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Borders to trash thousands of unsold book during Waldenbooks closing
4:06 pm - 01/19/2010
As an avid reader, books are a sacred thing. They have opened up so many new worlds for me. Emily Bronte and Emily Dickinson may have rarely left their respective homes in Haworth, England and Amherst, Massachusetts. But thanks to books, their words went all over the world. And over 100 years later, I got to know them and their powerful prose. I met Coco Chanel the same way, by pouring over books about her life, her collections and her perfumes.
As illiteracy rates soar worldwide, I believe more books are needed to reach those who can't afford them to help open new worlds for others. That is why I am distressed to learn that Borders books may be dumping books when closing its Waldenbooks Specialty Retail group. Publisher's Weekly reports that Borders Group will shut approximately 200 outlets this January. I understand that businesses are struggling and stores are closing, but what happens when a bookstore goes down? Apparently, the books are discarded. Back in 2009, Waldenbooks employees spoke to Huffington Post: "Current Waldenbooks employees have come forward to alert the public that the company plans to dispose of many unsold books in the cheapest, easiest, least responsible way possible -- by trashing them."
Check out the Facebook group called "Tell BORDERS: DO NOT DUMPSTER BOOKS when Waldenbooks closes - DONATE!" Discarded books could find homes at libraries, homeless shelters, senior centers, Boys & Girls Clubs, and at numerous charities. Let's see if Borders will respond as H&M did last week to stop needless waste. I hope so. I am publishing this post to make the public aware of this and try to save a few precious books.
Borders, the ghost of the Brontes and Emily Dickinson are calling! And do you really want to deal with Edgar Allen Poe too? I see The Raven circling Waldenbooks now and tapping, tapping," From my books surcease of sorrow -- Nameless here for evermore."
Pictured: Edgar Allen Poe. Clearly, someone not to be "trifled" with :)
My sources tell me that Poe is very powerful and that his words are positively haunting. His voice is chilling. I would not want to deal with his wrath. Don't throw out his writings or beware for evermore!
Source
I saw this on a booksellers mailing list and some stores had reported being called by local Waldenbooks trying to offload stuff fast. Others confirmed that Half Price books also engages in large scale book trashing. I generally only chuck stuff at my store if its actually DAMAGED, as in water stained, missing pages, etc. Excess either goes to Goodwill/Salvation Army, the library booksale, the domestic violence shelter, or to Iraq and Afghanistan through Operation Paperback. There's tons of outlets to donate too. No reason to dump these.
EDIT: got books you can't use anymore? Places to donate books include:
* thrift stores
* local library sale
* Nursing homes
* domestic violence shelters
* prisons
* literacy programs
* veterans hospitals
* hospice
* Operation paperback
* damaged books can be donated to preschools or your local art program for use in art projects
* do a google search for book donation in your local area and you'll probably turn up some group looking for books
As illiteracy rates soar worldwide, I believe more books are needed to reach those who can't afford them to help open new worlds for others. That is why I am distressed to learn that Borders books may be dumping books when closing its Waldenbooks Specialty Retail group. Publisher's Weekly reports that Borders Group will shut approximately 200 outlets this January. I understand that businesses are struggling and stores are closing, but what happens when a bookstore goes down? Apparently, the books are discarded. Back in 2009, Waldenbooks employees spoke to Huffington Post: "Current Waldenbooks employees have come forward to alert the public that the company plans to dispose of many unsold books in the cheapest, easiest, least responsible way possible -- by trashing them."
Check out the Facebook group called "Tell BORDERS: DO NOT DUMPSTER BOOKS when Waldenbooks closes - DONATE!" Discarded books could find homes at libraries, homeless shelters, senior centers, Boys & Girls Clubs, and at numerous charities. Let's see if Borders will respond as H&M did last week to stop needless waste. I hope so. I am publishing this post to make the public aware of this and try to save a few precious books.
Borders, the ghost of the Brontes and Emily Dickinson are calling! And do you really want to deal with Edgar Allen Poe too? I see The Raven circling Waldenbooks now and tapping, tapping," From my books surcease of sorrow -- Nameless here for evermore."
Pictured: Edgar Allen Poe. Clearly, someone not to be "trifled" with :)
My sources tell me that Poe is very powerful and that his words are positively haunting. His voice is chilling. I would not want to deal with his wrath. Don't throw out his writings or beware for evermore!
Source
I saw this on a booksellers mailing list and some stores had reported being called by local Waldenbooks trying to offload stuff fast. Others confirmed that Half Price books also engages in large scale book trashing. I generally only chuck stuff at my store if its actually DAMAGED, as in water stained, missing pages, etc. Excess either goes to Goodwill/Salvation Army, the library booksale, the domestic violence shelter, or to Iraq and Afghanistan through Operation Paperback. There's tons of outlets to donate too. No reason to dump these.
EDIT: got books you can't use anymore? Places to donate books include:
* thrift stores
* local library sale
* Nursing homes
* domestic violence shelters
* prisons
* literacy programs
* veterans hospitals
* hospice
* Operation paperback
* damaged books can be donated to preschools or your local art program for use in art projects
* do a google search for book donation in your local area and you'll probably turn up some group looking for books
I just don't get that. Give them to someone else!
Illogical.
Edited at 2010-01-19 09:14 pm (UTC)
There are PLENTY of places that will take the donations. Children's books can go to Room To Read. And adult books can go to retirement homes, libraries, schools, there are so many places. what the eff.
Um, Borders? Two and two are lonely and would like to be put together.
Edit: Never mind, I see the explanation below. Completely forgot about the destroyed books thing.
Edited at 2010-01-19 09:31 pm (UTC)
vaguelyreadable, they're not getting thrown out.Even if the thought didn't just give me the heebie jeebies right away...why not just donate?
The deal is if unsold the books are returned for credit OR destroyed if they're either not in perfect condition or if they've gone unsold past the terms of the contract.
I've had to get rid of mine as I've moved around, but even then I put them on Freecycle, thrift store, and we have a coffee shop that encourages people to leave and take books from their shelves as they please.
http://www.kinf.org/help/
http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/bookca
http://www.booksforamerica.org/
The list is endless. Take the deduction and send the books, Borders, or fail FOREVER.
I feel bad that books are being thrown away, but when I think about what was left at the store I went to, I don't know who would actually want most of them.
I gave away a lot of my collection before I went off to to college to my old private school and kept the books I knew my little brother would one day have to read in school (Diary of Anne Frank, which he is reading now, Moby Dick, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, etc).
Still, they managed to sell most of them, plus most of the furniture. You have got to keep in mind that a lot of the stuff left over is the kind of goods you wouldn't be able to pass on to many places. Most chairty shops don't need a few damaged copies of Twilight and a stack of out of date computer manuals.
Loads of Twilight books and unauthorised celeb bios, and not the good ones either the ones that are 90% pictures.
seriously
(and the books that get dumpstered are the generally the ones you can't even sell for a dollar)
reposted for spelling fail.
lol ikr? If someone wanted the book, they would've paid the damn buck for it. I'm always so depressed when I get to a book sale at the end and everything's gone. :(
BOOKS HAVE VALUE. PRICE THEM IN BULK BY THE POUND. SELL THEM TO PRISONS. FUCK.
Fuck you Borders. You make no sense.
I mean, yes, it may not have been for the "traditional" reasoning, but god I cringe whenever books are burned. Just gives me the heebiejeebies.
Put to good useage, imho.