Borders opened too many big stores as e-readers arrived — all 399 of them closed

Borders Group grew into one of the largest book retailers in the U.S. through the 1990s and 2000s by opening large-format superstores, often with high overhead from prime real estate and expansive floor space. The chain kept opening new stores in that format even as book sales growth slowed, leaving it with more square footage than its sales could support.

The eReader era compounded the problem: as devices like Amazon's Kindle shifted book buying away from physical stores entirely, Borders had built no comparable digital foothold of its own to offset the decline in-store traffic. Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2011, closing 200 of its then-659 stores immediately as part of an attempted restructuring.

No buyer emerged to take over the remaining business as a going concern. On July 18, 2011, Borders announced it would liquidate its remaining 399 stores entirely, with Hilco and Gordon Brothers administering the wind-down. Roughly 10,700 employees lost their jobs as the last stores closed by September 2011.