Borders in Blachardstown S.C closing down

ongarite

Spotted this in the Bargain Alerts forum.

Borders in WestEnd retail part in Blanchardstown S.C is closing down & is having a shop clearance with 50% off most stock (books, cds, dvds)

I've have heard rumours of it closing down last year but its really happening this time. That will make one less Starbucks also.

Quite a few empties popping up in the centre now.

Enii

This will be a big loss to Westend.

athtrasna

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! It's my favourite shop in the entire centre!!

Pineapple stu

Just because they have a sale on it doesnt mean they are closing. Its my favourite shop also and seems a busy place with a good range.

ongarite

Its no sale, they are closing 10th August.

athtrasna

Is business that bad?

Gaspode

It is a nice shop, but I've always found them overpriced compared to other book shops.
Cant say I'll miss it tbh, but I'm probably the only one in my family who feels that way, the rest of them really like the place.

athtrasna

Feel a bit better about it now, it's a Borders issue rather than a Blanch issue, closing 4 stores in the UK too including the London flagship store. Feel sorry for the staff!

oblivious

The starbucks in their was also one of good place where breastfeed mothers could go in peace or so I am told

RorTHorN

bit of a shame this.
Have to check it out now and stock up on books for my hols

Suzannem

it is my fav shop at the centre too!! :eek: I can easily spend over an hour there. hmm maybe i will make a trip over today.

Dionysus

Just got this (http://www.bordersmail.com/emails/web/214/183/183/2/8/810396/9ec12992e14a1ff2b3b3cf8e407994c9/) in my regular email from Borders in Blanchardstown. They are closing down and moving out of Ireland where, according to this (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055007352) Boards.ie post, they opened in October 2006.

How many more large chains will go if one of the biggest bookstores in the world is pulling out of Ireland so quickly.

Smart Bug

Well, that's a turn-up for the books.

SuperDude87

One of the more decent bookshops I've ever been in back home, sad but people mustn't be reading anymore!!

All joking aside I never found their prices a problem and they was always a good crowd in it. Shame!

Jip

Dionysus wrote: »

They are closing down and moving out of Ireland where, according to this (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055007352) Boards.ie post, they opened in October 2006.

How many more large chains will go if one of the biggest bookstores in the world is pulling out of Ireland so quickly.

It has nothing to do with Ireland, they're also closing several UK stores.

athtrasna

Tried to get in this evening and it was like there was a food delivery during a famine!! The crowds were huge, no room to move around, the queues were MILES long and the car parks stuffed. Was just out of the dentist and in bad form so didn't hang around.

The Paperchase stuff isn't in the sale BTW...photo albums etc which are some of my favourite things there. Most cards not in the sale either.

glossy

was standing in the queue for over an hour, well worth for the bargins though...

athtrasna

Door locked at 7 tonight despite being open til 8 according to them on the phone and staff posting on the bargain thread

Zaph

It was crazy up there, I queued for 55 minutes, they really had no option but to close the doors. I knew the queue was long when I joined it, but had I realised how slow moving it was I wouldn't have bothered. Still, saved a decent few quid.

While their prices were a bit high, it was the only decent sized bookshop between here and town, so it'll definitely be a loss.

Sundew

God I'm disgusted about them closing. I didn't hear a peep (except for a tiny piece in yesterday's Indo which didn't confirm anything) about it till we went over for a browse tonight. I was wondering why people were streaming out of the place with Borders paper bags tonight. We arrived over and they wouldn't let us in
It really was a great bookstore and the opening times were late which suited me. Spent many an evening over there and we always supported them. Had some really interesting books that even Hoggis Figgis didn't carry. I am really sad!!!! :(:(:(

Suzannem

yeah, such a pity. I will have to take a visit tommorrow then.

As far as i know it is the only borders bookstore in Ireland.

there is always a good enough amount of people there, it is the only place i buy books.


It looks like Books Unlimted is having a bad time with this recession too, selling half of its space of the shop and it was empty over the christmas time.

Sundew

I'm bloody raging cause I got an email from Borders the other day and never read it ,just deleted it as I was doing a clearout
There really isn't any decent bookstores left in Blanch after that so it's back to supporting Hoggis figgis. The hubbby only spent €27 on an engineering book on Sunday :eek: he should have waited!! Will pop over in the morning and hopefully I will get in !

Rosita

I am very disappointed to see this shop close. I must have spent about a thousand euro on books there since it opened, and some more in its Oxford Street store, and it was a lovely place to while away some time.

