First off, I don’t hate Borders. I don’t even want to see them go out of business. I was pretty quick to advance through the mourning stages upon hearing of their soon-to-be closure. I knew that a closing book store means I can stock up on books for quite some time. I’m not a Kindle fan, or any other eReader for that matter. I like a good old fashioned book. I stare at a computer screen all day for work and the last thing I was to do is read another screen when I want to relax with a book.
I’ve been tuned-in to Borders’ liquidation sale since the beginning. I’ve been keeping track of inventory levels of certain books I want at my local Borders store and when I feel the price is right and stock is low enough that I feel they will be out by next markdown, I’ll buy. Their latest markdown wave is 50-70% off. That’s a significant enough markdown that I’ve been dropping by Borders a couple of times a week. This morning I received this email:
So at first glace I read this as take an extra 15% off. So the book I had been eye-balling was $34.95 and was in the 50% off category plus an extra 15% off would make 65% OFF. Needless to say, the book I wanted wasn’t available, but I found two other books that I wanted priced at $24.99 and $12.99. Given the email I had received, this was my math:
$37.98
– 65% OFF (50% + 15% Extra = 65%)
$13.30 for my books.
When I got to the register, this was my surprise: $16.14
I was so excited that books were an extra 15% off for the next 3 days, I didn’t realize that the 15% OFF was on the SALE PRICE (15% OFF the already 50% off price) and not the Original Price like the main liquidation discounts.
I was duped by marketing. Albeit shady marketing, but what can I do? Not shop there anymore? The economy is unfortunately taking care of that for me. In all honesty, this probably has nothing to do with Borders, but the Liquidation company that is selling off their assets.
Still sorry to see Borders go. I bought the books anyways and learned a lesson in reading comprehension at the same time.