Borders to Close 5 Metro Atlanta Stores

ATLANTA - Borders is the superstore that brought the death of mom and pop book shops in the 1990's. Now the retail bookselling giant has found itself a victim of changing times.

Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday and announced it will close about 200 of its 642 stores nationwide.

The store closures will hit Cobb County hard, with three of the five stores to close in Metro area located in the county.

Borders officials say the retailer will close stores on Cobb Parkway store, the store on the East-West Connector in Austell and the Barrett Parkway store in Kennesaw and the store on Peachtree Parkway store in Suwanee.

A company executive said the bookseller is losing $2 million a day at the stores that are slated to close.
Clearance sales could begin as soon as this weekend.

For all booksellers, e-readers like the Kindle, also the iPad have taken a big bite out of sales. E-readers allow the customer to shop and buy online and then read on the device.

Industry analysts say Borders was slow to react to the e-reader market place.