I have been reading reports of Borders financial woes. I was disappointed when they sold the store right by us in Florida. Now that we are in Maryland, we have a Borders near us once more. We usually go once a week to see what new came out and if any specials.I end up heading straight for the Manga/Graphic Novel section, my son runs towards the kids books and my wife ends up around the Fantasy/Romance books. This it is the only store near us that sells currently released stuff. There are other stores, but usually only old stuff :(
Why should the closure bother us, well. here are some numbers that came as a shock to me. Several years ago, it seems that Borders held 40% of the Manga book market. Now however, it has dwindled to just about a little over 20% of the market.This is still a large number considering things for a single outlet. As for their overall book stats, they have an 8% share, so you can see that this is a big deal if they were to close down. It has even caused the Manga Distrubuters to wonder what will happen as well - who will pick up the lost slack?
I guess with everyone going to Amazon (affiliate myself) to order stuff, this could be one of those things that hurt their sales. I would rather review the series in person and enjoy that wonderful paperback smell before I buy.Because of this, we do belong to their Border Rewards program and even pay $20 year for the Rewards Plus plan version. With the amount of books we get, the additonal 10% off all purchases really has paid for itself. The discount coupons are a great way to save additional money as they are usually 25 - 40% off an item.
In fact, this past weekend I picked up Side Story: Dive in the Vampire Bund and Tegami Bachi, Letter Bee v5. My son actually picked up Blue Exorcist which he read part of in Shonen Jump.
The real ugly truth about all this is that some of the Distrubitors have pith their shipments on hold. Since they filed for Bankruptcy protections and have not paid their bills in a couple months, you can understand why. Add in the ever so declining sales of Manga the last 3 years, this does not bode well.
I have not even touched on the Manga available online for free, but that is a whole different issue upon itself.
Do you have a local bookstore that you get your Manga from or do you purchase mostly off the internet sites?
Source: ANN | ICV2
UPDATE: If they can't find a buyer for the company in the coming weeks, it could be the end for them. They did get some bites from Barnes and Noble, but they just waned the data, website and 10 stores :P
Unfortunately I live in a remote location with the closest manga store being a good 1 hour drive. Luckily I do have a retailer Archonia that ships new releases and lets me pick those at their warehouse which is about 20 minutes worth of driving by car. I do have to agree that manga sales have been slightly declining, but that is a phenomenon that happends to everything unfortunately. I have some good titles thar have been canceled in the past =(
ReplyDeleteHad fun reading the blog post, peace.
@Anonymous ~ I guess it is the same for most things that have a waning period from time to time - thanks for dropping buy
ReplyDeleteI actually just picked up Tegami Bachi myself and I'm quite interested in Blue Exorcist. I buy all my manga from either Amazon or eBay, for the longest time I thought most manga fans purchased their volumes from Amazon. But all of the articles going up about Borders forced me to realize that they were the #1 source of manga.
ReplyDeleteWe have Borders in Singapore but I do go there for manga. Getting to comic shop is pretty convenient in my country and one nearest to my unit is just within 10 minutes walk.
ReplyDelete@lovelyduckie ~ I was shocked as well by the percentage of manga they sell
ReplyDelete@Dennis aka Katsuden ~ I would have to say that buying from your local comic shop is better - support your local merchants