* Their loud vocal "background" music, which makes browsing all
  but impossible.  I've suggested to both Borders and Barnes & Noble
  that they have -- and advertise -- one music-free day per week,
  and predicted they'd sell a lot more books that day.

* Their loyalty card, which effectively charges people more for
  declining to have their purchases tracked.  Books, even more than
  groceries, can be suspicious.  And who's to say the government
  won't go on fishing expeditions through their database, to decide,
  if not who to investigate for a crime, then at least who to put on
  the no-fly list and the likely upcoming no-work list, neither of
  which require a trial or any hard evidence.  Since Barnes & Noble
  has a similar card, Borders could have really cleaned up by
  abolishing theirs instead of playing me-too.