Books-A-Million has dropped its bid to purchase 30 Borders Group Inc. stores because it couldn’t reach an agreement with the Ann Arbor bookstore chain before the going-out-of-business sales started Friday, the Birmingham, Ala.-based company said in a late Monday statement.
“We worked exhaustively in an effort to acquire these stores and reach agreements with all of the parties whose consent was necessary,” Books-A-Million Chief Executive Officer Clyde B. Anderson said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful.”
The decision is a disappointment for landlords whose stores were under consideration, said Jim Bieri, principal at Stokas Bieri Real Estate in Detroit.
“In today’s marketplace, you don’thave tenants lined up to take empty spaces,” Bieri said.
Seven of the 30 stores were in Pennsylvania, with two of the superstores located in Atlantic City, N.J., and Waterford, Conn., Bloomberg News reported last week. The bid would have saved 1,000 to 1,500 jobs, Borders attorney Andrew Glenn told the bankruptcy court last Thursday.
Last Thursday Borders received approval from bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn (no relation to the Borders attorney) to liquidate its remaining 399 stores. Customer turnout was high in Metro Detroit Friday, with lines often reaching the back walls of many stores.
Books-A-Million has more than 230 stores around the country, with its closest store to Michigan being in the Toledo suburb of Perrysburg.
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