Brick-and-mortar | featured news

In a surprising change of pace, it appears that GameStop will be returning to the PC games market with an announcement that customers can now place pre-orders for digital downloads. Seemingly following EA's lead, the brick-and-mortar retailer has begun shifting the some of its focus off of packaged goods sales and onto digital distribution....

Borders Group is beginning liquidation sales at all of its 399 stores A liquidation company that is part of the process said late Thursday that the sales will be held starting Friday...

What happens when a pioneer like Borders goes out of business? Depends on who you ask. A day after the bankrupt Ann Arbor, Mich.-based chain said it would seek court approval to sell off its assets and shutter its remaining 399 stores, everyone from publishers to consumers is assessing what it would mean if the company that started the big-box bookseller concept vanished. The move could have a wide ranging - and different -- impact on everyone from authors to consumers to competitors at a time when the industry is desperately trying to adapt to a new generation of readers who'd rather browse on an electronic book or tablet computer than turn the page of a paperback.

Blockbuster will start closing 186 more stores by the end of the month, leaving more than a third of its U.S. brick-and-mortar locations closed or slated for closure since the video-rental chain filed for bankruptcy in September.