Borders to Close 4 of 6 Orlando Area Stores Due to Bankruptcy Filing

- Michelle Snow

I’m a voracious reader, and even with the advent of electronic books, I still enjoy picking up and reading from an actual physical book.

So it saddens me to hear today that Borders has filed for Chapter  11 bankruptcy. Having worked for them years ago, the writing was on the wall that it would eventually happen. But it still is sad that it has happened.

Unfortunately, as part of the bankruptcy restructuring of the company, it plans to close 200 stores nationwide. This includes four of the five superstores in the Orlando area.

According to the list of closing stores, Borders Sand Lake, Ocoee, Oviedo and Altamonte Springs will be closing their doors by the end of April. Only the Borders in Winter Park and at the Orlando International Airport will remain open, for now.

The company, which also owns Waldenbooks, closed all of that chain’s Central Florida locations, with the Florida Mall Waldenbooks being the last to go at the end of last month (January 2011).

The closure of these four stores will result in the loss of over 100 jobs. Managers may be offered other jobs within the company, but hourly workers will just be let go.

The only good side to this is that Borders plans to hold going-out-of-business sales at the closing stores. No word on when, but most likely discounting will start by the end of this month.

About Michelle Snow

Michelle is the owner and editor of CitySurfing Orlando. She also owns Zengrrl.com, is a freelance writer specializing in travel and entertainment, has authored/co-authored four guidebooks on Orlando and Florida, and was head editor/writer at TheDisneyBlog.com for 10 years. She's lived in Orlando near Walt Disney World since 1995, and still finds there's so much fun to be had in Central Florida.
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