New Borders CEO Sounds Like a Real Bookguy

I don't want to cast aspersions, (I'm not even sure what aspersions look like or how far they can be thrown) but the new CEO of Borders doesn't strike me as a real bookish type. Here is a snippet from part of an interview on the Reading Shelf Awareness newsletter.

The View from the Top of Borders After Two Days

George Jones, the new CEO of Borders Group, struck a cautious, deliberate tone in an interview with the New York Times, written up in today's edition. He said that he wanted, as the paper put it, "to focus on learning more about how the business worked and executing Borders'
already announced strategy to put Seattle's Best Coffee shops and Paperchase stationery outlets into its stores." Still, he added, "I do think there might be opportunities to do things differently. What you can expect is that we will be an innovative company.

"This is not a broken business," Jones continued. "It's a company that has a strong foundation in businesses that I am passionate about." He said he plans no job cuts.

Jones told the Times he enjoys reading biographies, travel guides and John Grisham and James Patterson. The paper wrote, "He also loves music--classic rock like Steely Dan, the Beatles and the Eagles--and owns more than 1,000 movies on DVDs."

Observing that many Borders customers spend "a lot longer in a store than what I've been used to," he said there are opportunities to encourage those customers to spend more while in the stores.

Jones will be paid a base salary of $775,000 and be eligible for an annual bonus of up to $1.2 million, the paper said.

Does him saying customers spend "a lot longer in a store than what I've been used to," sound odd. Like if he was the new commisioner of baseball, and trying to figure out why people keep hanging around the ballpark after the beer stands close? Or is that just me.

Isn't Border one of the biggest booksellers in the country. A huge chunk of the market. Shouldn't the CEO of that company "get" the whole bookbuying experience. Or maybe he's hoping we are just there for the coffee and the stationary (and the DVDs and CDs and chocolates and Hello Kitty stuff).

The Friend who forwarded me this piece had this observation:

Ok. The business is not broken. No layoffs. They already have new coffee deal. Big plans: make people stay longer. Sounds like he is dull minded and is going to coast… James Patterson? Oy. For this, a couple of million a year.

Steve, we are in the wrong racket.

Coasting is right. And I could have told you her we were in the wrong racket. It's so wrong I don't even think we can legitimately call it a "racket". Libraries? C'mon? We're giving it away. No upselling. No point of purchase tchotskes. We are certainly not maximizing our price point. What a bunch of chumps.

And while I'm nitpicking what about:

"opportunities to encourage those customers to spend more while in the stores."

Maybe they could try what the old Showcase Books in downtown Warren tried and start to charge a browsing fee. Maybe he should at least turn up the thermostat on the air conditioning. It doesn't have to be as cold as meat locker in there. Does it? What with global warming and all. Though I suppose a piping hot cuppa Seattle's Best doesn't sound so appealing if it isn't 65 degrees or chillier in the store.

By the way George, FYI, that browsing fee thing never did catch on. You might try assessing damage charges on the items people manhandle while sipping their Seattle's Best. I couldn't find a copy of the new Alastair Reynolds novel Pushing Ice at my local Borders that wasn't mauled (though in fairness I'm pretty sure it was the staff that had read them not the customers), and that wasn't the first time I had to go elsewhere to get a decent copy of something. And once I picked up a copy of something off the shelf that was completely soaked with "joe" and the customer had just put it back on the shelf.


"He also loves music--classic rock like Steely Dan, the Beatles and the Eagles--and owns more than 1,000 movies on DVDs."

No wonder he doesn't spend that much time in the bookstores. 1000 movies x an average of 2 hours per movie is 2000 hours or almost a 40 hour week for a whole year. And I hate baby boomers who "love music" but only listen to "classic rock". He probably says he likes everything but rap or country but hasn't actually bought an album since Frampton Comes Alive or Rumours. Whatever, dude.