The basic problem with Borders these days is that the corporate side
of the company is no longer run by "book people."  Look at the most
recent CEO's- George Jones (came to Borders from Saks); Greg
Josefowicz (came to Borders from Albertson's); Phil Pfeffer (came from
Ingram- could have been good if not for so many internal problems that
caused his tenure to be less than a year long).

The problem that the corporate types don't understand here is that a
"widget is NOT a widget."  Books are a special retail industry, not
clothing stores or grocery stores.  You can't treat them with a "get
the customer in and out fast" philosophy.  Trying to keep costs down
by getting rid of the long term booksellers who know the product and
the customers is the wrong way to go.  Customers walk into a Borders
and understand that in many stores, they, the customer, will know more
about books than the average Borders employee.  Borders favors the
financials over all else- to the detriment of the customer.  Try to
find the person who should be the most knowledgeable about books in
the store- the general manager.  If they are knowledgeable, they will
probably be stuck in the back office somewhere wasting that knowledge
on corporate minutia rather than leading by example anywhere on the
sales floor.

Compare the leadership of Borders to that of Barnes and Noble; the
Riggio's, particularly Len, are book people.  They know and understand
the industry.  They have been in it for a long time- at the head of
B&N for a long time.  They have made savvy moves, have created stores
that feel sophisticated, and have run the business to keep bringing
the customer back- you know, the people who ultimately pay the bills,
which in the end helps the financials.  Have they made mistakes?
Sure.  What company hasn't, but in this business, you'd better do what
is right for the customer, engage them, entice them, know them, bring
them back again and again.

If Borders keeps heading in the same direction (which seems to change
all the time), they won't be around too much longer, at least in their
current state.