Last week, on Thursday 25 May, a Borders bookshop opened in our fair city. By all accounts it was a momentous occasion, as they even had a minister, the Honorable Sheila McHale, to officiate at the opening ceremony, followed by breakfast and coffee. (Yes, we librarians got invited to the opening. No, I didn’t go.)
I visited the new shop on the Friday after the grand opening, first during lunchtime with K, then in the evening with M as part of our regular Friday night. The shop is located on the Hay Street Mall, next to the Electronics Boutique, where the old Lincraft shop used to be, and directly opposite the David Jones. Typically I forgot to take any pictures, so if you want a look, have a squiz at Skribe’s review.
The new Borders is being touted as “Perth’s biggest choice of Books, Music, Movies and Magazines” (according to the pdf invitation I received). It has two floors, with fiction, travel, magazines and stationery on the Hay Street Mall entrance level, and children’s books, lots of non-fiction, and audiovisual stuff downstairs. I don’t know exactly how much stock it has and exactly how it will compare with Perth’s other bookshops – I’ll have to do little comparisons over the next few months. (I didn’t find it that wonderful, mainly because of my personal yardstick and all-time favourite, Kinokuniya on Orchard Road, Singapore. Nothing matches that shop. Nothing.)
There is a coffee shop located in the middle of the shop, in the entrance level, a Gloria Jean’s Coffees. I’m disappointed – mainly because I have fond memories of the restaurant attached to the Singaporean Borders, which served some delicious food (a nice range of very tasty pasta dishes – we liked it so much M and I ate there not once, but twice!). Gloria Jean’s has never done much for me – probably because I am not a coffee drinker and tend to get peeved by the way shops treat tea (dunking a tea bag in a cup of hot water – ho hum, I can do that at home, thanks). I don’t know what offerings the Borders one has on its menu – will have to take a closer look – but if it’s like any other Gloria Jean’s it will have lots of cakes and sweet things, which don’t hold any particular appeal to me at all.
M remarked, as we were leaving, that while browsing in the shop, he forgot he was in Perth. I think I know what he means. The shop felt the same as the shop in Singapore. Even the labels for their “3-for-2” promotion were exactly the same as the labels we saw in Singapore. Until now Borders has always been an overseas/interstate phenomenon for us – Perth has its Angus and Robertsons and Dymocks bookshops, thank you very much. (Is Perth the last city in Australia to get a Borders?) I like our small independent bookshops; I like the fact that White Dwarf, Fantastic Planet, Oxford St Books (Leederville) and Planet Books (Mt Lawley) all feel individual and unique.
What impact will it have on existing Perth bookshops? I don’t know, but I did notice that Angus and Robertsons was having a 20% off ALL BOOKS sale this week. There were quite a few people wandering around the shop, no doubt because it is new. The new shop’s opening hours are interesting – 9am to 11pm everyday! – I wonder how long they will keep those hours, given that the city of Perth empties out after around 5pm most days. Time will tell.
Categories: bookshop, Borders, Perth, WesternAustralia
23 Comments
Hmmm… rather an ambitious endeavour, i think, the late closing – but maybe the rationale is that with a coffee shop, people will hang around, sipping, and maybe even buy a book or two, before they leave at 10:55? As you say, only time will tell.
We should try a meetup there =).
How crowded was it on Friday night? I was a little disappointed there wasn’t a bigger crowd when we went.
I’ve noticed a few doom and gloom blog posts about the US giant invading the west. Of course they all seem to forget that anyone with an internet connection and a credit card has access to Amazon.
Last weekend Spoon and I happened to pass Borders in Carlton here, and it brought back some fond memories of Borders in Singapore. It was the first bookstore that let you browse in comfort (chairs, cushions, unlike MPH and Times which only offered carpet) and all the cool nerds (ie me and my mates) liked to be seen there after school. I agree, the attached restaurant was great, and all the foreign magazines just made it my favourite place as a schoolgirl.
The Perth opening hours do sound extremely ambitious. Wonder if it will work. anna
Cherry, maybe having something open late in Perth will induce more people to hang around the city? Not that it would work on me, after 10pm or thereabouts I am more inclined to read curled up in bed 😉
Skribe not really that busy I spose. JB HiFi would have been busier I think. You are quite right about Amazon and any other online retailer, of course! It’s good to have a place like Borders to give the other retailers a run for their money I think.
Howdy Anna 🙂 You’ve made me want to pay closer attention to the magazine selection now. I do prefer to get my magazines delivered though (we get New Scientist, National Geographic, New Internationalist and Quarterly Essay!) …
Oh, and Skribe yes it would be interesting to have a meetup in Borders, wouldn’t it? 🙂 Would the others be into it, I wonder…
I hope it doesn’t kill off your local independent bookstores. I’ve never been in a Borders (not even the four story one on Union Square in Manhattan–although come to think of it, I think that’s a Barnes & Noble) that really held a candle to Prairie Lights in my home town or City Lights in San Francisco or the completely delightful (and four story!) Tattered Cover in Denver or. . . well, I could go on.
One of the few disadvantages of living in rural Wyoming is the relative lack of bookstores–but since I mostly can’t afford to live in the places that do have bookstores, and since there are many other bonuses (no fast food in a 30 mile radius!), and because I can easily get books from anywhere in the state through the library, I’m managing.
The question is how many general bookshops can a market like Perth really sustain anyway?
