I was in Parkway Parade to meet a cousin for lunch on 26 September – the last day that Borders bookshop was operating. Though I had been told that the pickings were slim, I went in one last time.
The Wheelock Place outlet had always been a pleasant refuge whenever I had some time to kill in town, and Borders was the place where I acquired most of my Murakami collection – all from those ‘buy two get one free’ offers, and got various CDs as well. I’d bought a couple of books at 40 percent off a few months back, too, when the shop was tottering.
Alas, the custom of a frugal Singaporean, who tended to check out discounted sections first, was not enough to keep the place afloat, when they were facing pressure from abroad, so after various closure sales, we got to the last day.
The Parkway branch was a mess, and it took half an hour to find just 5 books that I could live with for $4 apiece. Sort of. There was a memoir about the filming of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a guide to eating in Kuala Lumpur, Schott’s Almanac 2010, O, a Presidential Novel by Anonymous, and a Christian book on prayer for radicals. Worth $20 bucks altogether? I guess.
On the way to pay, I met a girl who also had five books, and I suggested we combine our purchase – 10 books would cost $25. At $2.50 apiece, the books seemed a lot more worth it, and while I was sentimental enough to step into Borders one last time, I’m also rather attached to my money. That is to say, I enjoy being able to spend less. Money is power, but even we don’t have loads of it, the ability not to spend money is also power, right?
So I stepped out of Borders feeling slightly empowered, but later, when I got home, I had something to think about. After toting up the prices on the back of each $2.50 book, the original cost of my stash was $175. My thoughts were, firstly, books are not cheap! Followed by, no wonder Borders died, if they were expecting people to pay $175 for books that I could only sort of live with at $20. Finally, I wondered about the value of things versus their price.
Borders had been a treasured, even valuable refuge in the heart of town, and a good place to look for books and CDs I wanted, but how much was I willing to pay to keep it going? More importantly, what should I do now that it is no more?
The library perhaps – air-conditioned, lots of seating, with the additional benefit of being free. Or perhaps I should go down to Kinokuniya more often?
