Say Goodnight, Gracie

Sometime in the next few weeks, there will be no more open Borders -- the retail chain was unable to get a bidder to bring it out of bankruptcy and so will close everything down and liquidate all its merchandise. This means the end of the Waldenbooks chain as well.

The company president released a statement -- e-mailed to those of us enrolled in the Borders Rewards program -- in which he listed the many great things the stores had done and lamented the "headwinds" the chain had faced. The first part has a nice self-pitying air, pretty much telling us just how much we're going to miss Borders when it's gone in a passive-aggressive style that would do any teenage breakup tell-off note proud. The "headwinds" list doesn't include "and a string of boneheaded decisions by management," such as late adoption of e-readers and steadily shrinking inventory that made trips to the store less and less productive.

This means our area's remaining Borders store, in Norman, will be closing up soon. I visited the other day and bought something, just for the chance to remember what it was like when the store was new. I'm not going to mess around with trying to buy some fixtures -- we've seen just how many clues the people running that operation lack and fool me twice, etc., etc. I also thought I'd wish some of the employees good luck. They're not the ones who were around when the store opened, of course, but they've been helpful and pleasant most of the times I went in. I was able to do that, and I'll wish a general good luck to them all, though I've no idea if Borders' employees number among my pairs of readers.

For the record, those wishes will be a little less heartfelt for one of the clerks working today, who informed several of the customers she was helping how much she was looking forward to getting out of Oklahoma now that nothing was keeping her. When she was getting paid by money spent by us loutish Okies, I guess the place wasn't so bad. I do wish you well, ma'am, but I would add that, given your desire to emigrate, you are not only welcome to leave, your leaving will be welcome.