By Amy Kraft
Special to DNAinfo
UPPER WEST SIDE — Inside the Borders store at Columbus Circle, bright yellow lights gleamed onto mostly empty bookshelves and signs of an imminent end hung from the ceiling, reading, "Nothing held back! Everything must go! Going out of business!"
After struggling to compete with other major bookstores and the online market, the 40-year-old chain announced earlier this year that it was going into bankruptcy and closing its stores, including several in Manhattan.
As the store sought to get rid of the last of its inventory in Columbus Circle, shoppers scrambled to stockpile books and CDs at deeply discounted prices of up to 90 percent off.
Wanita Teekarem held up "Against All Odds," a memoir by Massachusetts senator Scott Brown, and said she was buying it because she saw a recent interview with him and liked what he had to say. “I wasn’t going to pay $27.00," she said, "but now that it is $2.70…”
Leah Cornish, 24, of the Bronx, said she was in the store buying “trash." Cornish said she was willing to pay 80 cents for paranormal romance novels and also found a young adult book she wanted.
“There weren’t a lot of young adult novels when I was younger so I read adult books back then,” Cornish said. Now she says she prefers to read YA novels and her favorite author is John Green.
“I wish I could get teenagers to read his stuff instead of Stephanie Meyer, but I can’t control that,” she added.
But for all the things that were being taken from the shelves, there were a few books that didn't seem to be moving.
Several copies of "Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm," the most recent tome by comedienne Roseanne Barr, remained on the shelves Tuesday night.
Still, Barr was faring better than Sarah Palin. Dozens of copies of "Sarah Palin: An American Story" and "The Faith and Values of Sarah Palin" lined the shelves, displaying the politician’s toothy smile.
“I don’t think Sarah Palin is going anywhere soon,” said an employee who declined to give his name.
The employee said that he'll miss one of the top perks of working at Borders — always having the buzz on new books.
Regarding the books that were still for sale, he didn’t think there was anything left worth buying. “I’m baffled that people are in here right now,” he said.
