I've written a new screenplay.

I call it, "You've got Text-Messaging." It's about a specialty bookstore owner who meets the love of her life on her Blackberry. She finally meets the guy, and it turns out he's the CEO of Mega-Bookstore chain.

She breaks it off. "What a loser," she tells her friends. "I just couldn't stand the whiff of desperation. Besides, he looked like an old and fat Tom Hanks."

Final scene, CEO is turning out the lights of his boardroom, having just been bought out by the other big Mega-Store chain.

What do you think? Should I send it off?


Sad story for bookstore chains
Commentary: Retailers need updates and innovation to survive
By MarketWatch
Last update: 11:28 a.m. EDT March 20, 2008
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The latest casualty of the economy: the humble book superstore.
In the wee hours of Thursday, Borders Group Inc. announced it hired financial advisers to help it "explore strategic alternatives" and managed to put together $42.5 million in financing with the help of major shareholder Pershing Square Capital Management. See full story.
The company said it had taken a look at its operations and the economic environment and realized that the tightened credit market had made some of its financing options "prohibitively expensive or entirely unavailable." Enter Pershing, which will lend it money and also has an option to buy some assets.
Shares tumbled more than 20% in morning trading ahead of the rescheduled conference call, and are down more than 70% for the year. Borders' quandary would have seemed less gloomy in 2006, or even a year ago, when private-equity firms were falling over each other to snap up specialty retailers.
Meanwhile, its top rival Barnes & Noble Inc. posted a 9% decline in quarterly profit and said it expects fiscal first-quarter same-store sales at its namesake stores to be "slightly negative." Its shares climbed, but it's looking at a loss of more than 20% of its market value for the year.
Many things led the bookstores to this gloomy place. A book is the ultimate retail commodity, so shoppers either go for the lowest price -- which leads to margin-killing price wars -- or the best shopping experience.
More people are buying their books online and memberships for Amazon Prime are on the rise, according to analysts at Stifel. They also pointed out that with gas prices soaring people are making fewer shopping trips, and it's just as easy to pick up your books at say, Costco rather than making a special trip to the bookstore.
There's also the threat of digital books on the horizon. Oh, and libraries? Free.
The situation is quite a turnaround from several years ago when the mega bookstore chains were running the little guys out of business, a phenomenon immortalized in the product-placement-laden film "You've Got Mail."
With their then-revolutionary perks such as large selection, comfy chairs, long hours, no pressure sales tactics and coffee bars, Borders (BGP:
Borders Group, Inc and Barnes & Noble tapped a need and their popularity soared. Despite some innovations, both of these companies remain rooted in their heyday.
There have been rumors afloat for months that Barnes & Noble was looking to buy Borders, but such a move wouldn't solve the systemic problems facing these chains.
-- Angela Moore, U.S. commentary editor End of Story