Perth has trouble enough just maintaining technical and specialist bookshops. Remember the Dymocks Technical bookshop on Hay and William that’s now a $2 shop?
And yes, I’d vote for a meetup in Borders 🙂
Hi Laura, I do have that worry… we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, I guess. By the way I love the pictures you’ve been posting of Flickr lately, they from around where you live?
Hey Toxic Purity, nice to see you here 🙂 Ya, I do wonder about the number of bookshops we have here. Lessee, the Perth CBD alone, we have Dymocks, A&R, Boffins, Rellims, White Dwarf, Fantastic Planet, Foreign Languages Bookshop, Bookstop, Pitstop, Investor IQ… Borders might be more baby friendly, and you’d get to introduce Joob to the world of books too 😛
Me & my public library staff went to Borders yesterday to do a buy-up – filled a trolley with some good foreign and arthouse DVDs (we’re still building our collection) – the best selection I’ve seen so far. We ran out of time. Great service – we sorted out account details over a coffee with the manager (we get 20% off).
We’ll probably do a lot of our shopping there in future…that’s the fun part of my job!
Ooh what a cool task! I wish we did such things in academic libraries! Publishers’ catalogues, blurbs and Books In Print just aren’t quite the same…
How are you Kit?
Hi CW
I lurk when JOOB lets me 🙂
As to bookshops in Perth, I think you’ll find Bookstop is long gone from London Court. They didn’t pay their rent so management changed the locks on them. That space is now (or will be) a dress shop.
London Court’s a tourist trap anyway 🙂
(from Borders site)
Hours: Monday – Thursday 08:30am to 07:00pm
Friday 08:30am to 09:00pm
Saturday 09:00am to 05:00pm
Sunday 12:00pm to 06:00pm
Check with store for holiday hours.
Nothing about 11pm there. Wouldn’t make sense in Perth. At least not till they get the rest of the city opening hours for the 21st century…
Ooh Bookstop didn’t last long, Toxic Purity! I did wonder if it would make it, given that it was always empty everytime I walked past.. It never looked inviting enough for me to step inside.
Anonymous – ha! Perhaps it was a typo but in the week Borders Perth opened, the site said the shop was open until 11pm. Makes sense! 7pm is still ‘late’ by Perth standards, though…
Hi,
I’m looking for a book club in Perth (preferably north of the river). Does anyone know of any? Many thanks, Monica
Hi Monica
I know of at least two, both north of the river. I was recently invited to join one but declined because I am feeling a bit swamped at the moment – I can find out more details if you’d like?
CW
Hi CW,
Yes, please details of book clubs that you know of would be great. Thanks heaps, Monica
Just be happy it wasn’t a Starbucks.
Hello Monica, I’ll get back to you on this one! (have to do some research; read = ask my colleagues)
Hi coffee drinking Pete, we don’t have a Starbucks here in Perth! I suppose it’s only a matter of time… Not that I’d ever imbibe, though, as I’m not a coffee drinker.
It’s interestng that Borders didn’t open in Fremantle, Subiaco or Leederville where there are more likely to be people hanging around till 11.00pm.
I actually think that Perth needs a lot more competitive bookshops and that the Borders opening can only be good.
Any feedback on this?
I just checked the Perth Borders site opening hours and they are
( wait for it ) ……….
Monday through Thursday 8.30 – 7.00
Friday 8.30 – 9.00
Saturday 9.00 – 5.00
Sunday 12.00 – 6.00
Ho – hum….
Hi Anon, I like having such a big bookshop in the city. The range of titles they have is great. If it spurs the existing bookshops to improve what they do it can only be a good thing, I think. Good point about Leederville, Subi or Freo – no idea why the CBD was chosen over those other locales. In any case I don’t think the opening hours for the Perth shop were ever to 11pm. I reckon it was either a typo, or I made a mistake when I first looked up the opening hours on the Borders site (call it wishful thinking!).
I totally agree with what you say about keeping existing booksellers on their toes.
Sure, the city location is great – I’m just griping because I live near Fremantle!
One of the biggest things I am concerned about is how expensive books are overall in Australia.This is one of the areas I hope Borders can help improve. I’ve just returned from a short trip overseas and the bookshops in London are really prolific ( much more so than any city in Oz ) and even then books are still much cheaper and more readily accessible to the cash – strapped.
It worries me that we’re paying around $30.00+ now for a new release paperback unless it’s heavily marketed and boosted with a discount incentive. Okay, so the bestsellers and designated “classics”are cheaper ( so long as they’re not Australian, of course )but there’s a huge market inbetween that’s just out of most people’s price range. Sure I use the libraries and assorted book sales – I’d be lost without them – but does anyone else out there feel as strongly about this as me?
I’d just like to add; books may be expensive but think of the knowledge gained. I haven’t been to Borders yet and plan to go this weekend (as I now live in rural WA) But one thing that does concern me is the mas globalisation of huge chain stores. Once a store becomes multi-national or international, they have massive buying power, which for the consumer is great as it mean lower prices; but for the small business owner it is a huge problem because they simply cannot compete with that kind of buying power. So what can happen in the long run, and is already happening in the US with chains such as Walmart is that small businesses are forced to close down and suddenly the chain store phase out competitive products and start stocking their own products (homebrand labels) this means less choice for the consumer and ultimately ends up as a form of dictatorship. They don’t go so far as to tell you what you can or can’t buy…they just remove all non profitable options from the market. So, rejoice in cheap books…but please support small business because our economy will be in a massive crisis otherwise.