Recession hits UK Anime fans again

I don't order manga online. and since i've realised that waiting for a boxset of anime will cost less than if i bought the manga, or if i bought in part series for that matter.

Borders going under? the nearest one i'm aware of is london, there might be one in milton keynes, i might just have missed it and spend too much time in costa in waterstones :p

IMO, im not too bothered about manga anymore. it costs £5.99 pretty much everywhere, true i could buy it online....but then i'm having to wait for it, pay for postage and packaging, its not worth it (for me)
 
Would be a shame if Borders closed. Be another low hit for the physical therapy of manga shopping. I've never purchased from there myself, but that's mainley becasue they don't have one where I live. Waterstones was my stepping stone to the manga life... that was untill... as is usually the case, I found cheaper deals online and (obviously) more choice.
:roll:
 
When buying the Battle Royale series I used Borders, which had a buy one get one half price, for some of them. I also used Forbidden Planet and Waterstones (there's 2 stores here), and even WH Smiths for one volume that the other three (and Amazon) didn't have, it was a last resort and was very suprised to see it there.

It would be a shame as I've brought other stuff there as well, but as you can see we're well covered in Southampton for places to buy Manga.
 
chaos said:
Ryo Chan said:
It's closer to Portsmouth than London XD
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I believe they're in Croydon.
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Croydon scares me. *hides from it* Though I did manage to get some arizona tea there...

Though Croydon makes it closer to London than to Portsmouth. :p *hide*

I think what I'm more concerned with about the borders closure is that those people working there will be out of jobs. As is there's not enough to go around. It puts alot of people (and myself) in a not so good place.
 
Borders in Central London is lovely, it's like three stories high. They often do mini conferences and stuff on the top floor.

I've bought manga from Otakers before they were bought out by Waterstones and I just hope Borders makes it through. Even if they're owned by WHSmiths (and I agree with Nyani they're awful as a bookshop) at least they'll stay open.
 
chaos said:
I've never been to Croydon, so I have no idea what's it like... why does it scares people?
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Croydon is just a scary ghetto type place (it was not that bad when my dad worked there though). Also the one way system is just atrociously confusing the last time it tried to get around it I found myself heading back out to the M25 where I had just come from, and I decided it was easier just to keep going than try going around again.

As for Borders I can't remember the last time I was in one, or actually bought a manga from a bricks and mortar store for that matter.
 
Ryo Chan said:
Zin5ki said:
angelkaede said:
I work for a specialized Manga Store just outside of London.
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We're all ears. Some more details would most probably be of use to us.

UP1 are on the border of London, are they not?
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It's closer to Portsmouth than London XD
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Portsmouth is hardly "just outside of London", unless you live in Inverness. :wink: There's only 2 manga shops that get all, or most of their supplies from the US. One is UP, located in Keston, Kent, the other is Otaku.co.uk. :wink:
 
chaos said:
I've never been to Croydon, so I have no idea what's it like... why does it scares people?
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I went to Brighton one time. Normally I do the sane thing and get the M25 until the junction and head right on down, about a 90 minute journey.

This one time, I decide to go through Croydon, just to see what it was like. I kid you not, added another 2-hours to my journey. A one way system designed by Satan!
 
Spyro201 said:
megagold5 said:
On a side-note, it continues to astound me that WH Smith are still open... I expexted them to be soon to go after Woolworths... And now they are looking to buy as well? :O
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I'm the same. I can't understand who buys much in WHSmiths as they are expensive compared to everywhere else. They don't stock anything specialist and they charge more for everything. I've no idea how they do it, to be honest.

Maybe that's just my local one though? Maybe other WHSmiths' stock things worth buying, bar confectionery?
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Really? Borders is a lot more expensive, especially with regard to DVDs, Jayzuz. Selling years old films at £20 is too much =/
 
Spyro201 said:
megagold5 said:
On a side-note, it continues to astound me that WH Smith are still open... I expexted them to be soon to go after Woolworths... And now they are looking to buy as well? :O
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I'm the same. I can't understand who buys much in WHSmiths as they are expensive compared to everywhere else. They don't stock anything specialist and they charge more for everything. I've no idea how they do it, to be honest.

Maybe that's just my local one though? Maybe other WHSmiths' stock things worth buying, bar confectionery?
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As Jayme says above, their specialism is selling Newspapers, Magazines and Stationary, particularly in smaller towns and airports/train stations where they don't have much competition. They were really struggling at one point though, but appear to have (somehow) turned things around since spinning off their newspaper distribution business a few years ago.

In terms of books and DVDs they're patchy. I've been in a couple of branches with reasonable selections, but most are terrible, although even the best only have a token Manga selection. At least Waterstones have some stores with a decent Manga section.
 
Borders in Speke is an absolute dive.

The whole place is scruffy and everything is ripoff. It's nice to look around and all, but I haven't bought manga from there in about two years.

It's online or "proper" comic shops for me, thanks. Better range, better prices, better condition.
 
Kyoraki said:
angelkaede said:
BTW this ISN'T some annoying jokey thing which could lead to Spam and stuff, please trust me on that. >.<
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It's either that or shameless free advertising. Not very good either way. I you want advertising, get some ads up on some of the bigger, ad funded anime websites in the UK.
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It's not shameless thank you.

Because of our own financial situation, we cant afford fancy ads and stuff so we get by on word of mouth. and these kinds of thing are good for that.
 
Mohawk52 said:
Ryo Chan said:
Zin5ki said:
angelkaede said:
I work for a specialized Manga Store just outside of London.
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We're all ears. Some more details would most probably be of use to us.
:
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I believe UP1 is.
Yes we're based in Reading, but as i said, we also do P&P if people live far off (we got a lot of people in Uni and stuff)

our website is www.redgardenmanga.com

If theres any queries, please email us at [email protected]

Please do visit, we would be very grateful and we look forward to hearing from any of you.
 
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