[SIGCIS-Members] Borders bankrupt; was computing pioneer

[William McMillan]

With Borders bookstore chain going belly up, the importance of computing in the company's success is being highlighted:

http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/borders-bankruptcy-ann-arbor-books/

...Borders started as a uniquely Ann Arbor company. Brothers Tom and Louis Borders launched the company in 1971 as an 800-square-foot used bookstore called Borders Book Shop on South State Street in the shadow of the University of Michigan.

Fueled by an insatiable appetite for books among readers in Ann Arbor, Borders’ momentum picked up speed when Louis Borders developed innovative software that improved inventory management and sales projection capabilities.

To run the system, the company effectively leased space on an IBM 360 mainframe computer, Raff said in a recent interview.

The system allowed the Borders brothers to maximize profits by ensuring that their store had the most appropriate mix of inventory to meet seasonal demand and local tastes.

“In all of this they were typically 2-3 years ahead of their competitors,” Raff wrote in his research paper about the history of book superstores in the U.S. ...

The study by Raff is at
http://www-management.wharton.upenn.edu/raff/documents/SMJ_Superstores_article.pdf

I used to shop often at the original Borders store.  Their clerks were experts in the subjects they were assigned to.

It's ironic that a bookstore that pioneered things like computer-based inventory control in that industry got webbed, Kindled, and Nooked into near oblivion.

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