[Elvie]

Back in the day (2000) I worked in a branch of Books, etc. A chain, mostly London based, with some airport branches, soon before their takeover by Borders.

When I started working there it worked like the current waterstones in a way, as we, at branch level, saw the publisher's reps and chose the stock for our branch. Only the big 3 for 2 promos came from head office... Then it all changed and we were left with stock that wouldn't shift - 20 copies of a Bjork book in a small branch in the City is an example I remember...

Then Borders took over thinking selling books is the same as selling baked beans. By then I was working in the head office getting more and more disillusioned... Honestly, I'm not surprised Borders went down as it tried to follow the B&N system of huge branches in out of town locations...