Borders, the books and entertainment store have nicely sent me a £10 gift voucher “with love”. Yeah right. I’m sure they’ll need to keep customers on side in order to quell the public dismay at their recent closing of the Llantrisant store.

The Llantrisant Borders was a cornerstone of the local community – it was virtually the only place outside of Tesco’s to go and meet people without alcohol being involved thanks to the store’s resident Starbucks franchise upstairs. And even though the majority of the books there were crazy prices, the prospect of sitting down, having a coffee and a browse inevitably led to more than a handful of duckets being exchanged. The place was invariably packed, especially on the weekends and how this can  translate to a need to close down I do not know.

Border's Llantrisant to close down. Buy your books from Cardiff from now on.

It further sticks in my throat the way that Borders did the deed. Many staff had no advance warning and there were tears for some Starbucks employees too. Now you would think a company the size of Starbucks would be offering placements in other locations? I sincerely hope so, as turfing out a team of predominantly young and enthusiastic people in this manner is disgusting to say the least. And Borders should be relocating staff to Cardiff first and foremost.

Now don’t get me wrong…I do not like Starbucks. My brief stint in a branch in Leicester was a low point of my working life thanks to the inane management and anally retentive approach to customer service. But beggars can’t be choosers and in Llantrisant there was either coffee at Starbucks or a coffee in a shoebox sized M&S cafe. Well now we’re left with the shoe box. That said there is a rumour it will be back? Who knows…

So what’s going to move in Borders place? Apparently a branch of mainstream fashion purveyors, New Look. Well…that’s great. Another clothing store. Surely there aren’t enough of them around there?!?  You would have thought when Philip Downer and Mark Little bought out the UK chain that keeping one of their stores in a very prominent location would have been high on the agenda (more here), but no. That said, New Look must not have done their homework at the Talbot Green site either as the competition their store will face will be intense.

It’s ironic that Borders’ current marketing slogan is “Let’s escape”. Well you did, didn’t you? And you should be bloody ashamed of yourselves. Anyone interesting in registering their thoughts can fire them off to the UK head office @  Stillerman House, 120 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0JR or use this page.