Borders: The End is Near

There's not a whole lot of books and music left at the in Wynnewood.

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been an odd assortment of other goods: baby blankets and bathrobes; perfumes and soaps; throw pillows and blankets. 

Clearly there's been some strategizing going on with other retailers to fill the store with overstock and excess merchandise while Borders liquidates its own inventory, as the date draws near when it will close its doors for good.

"I have to tell you, it's getting pretty depressing in there, between the picked-over shelves and the sorry-looking new merchandise that the liquidators brought in to make the shelves look fuller," wrote Stephanie P., a blogger at the Hard Times Newsletter,  on Sept. 1, about a Borders in Seattle. 

The last day is less than a week away. All signs—literally—indicate the Wynnewood Borders will be closed by the end of this coming weekend. 

One of those signs was carried by Ed Jones, 53, who lives in North Carolina and was in the area visiting friends for the Labor Day weekend. He was asked to help out with sign duty, for $16 an hour, at the northeast corner of Lancaster Avenue and Wynnewood Road, at the Cumberland Farms convenience store and gas station.

It was decent money for not a whole lot to do, Jones said at about 1 p.m. Monday. And besides, he added, he was helping out a friend.

An exact date for the Wynnewood Borders' closure could not yet be learned; two employees preferred not to comment, and the main phone number to the store was not in service throughout Monday morning.

Borders Group Inc., the second-largest bookstore chain in the country after Barnes & Noble, , including the Wynnewood location, which employs 40 full- and part-time workers.

as the chain began an advertising blitz, marking down inventory in incrementally larger percentages as the weeks have come and gone. Signs are now hawking the remaining stock at 60 to 80 percent off the sticker price.