Why Is It Called Borders? (Borders in general)

Member Name: RussellsReviews

Product:	Borders in general
Date:	04/08/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Books. And Coffee!

Disadvantages: Not alot of staff about to lend a hand with books.

Borders looks to be a typical largescale book emporium on stepping in to the store, but in the Southampton Borders, walk upstairs and you'll find a Starbucks (I'm not sure of the exact location of each of your Starbucks in Borders), well how novel you think. A Book store with coffee, brilliant.

Whenever I go there I'm reminded of the Black Books episode in which on seeing a new high street coffee chain which serves coffee Manny kits the book shop out with a coffee machine, sofas that 'eat' you and an information desk. It all ends in disaster when they decide to also become a restaurant in order to keep customers buying books all hours of the day. Of course that hasn't happened in Borders (yet) but every time I walk in there I have a little chuckle to myself.

The layout is fairly simple, two floors, on the ground floor there are novels, CDs, audiobooks, magazines and the like and upstairs there are information non fiction books which are split into various sections for example psychology and self help, even erotica. Just imagine the embarrasment of buying a Sex For Dummies book at the counter? (Not that I have ever done that). And opposite all of these books is a starbucks, kitted out with countless leather chairs and sofas, it really is a brilliant place to spend a morning (or afternoon). I have on more than one occassion bought a book, bought a coffee and just sat down and read for a bit. Bliss.

They have a wide array of books and whenever I've looked for something it has always turned up, their organization of books is very friendly to customers. One thing though is if I ever couldn't find something there never appears to be many staff ready to help. But the staff are always friendly and capable, however few of them there appear to be.

Despite what people say about big chain book stores it is almost impossible to find a small independant bookstore these days as people simply do not read nearly as much as they used to and that's the sad truth. So I suppose we'll just have to put up with luxurious seating and over priced coffee. One upside is not half as many people go to the Starbucks in Borders as in the highstreet ones :). A review and a tip what do you know?

Summary: I feel happy sitting in a near empty starbucks reading a book and for that reason I like Borders.