Borders in Westwood is closing

Not a huge surprise considering the state of book retailing and the fact that the store was looking pretty empty in recent months. Located at 1360 Westwood Boulevard, the place will be shut down on Jan. 7 or whenever the shelves get cleared, whichever comes first (close-out signs have been plastered all over the front windows). The chain closed 219 stores last year (many of them smaller format locations), and in a recent SEC filing, it said that "additional store closures could occur in cases where our store profitability goals are not met." Being a standalone operation certainly didn't help the Westwood location.

*Here's a link to last week's "Which Way L.A.?" show where I spoke about the troubled bookstore business. In a nutshell, many more readers are buying their books online, whether in print or digital formats. Don't be surprised to see additional closures come the first of the year.