Well this is pretty depressing...but not unexpected. I have to credit Borders for helping me get through many emo nights. During their recent wave of closures they axed about 30% nationwide but it was much worse here in the Bay Area; about a year ago we had 20 Borders and now there are four.
I'm a little sad that B&N outlasted Borders. I've found between each store's multiple locations, the selection and hours were not that much different, and list prices are the same (all books and most CDs are sold for MSRP at both places) but Borders had much better coupons (30-40%, even sometimes 50%, whereas B&N rarely sent out coupons above 15%.) The nice thing about B&N's coupons though is they let you take it off of sale prices (and on magazines too), but it usually was still not cheaper than Border's 40% off. Borders also had a hipper logo and it was pretty awesome that they started carrying stuffed Domo's (and limited selections of other anime-ish plush and vinyl). But B&N has better lighting. I fully expect B&N to go under in the next few years, though, which will annoy me. Unlike music, there's something terribly disturbing about being forced to read books on a computer.
Sales will probably be good in about a month or so. At the last wave there was still a pretty good selection when everything was ~40-50% off...and then most of it disappeared by 60%.
