Arbors Without Borders
You know your doom and gloom prediction is bad when the only bright spot is Ann Arbor. After the oil runs out and we’re forced to abandon our Wal-Marts and Home Depots, the Peak Oil News blog says, “Borders Books, long since driven out of the big-box economy because of its insistence on carrying liberal and progressive titles, will have been reduced to its original store in Ann Arbor, which will remain one of the few old style college towns in the country.” Don’t they realize that the demolition of the Frieze Building makes this scenario impossible by obliterating our memories and link to the past?
Does this mean that Borders will have to move back to its original location across the street from its present location?
posted by personality on February 21st, 2005 at 11:19 amFor selfish reasons, I would love it if its corporate HQ moved back downtown.
posted by Dave on February 21st, 2005 at 11:25 amThey were in Tally Hall for a while. Is anything in there now? Does anybody know?
posted by OFW insurgent on February 21st, 2005 at 3:08 pmUnless they get rid of the CD’s and what not, I don’t think they will move back to their original location. Even without the music store they were bursting at the seems.
And the guy seems to complain about big box stores, but isn’t that sort of what Borders became? I remember reading an article a couple months ago about some bookstores that had to close because either a Barnes and Nobles or Borders opened up near them.
Or is Borders somehow noble and pure because it’s still in Ann Arbor?
posted by Kozzie on February 21st, 2005 at 4:57 pmWould that mean *I’m* noble and pure because I’m still in Ann Arbor?
posted by Alex(andra) on February 21st, 2005 at 5:28 pmI don’t think that Borders was ever in Tally Hall (or Liberty Square). It was on State, then moved to the old Jacobson’s.
posted by js on February 21st, 2005 at 6:31 pmIs this a post-apocalyptic vision, in which we’ll be burning Charles Baxter books to keep warm?
Offices and training facilities were in Tally Hall for a while–not the retail outlet. Something is still in there, but no signage that I’ve ever been able to find.
posted by Anonymous on February 21st, 2005 at 7:23 pmBy the way, this was a pitiful reach for a Frieze reference. Does AAIO miss all the attention those posts generated?
What I meant to say is that the author of the blog (the one being quoted not this one) mentions Borders as if it weren’t one of the “evil” big box stores. However it is one of those big box stores, but does it somehow get a free pass because it’s based in Ann Arbor.
posted by Kozzie on February 21st, 2005 at 7:42 pmCome on, if I really wanted attention, I’d say that GEO was striking to make Michigan hookups part of the GSI benefits package.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on February 21st, 2005 at 11:46 pmBorders was first in half of the current Shaman Drum, then it was nextdoor in what is now that insipid UM gear store, then it expanded to the upper floor of that place, then it moved to Jacobson’s at the City’s request.
posted by Anna on February 22nd, 2005 at 10:04 amMy first experience with it was when it was on State Street and two floors. They definately needed to move to a bigger store because they were bursting at the seams on State Street. In moving there, they added the Music, Movies (and computer stuff at the time), so there is no going back.
But the big box version I was referring to is the Borders that you see outside of Ann Arbor. And to smaller bookstores, those are about a tyrannical as Wal Mart…
posted by Kozzie on February 22nd, 2005 at 11:32 amAs I recall, before the move to Jacobson’s, Border’s annexed a year-round Christmas shop that was the second floor of a Hallmark shop. (Is that shop still there?)
posted by A Different Jon on February 22nd, 2005 at 6:03 pmAAiO: what, it’s not? Huh. You must just have the wrong students.
posted by Murph on February 22nd, 2005 at 11:17 pmWhat a laugh. More than a dozen postings,
no more than one or two tops from anyone
who ever shopped in the first Borders location.
In The Gutenberg Elegies, you can see what
Sven Birkerts wrote about his experience
of working at the second location, on the East
side of State Street,before he left Ann Arbor
in 1975. The first location had been
on the West side of the street, also
in the first block north of N.U. A mutual
friend who worked at the first location,
Jim Kingsbury,
took advantage of the Borders brothers’ offer
to sell inventory ultra cheap to employees ,
before the store moved across the street.
The brothers wanted to reduce the load
posted by Anonymous on March 8th, 2005 at 7:35 pmof books that would need to be moved. As an
incentive, they allowed employees to take
the books home on credit: then, their weekly
paychecks would be reduced by a percentage
of their credit debt, for a period of several months. But the effect Jim was looking
for, and got, was that as long as he had
a debt on the books, he was a lot less likely
to get fired…