After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2011, Borders concluded that it had no other option but to shutter its stores beginning in July. With hundreds of locations left vacant, other bookstores and retailers looked to see if there was a way to repurpose the outlets. One of the most aggressive was Books-A-Million, which agreed to acquire 24 former Borders stores. The last going-out-of-business sale at a Borders outlet wrapped up in September 2011—another painful moment in the closure of what was once the country’s second-largest bookstore chain.

From the Archive: September 05, 2011 by Publishers Weekly on Scribd