A price comparison on Dealnews.com warns AGAINST shopping the Borders liquidation sale, which I yammered about last week. Prices at Borders, even with items up to 40% off, are apparently crappy. Here’s the proof:
Before liquidation began, we visited the Borders store in the Time Warner Center in New York and noted the price of several books and select movies. Then, we returned on Saturday to note the post – “everything must go” prices “” and discovered that 19 out of 25 items were cheaper last week, while five were merely consistent. And, not surprisingly, almost none were actually price lows once we compared online.
So basically Borders raised prices (chart below)
on many items in anticipation of the liquidation sale. This is proof that many shoppers (certainly not you) are so distracted by big discounts that they forget to look at the price! And businesses are happy to take advantage. For the books Dealnews compared, buying online was cheaper. But your public library is still cheaper!!!
Did you get caught up in the Borders liquidation sale? Did you find any deals you know are hot?
First Week Price = prices days before liquidation sale
Second Week Price = prices during liquidation sale
Dealnews.com
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
The only things that were 40% off were magazines and blue ray dvd’s. Books were 10% off. Big deal! I had $15 in Border rewards (from erewards), so I bought a book. When book prices drop to 40% off, I’ll go back and see if there is anything I want to buy.
@Laurie Glad you used your remaining Borders Rewards. Those won’t be accepted after July 31, 2011 (Sunday).
@Kathleen and @Lori Goldstein Your observations back up my claim about businesses raising prices during liquidation sales because consumers turn off their guard.
@Tami I wonder if a liquidation company, which are known for raising prices, came into run the sale. Not saying Borders is off the hook, just curious.
I’m always amazed how some people are taken in by a “liquidation” sale. I too was at Borders to check out their sale prices. It looked like the locust had been through even though the average discount was 10%. It can be so easy to get caught up in a feeding frenzy if you don’t know what comparable stores’ prices are.
As the other Laurie said, nothing really was in the 40% off range except Magazines, some stationery items and the blue ray DVDs. With the exception of the Romance paperbacks (30%) all other books were I believe only discounted at 10%, And I too was surprised like Kathleen that even though it WAS labeled “liquidation sale” the store was a mess and you’d have thought items were 60% or more off. I will wait until the stores last days before returning to actually buy. However I might return to make a list of books that are available through my local public library.
We walked through Borders at our mall last weekend and found the same results. My 13 yr. old pointed out the higher prices before I had a chance to say anything. I’m proud of him for paying attention to things like that. I’m so disgusted with Borders for raising their prices like that. The store was not a friendly shopping experience any longer – the bathrooms were closed and all of their computers were “down” so the sales people couldn’t/wouldn’t answer any questions, including whether or not they even had certain books in stock. I was looking for a best selling book and couldn’t find it so I asked if they had a display of it somewhere in the store since it wasn’t with the rest of the author’s books. The employee wouldn’t even stop walking long enough to answer me.
I agree, people seem to lose their minds when they see a “sale”, when in reality, that’s when they need to be on their toes to make sure its a real deal.
Thanks for posting about this and including the proof of the prices. Hopefully everyone will make note of it.
While I agree that raising the prices in anticipation of of the liquidation sale is tacky at best, I do want to point out that the highly discounted prices at Walmart and Amazon are part of the reason bookstores are going out of business and this affects both the large bookstores like Borders and the small independents. Personally, I would never buy a book at Walmart and prefer not to use Amazon in order to support the brick and mortar stores that provide stellar customer service.
I went to their store closing in Tucson in the spring and discovered the same thing. They don’t really understand sale prices, though I’ve already enjoyed shopping at Borders. Sadly their employees will suffer the most as now they have no jobs.
Is it any wonder they are going out of business? Trying to recoup, that’s all I’m sayin’!
I did buy a couple of art books that I wanted because they’ve been hard to find and there they were! I’ll go back just before my PLUS membership (that I won) is no longer being accepted. It gives me an extra 10% off. There were people looking in our store, but no one was buying much.
I just upgraded to the Borders Plus last month…i know they are honoring the borders bucks but does anyone know about the coupon in the booklet for a free book?? Can i still use that?
@Jenni I would call customer service asap and get down to one of the liquidation stores. If an employee can’t or won’t help you, ask for a manager. Make sure you get your money’s worth. Be polite, but firm. Good luck!
@Jenni, they are honoring the Borders Plus stuff, not the regular Borders membership. But I would use it as soon as possible anyway, since the good stuff is going to go quickly.
To my end, there were some great deals on magazines – and in the crafting world, magazines tend to be as good as books, so I picked up 2 $13 European knitting magazines and 2 $8 US knitting magzines for $20 – less than the cost of 2 of the expensive ones!
But the other stuff…I remember the last Borders closing. Their movies are insanely expensive to begin with, and the books are only 10% off. I wasn’t entirely sure why people were going so nuts. Their prices were terrible before liquidation, and now they’re going to continue to be terrible.
Aside from a gluten-free book I needed to pick up ASAP (just diagnosed) I didn’t bother with anything but the magazines.
Most liquidation sales are like this. Many have an outside company that takes over the pricing and stuff like that. Circuit City was the same way when they closed, items that were permanently marked down were marked back to regular price and then discounted a smaller amount. Furniture Stores do the same thing. Since I don’t pay full price for anything, I generally won’t go into these stores until the end of the liquidation. Last week I wouldn’t buy anything at Borders unless I had a 30-40% off coupon, so why would I fight the hoards of people to get 10% off this week. Drove through the parking lot today and kept going.
Does anyone know about their GC’s. I have $20 and should buy something but our store closed which means paying shipping and prices that are higher but maybe better than nothing. Does anyone know if the 31st is the last day for that too?
The deal at my local Borders this week is greeting cards. I buy cards for everyone’s birthday, so 40% off printed prices on the back of the cards was worthwhile.
Glad to see I am not the only puzzled why people were like a swarm of locust for a 10% discount. I love Borders and have been a plus member. I kept thinking where were all you people when Border’s had all of the 20% of everything special shopping days or why didn’t you come in every week to use the 30-50% off coupons. I swear most of these people never set foot in a bookstore unless it is going out of business. I did buy quite a few 40% Knitting magazine, but I couldn’t believe the people loaded down with books for discount that basicly just covered the sales tax.
I checked Walmart first. David Cook’s This Loud Morning and Jennifer Hudson’s I Remember Me both sold at 11.88 in the store. Borders had Hudson at 14.99 and that doesn’t include the 20%. I then noticed a copy of David Cook’s 2nd CD originally at 13.99 labeled at 11.99 and, thanks to management override, still got 20% off. That CD cost me only 9.59 which means I save 31.5% overall. Nice deal if you can get it.
When they were closing individual stores earlier in the year/last year, I occasionally stopped to see prices. But I used my phone to compare them to amazon and it was no contest. It’s really no surprise that they are going out when their prices are so much higher! Some of the stationary is a good price though.
The property,books and display material ( in other words, everything), is no longer owned by Borders. It belongs to the liquidation company, Hilco & Gordon Brothers.It is their job to squeeze as much out of customers, willing to go along for the ride, as they can. In my area, Borders is (was) the only bookstore, and at that is 50 mile round trip. To go in to the next bigger town is another 50 mile (one way) further. It has greatly saddened everyone here. There is nothing else in the brick and mortar sales around here.No liquidator is going to start out with high discounts on the first few days, that’s busuiness folks. As the remaing stock (the dregs), the less desirable stock becomes all that is left, well THEN you get your bargains. How can you complain about that? It’s business folks. Much as I don’t like it and neither do you.