Tag: Borders

Sarah Palin fans stiffed at book signing

Hundreds of fans in Noblesville, Indiana lined up all day in the cold and rain at a Borders bookstore for the chance to meet Sarah Palin and get their copies of Going Rogue signed by the former Alaskan governor.  The first 1,000 people in line that bought a copy of the book were given a colored wristband. This was supposed to ensure that they would get their book signed by Palin. The problem is that Palin left the book signing before everyone that had a wristband could get a signature.

Is it so hard to believe that a person who quit in the middle of her term as governor would also quit her own book signing? I say no. This is what makes her the lovable  that she is. You think she’s going to do one thing, but she does the complete opposite.

These people that walked away from the book signing without a signature should not be sad or disappointed. They should be happy. They’ve been rogued by Sarah Palin. They should display their colored wristband and their unsigned book as a shrine to Sarah Palin and the complete rogue that she is.

Granted, she could have stayed at the book signing and continued to sign books for everyone that stood all day in the cold and the rain, but that would have been inconvenient for Sarah Palin. She’s not particularly found of doing things that are personally inconvenient for her. For example, finishing her term as Alaska governor.

5 Comments by Rick  /  November 21, 2009  /  Posted in: Sarah Palin
Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Borders has a sale on gift cards

20091115_giftcard_02It’s no mystery at this point that retailers want consumers to buy gift cards this upcoming holiday season.  When people buy gift cards for their friends and loved ones, retailers don’t have to worry about these friends and loved ones bringing gifts back to the store for a refund.  Once a store sells a gift card to a consumer, the transaction is complete.

The gift card recipient is locked into using the gift card.

How far will retailers go to get people to buy gift cards?  If they are like Borders, they will put them on sale.  Currently, Borders has a sale on $60 worth of gift cards for $50.  Spend $50 on gift cards at Borders’ website and they will send you two $25 gift cards along with another free $10 gift card.

This seems like a good deal, especially when you then combine it with a Borders Rewards 40% off coupon.  You could purchase the gift cards and then wait for a 40% coupon to be released.  It would enable you to purchase a $100 book for only $50 bucks.

by Rick  /  November 16, 2009  /  Posted in: Retailing
Tagged: , , ,

How am I supposed to read this?

A while back I purchased Powers: The Definitive Hardcover Collection Volume 1.  It collects the first three story arcs of Powers, the somewhat monthly comic written by Brain Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming.  I never read the comic, but I thought the basic premise of a world where people with superpowers is common and because if this, the police department has a section devoted to superpower related homicides, sounded interesting.

I finally got around to reading it.  That is, I finally got around to trying to read it.  The problem is, the book is so poorly bound that some of the pages cannot be read.  For example:

powers

I cannot read page 9 because one of the panels is obstructed by the binding.  Even though I shelled out money for a deluxe edition, I cannot read it.  Wonderful.

It’s not even like I could have flipped through the book before purchasing it.  When I found it at my local Borders, it was sealed in shrink wrapped plastic.  As a consumer, I had to simply trust Icon, an imprint of Marvel Comics, that they knew how to properly bind a book so that it could be read.

Only a comic publisher would produce a book that cannot be read by the people who purchase it.  No other publisher would treat readers this way.

2 Comments by Rick  /  November 13, 2009  /  Posted in: Comic Books
Tagged: , , , , ,

Hagerstown Waldenbooks is closing

waldenbooksThe Waldenbooks in the Hagerstown Valley Mall is closing.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised in that Hagerstown has a Borders and Borders and Waldenbooks are owned by the same corporate overlords.  I guess in this economy, the Hagerstown area cannot support two corporate book stores.  Compounding this problem, a massive Books-A-Million store just opened down the road in nearby Martinsburg, West Virginia.

The store is located in the mall near the food court and the multiplex movie theater.  When a comic book movie would be playing in the theater, someone from the bookstore would put a display of trade paperbacks pertaining to the movie near the store’s entrance.  People walking by would see these trade paperbacks.  Maybe some of them stopped and looked at the trade paperbacks.  Perhaps some of them even bought a book or two.  It always seemed like a smart move.

I’m going to miss Waldenbooks.  Before Borders opened, it was the only real bookstore in town.  I don’t think I’ve ever gone to the mall without visiting Waldenbooks.

2 Comments by Rick  /  October 22, 2009  /  Posted in: Economic Apocalypse
Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Glenn Beck’s new book

glenn.beck.soviet.uniformI received an email this morning from Borders informing me that I need to redeem my $5.00 in Borders Bucks before the end of the month or I’m going to lose them. Contained in the email was a list of some of the new books coming out this week. One of the books caught my attention, but how could it not? It featured a photo of Fox News host and conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck decked out in a uniform from the old Soviet Union. The book is entitled, Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government.

The book claims to teach people how to talk obnoxious idiot liberals when they say that guns are evil or that the rich don’t pay enough taxes.

Didn’t Ann Coulter already write this book?

I’m not really sure why Beck is wearing a Soviet military uniform or why he has such a dumb smirk on his face.  Why is he sticking his bottom lip out?  I know that when Ann Coulter first wrote this book, she didn’t don a military uniform.  I’m guessing that the implication by Beck is that if you are a liberal, you are somehow just like a Soviet era communist.  I’m guessing that it’s the same logic that states since President Obama wants every American to have access to affordable, quality health care, he is just like Adolf Hitler.

How ironic is it that the first time Glenn Beck wears a military uniform, it’s from the old Soviet Union?

2 Comments by Rick  /  September 22, 2009  /  Posted in: Books
Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Thinking of ordering something from Borders?

Last month I got an email from Borders that included a 40% off coupon on any purchase over $20. Coincidentally, there was a $50 book over at Borders that I wanted. Realizing that the coupon I had just received would take $20 off the book, I decided that I would stop by after work and buy it.

I then remembered something in the email about the coupon being able to be used online as well as in person in the store.  I decided to go ahead and place the order through the Borders website. My local Borders only had one copy of the book I wanted and I didn’t want to chance them selling that one copy before I could get over there and buy it.

Ordering the book through their website was easy enough. Because my purchase totaled over $25, it was eligible for free shipping. I also had the choice of having the book delivered to my home or having it delivered to my local Borders store. I thought it over and decided to have the book shipped to my local Hagerstown Borders. I figured that if I had it shipped to my house, I most likely wouldn’t be home at the time it was delivered and I would probably have to go either to FedEx or UPS and pick it up. If I had to pick it up, the Hagerstown Borders would have been easier then any of the other possibilities.

I placed my order on October 31. It’s now November 17 and I still have not received my book. I’ve contacted Borders three times now, but I have yet to receive any kind of response. Here is the latest message I sent them:

It’s been 17 days now and I still have not received my book. The email you sent to me states that it should have taken 3-8 business days to have my book delivered to my local Borders, but every time I check the status by clicking the link you provided, it shows the book is still in in a FedEx sorting station in Edison, NJ. It’s shows that it’s been there since Nov. 5.

9102901001212500971691

Please refund the money I spent on this book I never received.

In closing, I have ordered books from Amazon and even Wal-Mart. I have never had a problem with either one of these two companies. The first time I purchase something from Borders, you cannot even ship my purchase to one of your own stores.

If you click on the above link, it takes you to the FedEx website. It shows that my purchase has been sitting in New Jersey since November 5. If they don’t reply to this third request, I’m going to have to contact my credit card company and request a chargeback.

Do yourself a huge favor this holiday season and avoid ordering anything from Borders.com. Not only did they not deliver my book, they are now ignoring me.  Who needs that?

by Rick  /  November 17, 2008  /  Posted in: Retailing
Tagged: , , , ,