Borders is increasing the pace at which it is closing Waldenbooks outlets. It will close another 200 stores in January. After all the closings have happened, there will still be approximately 130 Waldenbooks stores in various malls. Airports stores and mall kiosks will be unaffected.
Borders CEO Ron Marshall said that "through this right-sizing, we will reduce the number of stores with operating losses, reduce our overall rent expense and lease-adjusted leverage and generate cash flow through sales and working capital reductions." The closing will result in the elimination of about 1,500 jobs, the majority of which, Borders said, are part-time positions. A company spokesperson said the stores slated for closing "will be fully stocked for the holidays," but will begin clearance sales in mid-December that will run into January. She had no comment on the total amount of sales generated by the stores targeted for closure.
The company also said it plans to integrate the remaining Walden stores into its superstore computer system to create a single platform. Despite attempts to merge the two operations in the past, Borders and Walden have always operated on separate systems, much to the frustration of publishers. The spokesperson said the company hopes to have the stores moved into superstores' inventory and point of sale system within the first quarter.
Soon there won't be any bookstores in malls at all, except for the odd specialty or antique book store and those are few and far between. You can see a full list of the store closings here (it's a .pdf file).
