They filed for bankruptcy and closed 30% of their stores (and are considering closing another 10%), yes. According to wikipedia, they also haven't made a profit since 2006. Perhaps I was in error saying that they were completely gone, but unless they can pull a rabbit out of their hat, the remaining 60-70 percent of stores won't be around for long. They sell books, music and movies. Physical copies of all of those things are rapidly declining. Borders will have to figure out a relatively radical new business model and convince the public to (quickly) accept it.

Maybe they'll stay afloat, but their presence has undoubtedly been hugely diminished. I think it's fair to call them a casualty of the digital age, even if they aren't yet a total loss.



Yeah, my "insight" (if you can call it that ) was/is the print-on-demand thing. Most books currently have a mass printing to take advantage of economies of scale, and inventory is distributed to the various booksellers. I was/am saying that, as ebooks take over the market, that model won't work anymore. Instead, I think printing companies will optimize themselves to print individual copies (or very small runs, anyway) on a case by case basis. You order a physical book from Amazon, they notify their printer, their printer fires up the press, churns out a copy, and ships it straight to you.