Oak Park Borders Bucking National Trend?

Updated: Wall Street Journal reports Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday morning. They've published a list of stores slated for closing. The Oak Park location does not appear on the list. 

Pat Zubak, director of the Downtown Oak Park business group said in a statement this morning her agency was "elated to hear that Downtown Oak Park’s Borders is one of the more successful stores in their chain. Besides occupying a critical corner in our district, we couldn’t think of another national retailer that would complement our retail mix or meet the demand of our demographics better than Borders."

Even for a weekday afternoon, the Borders Books was buzzing with activity. 

Some patrons thumbed through books upstairs, while others chilled out on chairs downstairs, surrounded by racks of DVDs and shelves of CDs.

The checkout line was several customers deep. 

Village Manager Tom Barwin said the Oak Park store, located prominently at Lake Street and Harlem Avenue, shouldn't be in danger as Borders Books, Music and Movies considers filing for bankruptcy, a move that would shutter as many as 200 stores, or roughly one-third of the chain's 674 locations. 

"We are in a prime location, Borders is really a major beacon here and an attraction," he said. "With the closing of the Michigan Avenue store, we have probably the number one store [in the area.]"

Across the country, the once-dominant bookstore has run into major trouble from the "declining interest in bricks-and-mortar booksellers, a broad cultural trend for which it offered no answers," according to a Feb. 12 Wall Street Journal story. 

"The bookseller suffered a series of management gaffes, piled up unsustainable debts and failed to cultivate a meaningful presence on the Internet or in increasingly popular digital e-readers." 

A company spokeswoman would not comment, except to say "Borders will not comment or speculate on its future course. When the company has something to disclose, it will do so." 

But even as Borders prepares for a possible bankruptcy filing, any worry about the Oak Park location closing its doors was subdued. 

Pat Zubak, director of the Downtown Oak Park business association, said Borders is "always one of our top performers" in the agency's gift certificate rebate program. 

"And that's out of about 75 businesses," she added. 

John Hiffman was at the store on Monday, wandering in the aisles and through the card racks and displays for bestsellers, both in print and for the chain's Kobo eReader.

He heard news of the store's looming nationwide demise and hustled in to use a gift card — just in case.  

But couldn't he have just used the gift card online and had the book shipped to his Oak Park home? 

"That's a good question," he said. "I could've saved myself the trip."