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Bankruptcy, Bookstores and Buggy Whips

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

I always liked bookstores and libraries, particularly when I could hide in libraries in grade school.

And I never knew much about buggy whips, because they were more or less obsolete when I was growing up. So I never drove past a Buggy Whip Factory.

But if the projections I've been reading are correct, brick and mortar bookstores are in for some real trouble in the next few years; some projections say that about three-quarters of all books published are going to be published for e-books, and that will have a heck of an impact on both bookstores and their bottom lines. And books may be as plentiful as buggy whips in the near future.

I have friends who said they'd never give up their omnipresent paperbacks who switched to Kindle, and have never looked back; and I think those fairly early adopters are the wave of the future.

It's possible that Borders will benefit from its upcoming extensively rumored Chapter 11; if it can cut overhead to the bone, with a plan for the next five years rather than the next five weeks, it may be one of few bookstores standing on the other side of the Great Book Obsolescence. And with five hundred million in debt or thereabouts, and a lot of resources and financing lined up ahead of time, a Chapter 11 should be a useful tool for Borders.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on February 13, 2011 (boomark / email).