I will hardly go through the hassle of the queues to buy books which I would not have been prepared to pay full price for in the first place since I have so many that I have never got around to reading yet. But it must be sadly ironic for the staff to see the queues out the door at this stage when a fraction of that custom consistently might have kept the place open.

Borders did have weaknesses for the serious book person, for example their selection of Irish-relevant stuff was not great and they often appeared to have stock direct from Britain, but as a regular - at least three times a week -I will miss it.

I suppose it's a reality now that in the same way that the big bookshops killed off the little second-hand guys, the internet is slowly killing off all the bookshops. It is another realiity that there also seemed to be a book-buying 'bubble' in the last number of years with even the most mediocre of books starting in hardback and then issuing in paperback which suggested an unsustainable level of purchasing. And when you see newspaper columnists putting their already published and read columns into book format it's a bit like the old yarn about Joe Kennedy and the shoeshine boy - a sure sign that things are gone nuts.

LookingFor

I've expressed my feelings more comprehensively in the bargain alert thread, but it's a terrible shame.

Apparently 'new look', a next clone, is moving in to the 5 stores borders is closing. Just what blanchardstown needs, another bloody clothes store :rolleyes:

I wonder if there's any chance of them keeping the starbucks or if they'll just gut the whole place and have two levels of clothes.

daymobrew

athtrasna wrote: »

Door locked at 7 tonight despite being open til 8 according to them on the phone and staff posting on the bargain thread

A note in the window says that they will close the doors at 7pm on weekdays and 6pm on weekends. The tills will close at 9pm on weekdays and 8pm on weekends, at which point all customers will have to leave the store.

The queue at 11:15am today was HUGE. It was easily over 100 people - and, Zaph's 55min wait, is not surprising.
It might be a good idea to browse at your leisure and then come back bang on 9am to buy the books.

Rosser

It's a real shame about Borders a great store with great staff, Westend won't have much attraction for me from here on.

Might be like trying to push a stone up a hill but there's a petition being organised to try to save the store, it's worth giving it a go and if everyone who posts signed you never know what might happen...details below:

http://saveborders.blogspot.com/

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/saveborders/#signpetition

Sir Humphrey

It is quite an extraordinary lesson in human nature to hear of people queueing for ages merely because they get €15 or €25 books for half-price. I bet if the shop had been selling the books at the lower price all along the majority of these people would not have noticed or cared!

But now there's a mad rush to buy books they don't really want (if they did want them they'd have paid full price) and probably won't read, simply because the price is reduced! All the more extraordinary when the same books could be picked up on the net or second-hand for a song in a few months time.

There's nowt so queer as folk.

Pineapple stu

I know they announced a while back that they were closing up but said that the Dublin stores wasnt effected. I wonder that if the recent rent hikes had anything to do with it. Some rates were trebled so its no wonder that shops were closing down.

LookingFor

Sir Humphrey wrote: »

It is quite an extraordinary lesson in human nature to hear of people queueing for ages merely because they get €15 or €25 books for half-price. I bet if the shop had been selling the books at the lower price all along the majority of these people would not have noticed or cared!

But now there's a mad rush to buy books they don't really want (if they did want them they'd have paid full price) and probably won't read, simply because the price is reduced! All the more extraordinary when the same books could be picked up on the net or second-hand for a song in a few months time.

There's nowt so queer as folk.

In fairness I think a lot of this initial interest is/was in school books. 50% off the cost of your kids' books for the year would be a big deal for a lot of people. I'm hoping things will calm down now they're gone (I think they're all gone anyway).

But yeah, I do think in general big sales make people go a bit crazy Especially when there's a blanket price cut on everything in a store.

T-Maxx

Sir Humphrey wrote: »

It is quite an extraordinary lesson in human nature to hear of people queueing for ages merely because they get €15 or €25 books for half-price. I bet if the shop had been selling the books at the lower price all along the majority of these people would not have noticed or cared!

But now there's a mad rush to buy books they don't really want (if they did want them they'd have paid full price) and probably won't read, simply because the price is reduced! All the more extraordinary when the same books could be picked up on the net or second-hand for a song in a few months time.

There's nowt so queer as folk.

+1

Also, if all of these avid readers bought these books at full price, maybe the shop would not have had to close down.

Zaph

Well the books I bought I would have bought almost all of anyway over the coming months, but probably not at Borders because, as I mentioned earlier, their prices were always a little high.