Simply D.L.

A Farewell to Borders’ Wonderful Coupons

Pepsi vs. Coke Cola for the masses.

Barnes and Nobles vs. Borders for the bookworms. For me, I prefer Borders.

Barnes and Nobles is nice, but it tries too hard to look fancy. Somehow, the dark shade of green comes off as pretentious. I guess the color tries to match the sophisticated theme of classic literature. The store makes you feel either smart or unlearned.

To have a B&N membership, you have to pay a yearly fee of twenty-five dollars so you’ll be able to save 40% off any B&N bestselling hardcover book, 20% on any hardcover book and 10% off everything else.

But I find this irrational because you have to pay $25 and then scramble throughout the year to buy books and save at least $25.01 to make “most” of that membership. Better to buy books you want to read and highlight and borrow the rest from a public library.

Just like any bookstore, I still enjoy visiting Barnes and Nobles and buying a book there now and then. It’s just I don’t feel like spending money on a yearly membership to buy books in order to save.

On the other hand, membership at Borders is free. The emails they send, or rather used to send, had these amazing coupons. There would be an email with a 30% off coupon, which is valid on any regular-priced item, every two or three weeks for the past two years I have been a member. I would print them out and present it to the cashier.

But then, every two to four months, there would be a 40% off coupon that can be used on any regular-priced item. To see the subject title “40% off coupon” was a delight to see.

The coupon that Borders send on your birthday does not make sense to me. Being your special day, it should be a pretty good coupon. So what is the percentage you can save on any one purchase?

25% off.

So a company would mass-email a 40% off coupon to all of its members on the typical Borders email, but on their birthdays, send them a 25% off coupon. Much as I found the logic a bit absurd, I appreciate the few 40% off coupons I was able to use.

Because of the economic slump we’re going through, I notice a change in the coupons. I recently purchased a book and when I looked a sheet of paper that followed the receipt, it was a “answer the survey and get 15% off” coupon. Hmm, 15% off.

The emails that Borders send usually have the news on the latest savings on bestselling and upcoming books and sometimes a conditional coupon (e.g. buy one book and get the second book 50% off)

Now I miss those 30% off coupons.