Given the rumors one hears about the state of Borders' financial health, one wonders if it might be time for corporate bookstore chains (which, at their most robust, helped to obliterate independent stores that couldn't/wouldn't offer deep discounts) to alter their "buy the hot new predetermined bestseller" business model.
Perhaps Borders and Barnes & Noble could consider some empathy training for customer-phobic staff members, as well as reinstating more community-friendly programs (including, yes, poetry readings in some stores) without worrying about what effect they may have on the bottom line.
My guess is that the above suggestions will be ignored. And the two once-mighty megachains are almost certainly praying hard that Dan Brown's new pulp thriller will cause customers to stampede into the stores this fall and save them from bankruptcy and/or going-out-of-business sales.
And to think most of this could be avoided if these stores could just manage the task of selling all kinds of books instead of only a few "hot" volumes.
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