Does it really mean anything?

Well… for those who were ‘caught’, and I can hardly imagine anyone who wasn’t aware, as far back as two years ago, of Border’s situation, then they are out of luck.

If you currently have inventory on hand with them… I would do everything in my power to get it back… somehow. Determine how much you might lose to offer to cancel any outstanding bill in exchange for the unsold inventory (of course, first computing which is worth more). Otherwise, it is likely that your inventory will be sold and you will get little or nothing as an unsecured creditor.

Reading the general reporting of the filing, it looks like the liability over asset number is about 10MM. That said, many assets are not liquid… thus the real number might be 30-40MM. That means that 30-40MM of inventory vendors will not get paid when the whole thing wrings out. Add in atorneys and accountants… and the number could be 50-60MM. Not exactly a good position for unsecured vendors.

Do you sell to them in the future? Depends on the width of your masochistic streak.

GE is providing 500MM+… but again, book vendors are the plankton of the ocean/business food chain. As the old saw goes… fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Prepaid only. Returns at your option since you are already holding the money.

Prospects? I would prefer not to put my personal opinion in writing at this moment, since my mother always said if you don’t have something nice to say about someone, keep quiet. But, as WSJ and other analysts are indicating, Borders is low person on the book totem pole as to technology, innovation, and locations. They will dump 200+ locations, which is a start, but it still doesn’t seem, to me at this moment, there is any ‘velcro’ to make their brand stick to the consumer any better than B & N. And, until they can go toe to toe with B & N, it is likely they will just barely survive hand to mouth. Again, nowhere you as a vendor want to be.

Watch for B & N to be next… maybe not quite like this, but the ‘for sale’ sign has been out for quite a while already… and remember, you as a publisher need to be looking at ways to reach your end user/customer without having the interface of bookstores. Once you can figure that out, none of this will matter any more.