With Closure Imminent, Customers Rush to Redeem Borders Gift Cards

Borders Books in Garden City is having a busy day today as customers flock to the store in the hopes of finding deals and to redeem those gift cards sliding around in the kitchen drawer since Christmas.

It's so busy because the store will be closed forever, along with about 400 remaining Borders Bookstore locations around the country. Those stores were when the failed bookseller filed for bankruptcy in February and began shutting down locations in March.

But the ultimate fate of the brick and mortar book retailer will be similar to what happened to Circuit City just a few storefronts away from the Borders in —Everything will be liquidated and the employees will lose their jobs.

Customers at the store on Tuesday said they were sad and disappointed the store would close.

“It’s very sad,” said Judy Blake, who lives in Johnston but enjoyed coming to the Garden City spot.

“I liked coming here,” she said as she walked back to her car after forgetting her gift card inside.

“Even without a gift card, I came here,” she said.

For Cranstonian John Sullivan, closing the store will make him feel just a little older.

Sullivan, 24, has been going to Borders about once a week.

“I’ve been going here since I was a kid,” he said, a laptop bag slung over his shoulder.

“It’s the only bookstore in Cranston outside of the libraries. If you want to read, there isn’t much.”

Jenn Davis, carrying her five-year-old daughter Samantha, agreed.

“There’s nowhere to go now, besides Barnes and Noble,” Davis said. And that's in Warwick.

Many customers said they came to the store because they heard it would be closing permanently and wanted to redeem their gift cards before the doors close for good. Others said they have coupons they wanted to use.

For Julie Essig, it’s sad because the city is losing a community center as well as a book store.

“It’s a great place for kids,” Essig said. “We came here to buy books, music, my son comes here with my friends. It’s awful. This place is becoming a ghost town.”

The Garden City Borders was eyed for closure after the initial wave of about 200 stores were shut as part of the company’s first round of closures when it filed for bankruptcy. It was added to the closure list along with 28 other stores in March, but the Wilder Companies, which manages the shopping center, granted a rent concession to spare a closure.

Janice Pascone, marketing director for Garden City Center, said despite the location being one of Borders’ more successful stores, "it seems technology innovations in an ever changing world severely impacted the chain and, looking forward, will shape any book store of the future."

The Wilder Companies are “saddened” the chain is closing, but “remains committed to the ongoing redevelopment of Garden City Center,” Pascone said.

The disappearance of Borders continues a trend of vacancies in the southern half of the shopping center. The Wilder Companies have indicated they are planning on significant long-term redevelopment of the area. The company has been very successful in the northern side of the center with a succession of notable grand openings in recent months. Of them, two were a coup for the Wilder Companies: , which opened last week and , which opened in February, are exclusive to the region and draw in customers from outside Cranston.

“We will continue keeping the shopping center experience contemporary and building on the recent additions of Anthropologie, Pinkberry, , and the relocation/expansion of Destination Maternity,” Pascone said. “We look forward to announcing additional new retailers to the shopping center.“

Borders officials said the company just could not survive the rapidly changing retail book business, the e-reader revolution and the recession.

"We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time," said Borders Group President Mike Edwards, "have brought us to where we are now."

Under the liquidation proposal, Hilco and Gordon Brothers, a liquidation firm, will purchase the store assets and commence a liquidation process. Some stores could begin the sales as early as this Friday. The entire process should be completed by September, the company said in a release, and Borders "expects to be able to pay vendors in the ordinary course for all expenses incurred during the bankruptcy case.

The Cranston store employed about 30 people.

Meg Clingham, who works across the street in the John O. Pastore Complex, said she came to the store a lot and feels for the employees.

“The people who work here are very nice,” she said.