Borders to Scale Down Music Departments
Borders Group Inc., the industry’s second largest bookseller, is looking into reducing the size of its music departments to make way for other retail possibilities, company officials said last month.
George Jones, president and CEO of Borders Group, discussed the future of CD sales during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call in late November.
Although the company reported same-store book sales were up 1 percent for the quarter, music sales were down 18 percent.
“The music business, I think, really fits our mission, and it’s right for our customers,” he said. “I think it’s part of Borders DNA, and I think it’s part of the reason why customers want to come and spend so much time in our stores, in our superstores,” he says. “So music will continue to be part of our business. The question is how much space, what role it plays, et cetera, and as I’ve said pretty openly before, I think that we have to really wake up in terms of what’s happening.”
With digital music sales reaching new peaks, Borders executives are aware that CDs are going to be a continuing downtrend. Borders is expected to start remodeling the music sections of its stores to offer customers what they want.
“I mean the downsizing in music will continue,” Ed Wilhelm, Borders Group, SVP, CFO said. “It’s still overspaced in the stores that haven’t been remodeled yet, and we need to reduce space there.”
Remodeled borders stores are doing better than ones that haven’t been changed, and executives hope that the changes in the music section will bring success like they did in the gifts and stationary departments.
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