In June of 1992, a new store opened in Lower Merion. It was much more than just a store. To use the vernacular of an earlier generation, Borders in Rosemont was a happening.
Suddenly, kids of all ages and their parents – even teenagers – all wanted to hang out in the same building – a building that was large enough so that you didn’t have to be seen with your parents – or your kids.
Dad could be found leafing through any one of a couple dozen World War II books while Mom was trying to decide which one of the New York Times best-sellers she was going to take home. They had such huge selection, it was hard to choose.
Meanwhile, Sissy had immersed herself in the new Goosebumps book, and after that, she was going to revisit one of her favorite Calvin and Hobbes.
In the music room, Chip was wearing the communal headphones, listening to whatever he wanted to hear. In a Pre-Spotify World it didn’t get any better than this. Of course none of the staff seemed to care one bit – how long you stood there listening or whether you bought anything or not.
At some appointed time the family would reconvene in the cafe, and enjoy lattes, Italian sodas, biscottis, croissants, cookies, cakes and various other high-carb delights – and dare we say, some quality time together.
Everybody was there. If you wanted to see and be seen, Borders was where you wanted to be.
The 1998 movie “You’ve Got Mail,” using the guise of Fox Books, gave a fair depiction of the Borders Experience. The screenplay for “You’ve Got Mail,” written by Nora Ephron, accurately predicted how the Big Box Bookstores would kill the independent shops – but failed to project the irony of Borders’ own comeuppance just a few years later, at the hands of a disruptive phenomenon called Amazon.com.
If there had been a sequel, we might have seen Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) owner of adorable but no longer economically viable Shop Around the Corner, enjoying a good fix of schadenfreude.
Six Weeks Later and only 1,400 yards down Lancaster Avenue
Another enormous, atrium-style bookstore opened.
Click above to enlarge
At its peak, Borders operated more than 500 “Superstores,” including a second Main Line Store in Wyynnewood (above). But in February of 2011, the company declared bankruptcy and began the process of closing all of its stores.