Borders announced last week that the Goleta branch will shut down by the end of May.
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[/media-credit]Once the Goleta Borders closes, the greater Santa Barbara area will lack any major bookstores, excluding some smaller bookshops. According to a company press release, Borders has scheduled the shutdown of 28 additional business locations within the same timeframe due to the poor economy and declining store sales.
The bookstore chain filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year and plans to close over 200 locations nationwide by the end of April. The store closings are part of Borders’ efforts to reduce spending costs and shield the corporation from going bankrupt.
As of press time, the Borders’ Public Relations representative was unable to answer any questions regarding the Goleta location.
—Staff Report
They also shut down the one in dowtown San Diego which had been there since 2002. Apparently more people are reading books online nowadays.
To say that “the greater Santa Barbara area will lack any major bookstores, excluding some smaller bookshops” is incorrect. Chaucer’s Bookstore has been serving the SB community for decades, and though it is housed in a smaller space than Borders, it’s always been a better bookstore, and much better stocked. Though I’m sorry to see Border’s close, it was never a very good bookstore and tended to stock more fluff than anything else. Chaucer’s has survived the onslaught of the big box bookstores with coffee shops inside them. Long live Chaucer’s!