In a down economy, it’s easy to understand the socialist impulse. After all, if businesses are failing everywhere, and “The Government” has “All That Money,” why, it seems almost a no-brainer to use that money to “keep everything going.” At least until things “get back to normal.”
What is normal? Stasis? Should the government have intervened to protect the buggy whip industry? Why? To “preserve jobs”?
Such thoughts have been on my mind because Ann Arbor (considered by many to be Michigan’s most affluent city) is home to yet another failing business — the great Borders bookstore chain. Aside from the loss of Borders and the loss of jobs, this means more large vacant storefronts in Ann Arbor.
More local links:
Sarah is very worried about short term and long term implications, and I don’t blame her. Since I have moved to Ann Arbor (and I have only been here two years), I have witnessed a mind-boggling pattern of downsizing, closures, layoffs, and more and more vacancies. The great Pfizer plant closed not long before I moved here, and then the facility in St. Louis where the Ann Arbor employees had relocated closed. The Hollywood Video chain closed (that’s two more stores), a longtime nearby supermarket closed, a huge sporting goods store closed, the Circuit City closed — and two years later the latter is still vacant at one of Ann Arbor’s largest shopping centers, which is now to lose Borders! Giant vacant storefronts have simply become part of life. Former shopping centers now look like the modern equivalent of ghost towns. Here’s the “Georgetown Mall“:
And remember, Ann Arbor is an affluent place.
As to banks, some close and others close and then reopen under new names, and it all happens so quickly that I can’t keep track of where they are or what their names are.
Well, at least Ann Arbor is not raiding the marijuana clinics that have been springing up. Too bad the 174-acre, 2-million square-foot Pfizer plant couldn’t have been transformed into a giant manufacturing center of legalized drugs. Imagine the jobs and revenue that would have brought! (An added plus would be the loss of criminal opportunities. Maybe even the failure of the Mexican drug cartels at the other “Borders” in the news lately!) Instead, the University of Michigan took over the site, as it has been acquiring a number of properties. So many that it has now become a commercial landlord. In a way it’s good, but long term it means a loss of property tax revenue as the University is tax exempt.
So I understand the temptation to have the government “do something.” What I can’t figure out is why the auto industry is so much more worthy of a bailout than the book industry.
If I were more of a leftist, I’d be screaming about discrimination.
Comments
3 responses to “Defending Borders is a natural impulse”
Eric, it’s the “until things return to normal” that makes me shudder. “Normal” for Borders is, at best, mismanagement. The innovation and atmosphere that made Borders didn’t come from K-Mart or later managers. It came from the Borders brothers. Plain and simple, the forward-thinking they were so great at was sadly lacking after the sale.
Don’t get me wrong, I truly hope Borders finds a way to survive. But not at the cost of increasing government debt, nor in a manner that lets them continue doing “business as usual”.
Borders hasn’t posted a profit in years. They completely failed to get a viable on-line presence in a timely manner. Remember when you used to go to their site to order a book and you’d be re-directed to Amazon? They missed the jump into e-books. Those factors, as well as over-expansion and going to regional and national ordering combined with mismanagement all, imo, had more to do with their current situation than the economy.
As for a government bail-out…no. It’s time our government start trying to balance its own budget instead of taking on yet more debt trying to rescue companies that have yet to show they have learned how to correct past mistakes.
Thanks for the link!
Books aren’t the problem, it’s Borders. Amazon is doing fine.
I used to shop at a Borders, until I went in looking for the movie Pink Flamingos.
I couldn’t find it and when I asked, the guy got all snooty and snottily informed me that they didn’t sell such movies. I was obviously a disgusting person who shouldn’t be allowed out in public. (Hard to argue with, but I don’t need some snotty, soul-patch-tool working at a book store to tell me that)
Fine, Amazon has it and that’s where I get almost all of my books today.
Borders was also a place where you could go, peruse books and have a latte. It’s more of a gathering place than a bookstore.