Take the kids to Borders and encourage a love of books (Borders in general)

Member Name: lellagrace

Product:	Borders in general
Date:	11/01/07 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great selection of titles

Disadvantages: Some items can be more expensive than other stores

I love books and I love Borders bookshops! I live in the north of England and there is a Borders bookshop within a mile of my house, on one of the out of town shopping centres. A great place to go if I am fed up and don’t want to trail around the high street shops, but need to get out of the house for a while.

Borders is open until 10pm on weekday evenings, I find the best time to go is in the late afternoon when parents are busy collecting their kids from school and the workers are not yet out of the offices.

I wander around looking first at the special offers on books that have been discounted, lots of them on offer at this time of year! Then I wander around to the magazine section and look in the various categories at any subjects which interest me.

Often I wander around the childrens’ section too, I don’t have young children but it is a pleasure these days to see the wide variety of books on offer for this age group. How any parent cannot introduce their children to reading when there are so many books available is beyond me. I actually asked for a couple of childrens’ books for myself this Christmas, and they were amongst my favourite presents.

I always find the staff in Borders bookshops to be extremely helpful and very knowledgeable about what they have on sale. There have been several times when I have asked a vague question about the title of a book and they have been able to help from the snippet of information I have remembered about the subject.

Borders often have Starbucks coffee shops within their stores which is an added bonus to me. I did find it strange at first that people were allowed to take books or magazines from the shelves to read while they drank their coffee, but when an assistant at Borders actually suggested I select a few books to browse through before deciding which one to buy, I did just that. I now do this regularly and don’t feel guilty if I decide not to buy the book after having a flick through. Much better than paying out for something and then getting it home realising it is not what you hoped it would be.

Borders also have a music and entertainments section, where you can select CDs, DVDs etc but I have not bought any of these as in all honesty, I find the prices somewhat expensive.

In my local store there is also a Paperchase concession. As well as my love for books I also love stationery, so always spend a while browsing through their products as well.

Quite often Borders will have special offer vouchers which they give you with any purchases, these can be for a percentage off your next buy, but sometimes there is a minimum spend. They might also ask for your e mail address so you can receive vouchers by e mail.

In addition to my local store, I also enjoy browsing in the York store of Borders, this is a very large store, stretching over two floors containing a warren of bookshelves and sections.

In all the Borders stores I have visited there are comfy chairs strategically placed throughout the store. You can select a book from the shelves and sit down and read to your heart’s content.

The only fault I have with Borders is that sometimes they play loud music and I find this very annoying, especially if the store is quiet and there are not many people around. This to me is the ideal time to sit down and relax while making my mind up what to buy, but with the loud music blaring out I find it very distracting.

Another thing I don’t like is the PA system, this is probably because it is the same system that they use at my local health centre. As soon as the call sign starts I find myself listening as though they are going to call my name like they do when I am waiting to see my GP!!

The range of books and magazines on display at Borders is vast, their magazines also contain some US titles which are not available at other stores. However, I do find the prices of these to be rather extortionate sometimes, especially when they are for magazines which are not for the current month.

I do find myself wondering what happens to all the out of date magazines that Borders don’t sell – why can’t they sell them at a reduced price I wonder?

One last thing available at some Borders stores, is that they sometimes run a writers’ or poetry group. I keep meaning to go along to one of these but somehow they always seem to be on an evening when I have something else to go to. I wish they would offer these groups in the daytime – maybe I should suggest it on my next visit.

Well, I have written as comprehensively as I can on the subject of Borders bookshop and hope it will inspire you to go along and see for yourself. Take the kids, it is a great place for them to learn to appreciate books and the childrens’ sections are really user friendly with child size shelving and seating areas.

Summary: If you love books and magazines you will love Borders