Things I Didn't Buy at Borders

[julieandrews]

I like shopping at Borders. Usually there's a decent coupon, or a manga special, or money in my Rewards account, or sometimes a gift card I earned for surveys or shopping from various websites. So, cheap books, sometimes essentially free books. And instant gratification.

Recently, however, there are a number of things I could not buy at Borders, forcing me to look at Bookcloseouts, Amazon, or even further afield.

- Content by Cory Doctorow. This didn't just come out, but within the last several months. Did Borders have it in the store? Not according to their computer. Which I had to trust, because I wasn't quite sure where to look for it and didn't have the time to search.

- Sharing Knife #2: whose title escapes me by Lois McMaster Bujold. Twice I was in Borders and it wasn't there. Then it turned up on Bookcloseouts in paperback, so I went for it. Of course then Borders had it in yesterday, after it was already on its way to me. Thanks.

- XxxHolic Volume 8 by CLAMP. Every single time I was in there... yea, they've got 7 and they've got 9 and a whole bunch of others. But do they have volume 8? No. At least three times, the answer was.. no. I gave in and got that one at Amazon. It had been frustrating me too long.

- Realms of Fantasy, the final issue. Did Borders have it? No. Did they just not have it yet? I don't know. Did they have it and sell out already? I don't know. All the guy could tell me was that it had arrived. But what issue had arrived? He didn't know. He said something about the magazine publishers just send them boxes of magazines and they put them on the shelf.

Borders has wonderful inventory control, doesn't it?

What did I successfully get at Borders yesterday? F&SF, Sharing Knife #3, and a random Torchwood so I made sure I could use a coupon and spend my 15$ in rewards. So I guess maybe Borders succeeded in some fashion.. I bought a book that wasn't on my list...

Hrm, Borders Express in the mall isn't terribly likely to have Realms, though it might. And I should check B&N. But if those avenues fail, where to try next?

ETA: I just made some phone calls. Borders still doesn't have it on the shelf, not that I gave them very long.. less than 24 hours. Borders Express doesn't carry it and B&N doesn't either! I need a local sf/f bookstore. Anyone want to open one with me? :)

Comments

[chiieddy.livejournal.com]

Look at their online site at http://www.borders.com and see if they have it in store inventory before going. If not, request they order it and pick it up at your convenience. No charge.

[julieandrews.livejournal.com]

That doesn't work for magazines.

[chiieddy.livejournal.com]

It would for the first three items you mentioned, however.

[julieandrews.livejournal.com]

Yea, but I already bought two of the three. If I'm going to the trouble of ordering it, I might as well order from somewhere that'll ship to my door for free. Rather than have to go pick it up.

[tomomi.livejournal.com]

Their inventory has been broken since they "upgraded" the site. They claimed since the first of January to have Sharing Knife #3 in stock at the store but yesterday (2 MONTHS later) was the very first time it was actually there. This is not the only book that's had the same problem. I've given up trying to reserve stuff because of it.

[astrobolism.livejournal.com]

I've worked at a few bookstores and with magazines what you described is totally par. They usually come from a handful of different distributors, which are never reliable, and they can never be tracked at well as books because orders are placed months months in advance. (That's why they usually can't be special ordered either--by the time an issue is out the distributor is already worrying about five issues down the line.)