Wonder who will fill the void in the book market with Borders' demise? According to
Crain's Detroit Business, we may see a return of real book stores again.
With Borders Group Inc. being liquidated, metro Detroit will go from having 32 big-box bookstores to 10 by the end of September.
The loss of 22 remaining Borders stores will leave major retail corridors -- ranging from downtown Birmingham to shopping hubs in Novi and Auburn Hills -- without a large bookstore.
The market may attract some larger book selling chains from other parts of the country, but not likely right away. But...
Also expected to rise in the wake of the Borders wind down are independent bookstores that can find their way into neighborhood shopping corridors.
Cary Loren owns The Book Beat in Oak Park, in operation for 30 years. Controlling 3,500 square feet -- compared with the 25,000 square feet typically used by Borders -- he said small bookstores might be the right recipe.
"I was here before the big-box craze started and I'm still here," he said. "What we learn here is that maybe bookstores are not the kinds of businesses that lend themselves to mass merchandising.
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