What if We Replace Borders with Another Borders?

With Hanukkah currently under way and Christmas still set for this weekend, I am left concerned with the same thought I am sure all of you out there are also currently preoccupied with: What should go into Edens Plaza where Borders used to be?

Seriously. Long time readers know that I am emotionally invested in seeing the local shopping scene here in Wilmette bounce back. I’ve worked all over town. I even worked in Edens Plaza sporadically during high school and college.

Considering its proximity to , Edens Plaza is typically dismissed as an after thought. The three things that always seemed to draw a crowd in the EP were , (show up any Friday or Saturday night and I bet you money you can find a gaggle of teenagers wearing gym shorts regardless of how cold it is outside) and Borders.

In hindsight it made sense that Borders would go belly up. The company saturated the market with giant stores with huge overhead. They rode the bubble for as long as they could, and when it came time to adapt or die, they died. While Barnes & Noble got busy developing their Nook tablet and e-reader to rival Amazon’s Kindle, Borders was content with overcharging for CDs and issuing buckets of gift cards.

As for our Borders in Edens Plaza, it is hard to believe that it is gone. You ever try to venture into the store this time of year? They used unsold copies of celebrity autobiographies to form barriers to extend their checkout line from one end of the store and serpentine it to the other.

The place normally seemed to do fine business; at least there were always people in the store. I admit that I rarely actually bought anything when I was there. Typically I’d thumb through an overpriced magazine or study a large glossy coffee table book. Back in high school I’d get off my shift at Corner Bakery and go into Borders for the sole purpose of unsuccessfully flirting with one of the café workers -- who I am now hoping doesn’t read Patch and put this together (what are the odds, right?)

But this is the one time of year I always spent a few bucks at Borders. Whether I was buying gift cards or actual merchandise, I wasn’t alone in that serpentine line. This year I couldn’t help but reminisce over the good ole days while wistfully looking at the vacancy at the corner of Lake and Skokie. Maybe my imagination isn’t what it once was, but I really can’t see anything taking its place.

I semi-jokingly suggested that a combination café/bookstore would be the best fit.  The more I think about it, the less I am joking when I suggest that a store, unaffiliated with a national chain, which carries a combination of books, magazines, gifts, music and movies, while also housing a small café, would be a success.

The Edens Plaza Borders was a victim of the collapse of the entire company.  Should thoughtful entrepreneurs carefully venture into the vacancy in Edens Plaza and set up shop as a Wilmette exclusive-style Borders venue, I think they would have a solid shot at success.  If any trigger-happy investors reading this agree, I’ll do it if you bankroll it.

A little food for thought: shoot on over to the and tell us what you think.  It’s the Internet; we’re able to do this kind of thing.

Hope everyone has their shopping more or less done.  The clock’s ticking.

To all our Jewish readers: Shalom and Mazel Tov.

To everyone else:

Cheers,

James