Borders is now BORDERS (sort of)

This has to be the most confusing thing I've ever read about bookstores:

American Booksellers Association (ABA) has a public face called Book Sense. Basically, Book Sense is like the lobbying/marketing tool of the ABA. There's the magazine, the branded loyalty programs, the website, etc.

So, it looks like Book Sense is rebranding, to become Booksellers Organization for the Revival of Downtowns and the Expansion of Retail Sales (never mind that there are tons of indie bookstores NOT located in downtowns, but whatever). Lame name, right? Until you realize that the acronym is BORDERS.

Here's where it gets fun:

Borders, the bookstore, is having financial difficulty right now, contemplating putting itself on the selling block and all that. BORDERS will be *buying* several of the storefronts that Borders has put up for sale. Keep in mind, BORDERS is independent and funded by an endowment (which I believe means it's a non-profit), while Borders is a publicly-funded company. They're calling it "coincidence" that the organization has the same name as a globally-recognized brand.

Oh, and here's the beauty: independent bookstores that aren't a member of ABA and exist in the communities where BORDERS will be operating? They got a sly middle-finger up the kazoo with this quote: "We wish them well as we compete on a playing field that is finally level."

Um. What? These are chain stores that did *poorly* in communities with indie bookstores. The playing field *was* level. Now you're pitting indie against indie, just because store (a) didn't want to pay into the national organization that is too bloated and stuck on it's own self-importance...

So it's no longer the indie against the corporation. Nope, now the indie organization is essentially blackmailing non-members either into joining or into being swallowed up into the whole (how is this different than what Barnes and Noble and Borders have done??). That's disgusting. Like the poor person who won the lottery and used the money to destroy his neighbors, ABA is turning to shark tactics to destroy any semblence of a TRUE independent bookstore.

I'm going to stick to bn.com and amazon. Screw em.
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[two minutes after hitting post]
oh, wait...it's april fool's isn't it...
i'm such a retahd