Borders at Wheelock Place closed over dispute with landlord

[Watchman]

Borders at Wheelock Place closed over dispute with landlord
By Amanda Feng | Posted: 17 August 2011 2136 hrs

SINGAPORE : Borders said a dispute with its landlord, Wheelock Properties,
has caused its bookstore at Wheelock Place to be closed since Tuesday.
Borders said it was "extremely disappointed" with its landlord of 13 years,
but did not elaborate.
It also reassured the public that the store's closure is not linked in any way
to the shutdown of over 200 Borders stores in Australia and the US when
its parent company filed for bankruptcy protection.
"We would emphasize that The Borders Singapore business is independent
of these businesses and faces its own set of challenges and opportunities,"
it said in a company statement.
"Borders Singapore continues to trade as usual from its Parkway Parade store,
where we have a strong professional relationship with the landlord."

Borders added that it will notify the public of any changes through
notices on its website.
Wheelock Properties declined comment when contacted by MediaCorp
and said the matter is being handled by its lawyers.

 

[red amoeba]

the signs are there.

i begin noticing Borders has began selling household accessories more and more in their Wheelock outlet when their core business is books.

but this place if closed, will leave pleasant memories...used to be a good meeting place for dates and pak tohs...LOL

but Borders...sell only English books, is limiting their customer base - some more with ebooks...even established bookshops have difficulties - not to mention Borders that only sell English (not Chinese, not Jap).

But I do applaud their depth of books available - although personally I prefer Kinokuniya in Taka...

 

[Confuseous]

Just yesterday, they were reported as saying that the store was closed because of some electrical malfunction to the door. My suspicion that this was a lie has been confirmed by the new report. When are managements going to learn to speak with straight tongue.

 

[red amoeba]

Just yesterday, they were reported as saying that the store was closed because of some electrical malfunction to the door. My suspicion that this was a lie has been confirmed by the new report. When are managements going to learn to speak with straight tongue.

they can ...but

can you handle the truth?

LOL

 

[saratogas]

This is serious... Don't pay rent, cut the power to your stores! That's why mechanical gate cannot roll up...

 

[po2wq]

This is serious... Don't pay rent, cut the power to your stores! That's why mechanical gate cannot roll up...

wheelock place woh! ... wat u xpect? ... no pay rent? ... loq ur wheels! (in tis case, door la) ...

 

[Rogue Trader]

the borders model of business doomed to fail lah.. customers are welcome to browse and not buy? why not just hand out cash to passer-bys?

What's more, people are moving to ebooks. brick and mortar books stores are becoming unprofitable.

 

[red amoeba]

this wheelock place is jinxed...

last time Lane Crawford cannot make it.

Now Borders turn.

 

[red amoeba]

the borders model of business doomed to fail lah.. customers are welcome to browse and not buy? why not just hand out cash to passer-bys?

What's more, people are moving to ebooks. brick and mortar books stores are becoming unprofitable.

it is nothing wrong with allowing free browsing. chicken and egg, dun browse, you don't know if it is good. All bookshops allow browsing.

the problem of ebook is faced by all mortar n brick bookshops. Its how one come up with strategies to counter / live with it.

Kinokuniya also sells primarily printed books n they are doing not bad - but becos they sell also , Jap, Chinese and foreign lang books. It increases the customer group esp Japanese. Kino also have book web, u can order books from it. I have personally used the service n its not bad.

Borders dun have an online catalogue neither online purchase system.

In short, they are too narrow in their product offering.

Of course, the issue of high rental kill them as well.

 

[applei]

The 2 things I like about Borders is their membership discounted books as far as 45% off.
And Borders is able to bring in books I spot on amazon.com that they dont have on their shelves.

Then again, I still prefer Kinokuniya, my favorite place.

 

[johnny333]

Don't forget that running a bizness in Spore is very tough, especially selling books. Just look at what's happening to Times & MPH, and now Borders. They've closed many branches & downsized the few that are left.

