Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: Borders

Keep Good Luck on the down-low…

I forgot about the old saying that I just made up: Don’t speak too loudly of your good luck when bad luck might be listening.

The other day I mentioned how I was driving and heard a whining sound in the Grand Am that I recognized as the electric fuel pump. It only makes the noise when it is trying to pump gasoline and there is only air. It means, you’ll be walking in a matter of minutes.

I bragged about my great fortune and how I squeezed enough mileage out of the remaining air and fuel mix to make it to a gas station pump nozzle, whereupon the car died on the spot. Oh, how I bragged.

Bad luck was listening in.

Sunday, I was checking out the last vestiges of the South Tulsa Borders bookstore, and heard the whining sound in the parking lot. Truth to tell, I couldn’t concentrate much on the books and fixtures that were being closed out. I kept thinking about how little fuel was in the car’s gas tank.

I asked the clerk where the nearest QuikTrip was located, and he assured me they were easily found in any direction. Unfortunately, I didn’t even make it to the street. The dratted electrical gas gauge indicated a half-tank remained, but honestly, it said completely empty about ten minutes earlier. I never know what to believe.

Bad luck had been listening.

I trudged to QuikTrip. A little over a mile, uphill – no kidding. You know how Yale is in that area. When I finally dragged myself into the store’s air conditioned interior and asked about a gas can, I discovered I had walked in the wrong direction. This QT was completely out of gas cans. You never know when a run on those things will happen.

By this time, I was hobbling on my bad knee. Telephone calls were made, gas cans were transported. The gasoline was for a two-stroke lawnmower engine, and it didn’t work. Another trip – by car – the gas can, and another gallon of clean, fresh, expensive gasoline, and the Grand Am was on its way again. Air conditioning and all.

I consider the fact the air was working to be a stroke of good luck. But I’m not saying it too loudly.

It’s Official: Tulsa to lose a Borders

Cutting a third of their locations, Borders officials will have a tough time sparing cities and book lovers used to browsing the stacks.

The list of closings, on the heels of the Borders bankruptcy filing, was released Wednesday afternoon and includes two Oklahoma stores. The Tulsa location at 81st and Yale will be shuttered, along with an Oklahoma City location on Northwest Expressway.

The Tulsa store #264, occupies some 25,000 square feet in a free-standing building just northeast of the intersection. Officials have said that closings will begin as early as Saturday.

Books: When the Next Chapter is 11.

Just like a poorly written mystery, the plotline was obvious. The papers have been filed for Borders, the US’s number two bookseller.

Borders Books

Embattled Borders: Filing Complete

The ranking isn’t exactly accurate. Borders is the second largest ‘traditional’ bookseller in the US, in that it maintains storefronts across the country where customers can visit and touch the merchandise before shelling out dollars.

Amazon, the heavyweight in the book business, is drawing partial blame for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Borders. Other market observers point out that Borders was late in the electronic reading room, and that its eventual online internet presence was ultimately too little, too late. The paperwork will allow Borders to restructure while the court holds off creditors.

Already, 200 stores are on the chopping block, along with some 6,000 jobs nationwide. The sites to be shuttered are ‘superstores’ that are largely underperforming due to staffing and rent issues, and the closings will begin this weekend.

No word as yet as to whether Tulsa locations are at risk.