Someone earlier replied that "Borders is evil".  Well, I won't go that far.  I do try to shop at the independents, particularly a wonderful little independent named AKA Music in Philadelphia.    

Perhaps the Borders that John shops at is similar to the Borders in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.  Unlike the Borders in the nearby upscale King of Prussia Mall, the Bryn Mawr Borders' music department is clearly run by music fans.  It's as if a separate indie record store was placed inside a Borders.  I think the music area is twice the size of a typical Borders and the depth and variety of the selections is really quite good.  Their catalog prices are not the best as some other retailers, but they do run quite a lot of instore sales.   They also host a few instore appearances...I caught a short acoustic set by Nick Lowe about a year ago.  

Now Barnes and Nobles....their music selection is quite skimpy and way overpriced.  I don't know if I would call that evil, but you would have to be pretty stupid to buy anything from their music department.

Mark E.


> Although I buy a fair proporion of my music online these days --
> particularly since that's the only way to pick up Audities/Paisley
> Pop-related artists, I will gladly and happily spend hours rummaging through
> the bins at my local Borders.
> Why?
> Well, for openers, I'm consistently surprised by what I find there. I'm just
> as likely to buy the new Shins as I am something by The Streets (can't
> recommend their newie highly enough, by the way) or a dub CD by Augustus
> Pablo.
> With coffee and magazines just a few steps away, along with a few hundred
> thousand books, it becomes a much more encompassing experience.