If you love books, go to KL where MPH, Borders, Kinokuniya & Times. They all have very large stores

Pretty soon the only stores that can make it in Spore will be the NTUC & other food outlets

 

[applei]

Kinokuniya in KL is huge but still comparable or equivalent to the Orchard main branch.
The rest can forget it.

Don't forget that running a bizness in Spore is very tough, especially selling books. Just look at what's happening to Times & MPH, and now Borders. They've closed many branches & downsized the few that are left.

If you love books, go to KL where MPH, Borders, Kinokuniya & Times. They all have very large stores

Pretty soon the only stores that can make it in Spore will be the NTUC & other food outlets

 

[johnny333]

Kinokuniya in KL is huge but still comparable or equivalent to the Orchard main branch.
The rest can forget it.

In terms of size when you put together the size of the different stores like MPH at Mid Valley, Border at Times Berjaya, Kinokuniya at the KLCC, Times at the Pavillion, they all add to a more diverse experience

Don't forget that many of these stores have to cater to Bahasa Melayu, Chinese & English readers in terms of language & interests. So their stores selection may appear to have a smaller selection to someone from Spore, but actually they are physically larger with more books than Kinokuniya(Spore).

 

[annexa]

Kinokuniya has a loyal Japanese customer base. Borders is disadvantaged this way.

 

[red amoeba]

Kinokuniya has a loyal Japanese customer base. Borders is disadvantaged this way.

kino is a japanese bookshop, wherever they are, they cater to the Jap expatriate base there.

all over the world, bookshops are finding it difficult to survive - if international franchises like Borders are finding it difficult, those niche bookshops are facing worse.

hence, those mom and pop bookshops or little holes in the wall shops are gone.

Kino for me is doing well, their flagship store at Taka is always crowded and its a joy to get lost in the wide array of books.

the other one that for me, the Chinese equivalent to Kino is Page One. They stocked quite a lot of Chinese books (more than Kino). However, when I go to Taiwan, I will head for Eslite - thats my church to worship for Chinese books.

 

[johnny333]

all over the world, bookshops are finding it difficult to survive - if international franchises like Borders are finding it difficult, those niche bookshops are facing worse.

hence, those mom and pop bookshops or little holes in the wall shops are gone.

Our habits have also changed. In Spore we don't have much leisure time. If they do have time, probably surfing the social networks, forum, etc Most of us I suspect read "books" for information & not fun.

These more technical books are very costly often costing $100+ in local bookstores. I find Amazon a great place to find these books. Even with the shipping costs the cost of these books there are much cheaper than if you find the same books at a brick & mortar shop.

 

[HedgeTrader]

it is nothing wrong with allowing free browsing. chicken and egg, dun browse, you don't know if it is good. All bookshops allow browsing.

Browsing is alright. But Borders even provides seats like a free library. Some people can finish reading a whole book or magazine comfortably without buying. I like Popular more since it's bilingual and one-stop with stationery and even computer accessories. What happened to MPH? Only in Malaysia and no more in Singapore?

 

[krafty]

sad to hear that, i like to visit and flip magazines when i go there.

 

[red amoeba]

Our habits have also changed. In Spore we don't have much leisure time. If they do have time, probably surfing the social networks, forum, etc Most of us I suspect read "books" for information & not fun.

These more technical books are very costly often costing $100+ in local bookstores. I find Amazon a great place to find these books. Even with the shipping costs the cost of these books there are much cheaper than if you find the same books at a brick & mortar shop.

Maybe recent years this is true. But I recall, a few years back, I used to send books to my friend in US because they are cheaper here. Also, I heard, for US publishers, they treat Singapore as 3rd world country and so, text books are priced cheaper here (compared to US). Another country having this status is India. The English books are much much cheaper in India.

And Chinese books are much much cheaper in China (of course)...even with the higher RMB vs SGD rates. Of course, you cannot find those "interesting" books in China LOL

 

[Captain Singapore]

Borders is a great place to hang out with friends. After browsing, you can go to their cafe conveniently located just outside. But sometimes i prefer to go to Starbucks which is just a short walk away.